Nauvoo Trip: Day 5

Saturday morning we all went to the Nauvoo visitors’ center and the family living center, where they had different stations on how to make things. There was only time for two; I saw wool spinning and bread making with Corin. We got to eat some bread.

Corin at the Visitors' Center

Then we took a carriage ride (not to be confused with the wagon ride) with horses and got to see the backroads of Nauvoo. Talk about luscious — the vegetation is densely packed where it grows wild. Everything is green. The kids got to pet the horses after, which they loved.

Then the kids and most of the adults went to the temple to do baptisms. It was Caelan’s first time ever. I considered going just to watch but then decided I’d rather see more of Nauvoo.

So I joined three other siblings-in-law and Corin and did our own tour. First we went to the pageant site and reserved seats with a string. It’s an interesting process. Then we went to a glass shop a little ways out of town. The glass blowing was done for the day (it was pretty hot by then), but we looked at stuff the guy had made. I got a purplish glass blob. It’s very pretty and could probably kill someone.

We looked at Dave’s store (Glenn’s brother manages a Nauvoo bookstore), as the others hadn’t see it yet, and the Allyn House, which was pretty similar to Dave’s store. It also had a display on the temple windows, as the owner was the window maker. Then we went to the Fudge Factory. I some dark chocolate-covered almonds and a slab of chocolate peanut butter fudge and a slab of mint chocolate fudge. A brother-in-law got a little bit of everything and shared it with everyone at bedtime.

Then we had to get back to the house so the day’s chef could start dinner. He cooked ham and made this awesome potato casserole. Everyone else eventually made it back from the baptisms. Glenn had gotten a headache so went and had a nap for the next five hours.

We returned for the Nauvoo Pageant. We left early to try out some of the field activities beforehand. (Glenn stayed at the house to sleep, and his parents stayed in the other house.) The kids and Mike all tried the stilt walking, which was quite hard. Corin was frustrated and couldn’t do it without me propping him up.

Bagpipers at the pageant site

Our niece was one of the few to get the hang of it.

Uncle Mike gives it a go.

Corin

Me with Corin

We wandered around some more, separating, and found a sock puppet show. Our Pageant seats ended up right behind the row reserved for ASL, so we had a clear view of the interpreters. The show was sort of a sequel to the British pageant from the previous night. It had a very similar style. I think I ended up liking the British one a bit more. After the show, the pageant members come and ask the audience how they liked it. I surprised one young sister missionary by saying, “It’s way better than Manti.”