Historical Nauvoo

       

No trip to Nauvoo would be complete without a trip down to see the historical sites. Or I should say no trip in my family is complete without a trip to see the historical sites. With two degree holding historians we are a little bit obsessed with our history. And of course we were excited to see some of the sites. Now I will admit that the pictures are not in order so You'll just have to forgive me. Blogspot is not being my friend today. We took the tour that was offered in the gift shop that belongs to the RLDS church (I'm sorry I don't recall their new name) and it was quite interesting to see some of these buildings. All save the one of the tabernacle are not owned by the church. Unfortunately, we were short on time and ended up having to leave without seeing much of the other end of the sites, which is okay since they were the "shopping" sites and I was already short on money and didn't need to spend anymore!

      

Overall, the trip here was amazing. I've had the great fortune of seeing the Sacred Grove and a few other church sites, but never Nauvoo before this time. I can see why the Saints were so reluctant to leave. Their hard work was only finally paying off in their building of this city. After their struggling to adapt to the changing climate and finally feeling like they had found a place of refuge, they were then being turned out of their homes again. Thankfully it was a peaceful morning so we all ended up lost in our own individual thoughts of the place. And as this is our family we ended up talking about them the entire ride home. Seriously we would drift back to our thoughts of this place during the next 9 hours in our tiny little car.

                           

The two pictures above are some of the different homes in which Joseph  and Emma lived during the time in Nauvoo. I am consistently in awe of Emma. She suffered so much during their short time together and yet in her heart she remained true and faithful. There is a song on the Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith that is all about Emma. It is an achingly beautiful song about her faith and perseverance in the face of great trial. She is referred to in the song as having endure her trials with a "queen's grace" and truly this is the perfect description of her endurance. I can scarcely imagine the pain and anguish she felt throughout her time with Joseph and can only imagine the joy she felt upon their return to one another. 

  

After wandering through town we eventually had to bid Nauvoo farewell. It was in slightly less dramatic fashion as this depicts, but it did leave within us all a desire to return. Unfortunately that wasn't in the cards for this summer, but soon. Very soon. 

The Valley

The Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahmen is a beautiful wide open space that during the summer was beautiful but extremely hot. Now I'm from NOLA and we do heat down there, but for some reason this particular heat was just more. The day was slightly overcast at this point of the morning so the sun wasn't a full strength and for that I am glad. As it was we were seriously soaked with sweat making our way around this small area. I'm not a cold weather person at all ( I blame being in the south for over 15 years now) but at this moment I wished for cold weather. Then we made it back to the car and I was good again with just the AC.

The Valley is a bit off the beaten path, I wondered if we were even going in the right direction more than once, but it was worth the drive. There was only one other couple walking around and they left shortly thereafter leaving the four of us alone. We wandered around for about an hour at the top of the hill and then made our way to the lower portion of the site. (See where the pictures of the bees are and that is from the lower site.) After about an hour, which in that heat felt like two, we climbed back into the car and made our way the hour back to Kansas City. If you are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints you will be familiar with the valley and the importance of this beautiful location. I for one cannot wait myself!