Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Our Rendezvous at Old Nauvoo

This was my first trip to Nauvoo, and I honestly could not have expected more. It was so sweet and peaceful, the perfect rest stop on our long journey! The first morning we woke up and headed to the Visitors Center where we watched a short film on the history of the city. It’s amazing how much the pioneers sacrificed and how quickly they built up a successful and functioning city just to lose it. It takes great faith, I am sure, to work so hard and leave it all behind. We then had the privilege of taking a hay ride through old Nauvoo to familiarize ourselves with all the extra sights we could see.

We arrived the same day that all the performing missionaries were leaving which meant that absolutely no one was in Nauvoo. There were two family reunions and some tourists passing through but for the most part it was a ghost town. We got to be the only people in most of the presentations we attended. We learned about the post office, supply stores, wagon making and blacksmithing to name a few.

Being some of the only people around meant that we each got a turn to try all the fun things at each store. We were only kind of embarrassed by it all, but we didn’t want to miss out on the experience…or disappoint the sweet senior missionary, who out of habit shouts, “who wants to volunteer to bring in our daily water from the well? I’ll choose a boy and a girl!” Oh, fancy that! There is only one of each anyway.

Here we are learning to carry water from the well…

One of the last historic sights we saw for the day was Brigham Young’s home. At the end they are supposed to give you a tour of the root cellar he built behind his house. The woman giving our tour informed us that if we wanted to see it, we could take ourselves. It was totally creepy.

There are two doors that open up into a root cellar that is partially in the ground, dark, damp and cold. As we left, shut the doors and locked them, Benson informed me that he would love to come back around Halloween time, dress up like a dead Brigham Young and emerge making scary noises when people opened the doors. You guys, I had no idea my husband aspired for so much in his life! As you can imagine I was thrilled…who doesn’t want to tell everyone that in his spare time their husband likes to scare little kids and families while they innocently explore an old time root cellar? But, if we are being honest…that would make a killer Youtube hit.

After drinking some cold root beer straight from the glass bottle, we strolled along Mulholland Street and looked at all the cute shops. I’m really glad I wasn’t a pioneer because this is what it would look like:

We ate lunch while looking at the temple and soaking in the beautiful sun. It was simple and divine. There truly is something so special about Nauvoo. I just felt so happy and grateful for life the whole time and I’m pretty sure Benson got super sick of me saying, “Aren’t you just so happy? Isn’t this the best?” I appreciate that he always answered, even if it was with a smirk or a laugh.

Since we haven’t talked about food enough and if you know me you know I love food…Apparently in Nauvoo, if you want a good dinner, you have to eat between 4:30 and 5:00 pm. Luckily, I’m hungry about 80% of the time…and if I’m not hungry, I eat anyway. We were given a great recommendation to eat at an all you can eat buffet provided by the cute Hotel Nauvoo. The dining rooms were kitschy, just how I like my eating establishments to be. The tables were covered in fake lace, plastic tablecloths and each had a vase of silk flowers. The walls were lined with Christmas lights, some blinking and some not blinking…and the main dining room was decorated like Old Nauvoo with brick store fronts built into the walls and fake apple trees coming out of the middle of the floor. It was dark with the soft glow of mood lighting coming off of what? That’s right, Christmas lights. Of course I was wary at first, especially because one of the special entrees was sweet ham balls. But, I was grateful for the experience and truly enjoyed the food that was served. It was great home-style cooking, buttery and warm and so delicious. The sweet ham balls, which I tried just to say I did, were divine! Just goes to show that you should never let a name stop you from eating something. I am sure they aren’t any good for me but I ate like 10. I’d never heard of them before that day and I haven’t heard of them since…I don’t even think it is a common thing for people to eat, but it should be! I give our experience at Hotel Nauvoo 5 stars for the atmosphere, company and hot ham balls!

After our nice dinner we had the pleasure of attending the Rendezvous at Old Nauvoo, a musical history of the city performed by all of the senior missionary couples in the area. The theater was small and held only about 50 people. We thought that it would probably be pretty empty judging by our earlier experiences around the town but we were wrong! The seats filled up fast and because we were not children or elderly we got the side seats…bummer! While we anxiously awaited the start of the show they played fun music and had women dressed as Pioneers talking to the guests. I got super embarrassed because Benson kept grabbing my arm and forcing it high in the air while shouting “Woo!” or, even worse, forcing me to clap loudly while chanting things like “Yee Haw!” and “Yipee!”, right as the performers would pass by us. Plus, he did it in this high voice that made it seem like it was most definitely me, and some kid with a stuffed animal snake on his head kept giving me the stink eye. C’mon kid, who are you to judge? The show was incredible! Most of the performers were not extremely talented, and the music was quirky but it was so great! The spirit of the show and the messages they wanted to convey came off so powerfully and it was definitely a must see part of the Nauvoo experience…which is what we were told by every single senior missionary we met that day.  I’m glad we felt like we couldn’t say “no” to their suggestions and that we ate dinner at 4:30 to be able to be in attendance.

Here are some pictures from the show, mind you they don’t do it justice…

This song was not sung but chanted and had hand gestures and everything.

The men in the background are demonstrating the choreography 

This man looked like my grandpa Schmutz...totally got me teary.

This song was only sung by men and their guns. 

This one was about the Relief Society which included them
eating, tying quilts and sharing the towns secrets. AWESOME! 

After finishing the Rendezvous the whole town shut down. So we decided it was better to call it an early night so we could get up the next morning, attend the temple and still get on the road at a decent time. 

The temple was such a beautiful part of our trip. I can’t wait to go back again someday with all my family. Reunion spot 2015 everyone? Temples everywhere always give such a feeling of peace and warmth…I’m truly grateful that we made this a part of our Nauvoo trip.

This was the best self-portrait temple picture that we could get.
Yes, I have a snaggle tooth and  normally it isn't this accentuated.

This one was taken while we waited for the
Rendezvous to happen and  I like it a lot better

After one of our most memorable temple trips we were sad to pack up and hit the road. On our way out of town we decided to stop and see Carthage Jail, where the prophet Joseph Smith was martyred.

Of the historic sites we saw, this was the most emotional and solemn but it was the perfect way to end our church history tour. Being in the very room where Joseph and Hyrum Smith gave their lives for the Gospel helped me to reevaluate my life and priorities and strengthened my faith in the truthfulness of the prophet’s calling.

If you are like me then you would think that our trip couldn't possibly get better. I must admit that Nauvoo was incredible and relaxing but Benson’s little sister Liz outdid everything else we could have planned when she took us around Philadelphia and other neighboring areas. She was the perfect tour guide and hostess and we were so lucky to get to have a few days with her! I know it’s hard to believe but…I really can’t wait to blog about our time with her!

Until then, I’m going to go and watch “Sherlock” until hurricane Sandy shuts off our electricity and we are left to playing Hearts and Scum by candle light.  

besos,

Celia

Benson just learned this version on the ukulele 

with Eleanor so of course I love it.