Mark Twain

Twain's Childhood home

The gallery of Norman Rockwell illustrations to Twain's novels.

"Life on the Missippi."

"Roughing it."

Andrew and Janelle whitewashing the fence for an incurably lazy Tom. :)

The town of Hannibal boasts many Mark Twain Sights. The famous Author, then Samuel Clemens, lived there and they think many of his characters and places were inspired by his hometown. It was in view of the Missippi where he used to guide steamboats. I am seen in the mock riverboat - it was soo cool! You could actually see the river from the window. The museum was really cool, and it was also neat seeing all the displays and quotes around his home. I learned a lot about him. It was neat to see places similar to those he described in books and walk the ground that he walked. Our last stop was to Abraham Lincoln's house. Also a nice place.

Anhuiseer-Busch (Apoligies for the spelling)

What a well decorated factory! Complete with wrought-iron fences, flowers and a chandelier from the World's fair, the Budweiser plant was very fancy. My favorite part was definitely the Clydesdale barn. Did you know there are standards each Clydesdale has to meet to become part of the hitch in weight, size and coloring? It takes about five hours to get the eight horse hitch ready to show. When we were there, they were getting groomed to go to the Cardinal's opening night. Their stable had a golden chandelier, roomy stalls and stained glass windows. I have never seen such a clean barn!!

Zoo

The next stop was the St Louis Zoo. My favorites were the penguins. We got so close! The one with his head up is making an amazing penguin call, it was pretty funny! Of course inside there was this duck in one of the exhibits that decided to splash me and I smelled like Salt Water the rest of the day! :)

There were lots of great exhibits- it was a really well designed zoo, even the fountains were fancy! I like the photo of us on the statue, of course right after we took the picture we noticed the "do not climb on" sign- whoops! Another funny thing was when we were next to a snake statue and there was a little boy working up the courage to touch it. As soon as he did my dad hissed really loud and he jumped back- poor thing. The little boy's dad thought it was really funny though. :)

Church

Thank you to who reccomended the Church we attended on Sunday. It was very beautiful and had a good message. I thought the whole Church was very attractively made up, but I didn't take too many pictures since I didn't want to be a distraction. :)

St Louis Arch

Well, when it rains it pours! After a photography drought, my fam did something that left me scrambling to keep up with my photos! Our trip to St. Louis this spring break was great! Down there it's all in bloom already. Our first stop was the St Louis Arch; Gateway to the West. We visited the museum and also watched a video on the making of the arch. - it was CRAZY! People with no harnesses and huge cranes pulling themselves up half finished structures? Wow. I'm just glad I wasn't the photographer that had to document it! And yes, we did go to the top- through the 4 foot hole into the little pods that intermittently corrected themselves to line up with the ground to the swaying top where little kids were yelling and running. It was pretty cool though once you get past all that: it is a marvel of engineering and has a great view. I liked the shot I got of the old Courthouse below. Anyway, we survived to come back down, and all in all it was a very nice day we spent. The park was really nice and I think I managed to get a few unique shots of an over documented landmark.

And the drowning statues? We have no idea why they were there in the river. If you know, we'd love to know. :)