Gratitude Countdown: Day 3

I am grateful for fast and efficient means of transportation. I just finished re-reading Sense and Sensibility for my Book Club this month and I was struck again by how tedious and long any journey over a few miles took back then. A trip of 30 miles would take three days in a cramped carriage, over bumpy dirt roads. Now, I don't even blink an eye when traveling 30 miles. It takes less than an hour.

Since we like to travel, I am incredibly grateful that we have the means to see so many different parts of the world so easily. Even as I type, David is in Boston for a career fair. He left yesterday morning and will return tomorrow evening. He's halfway across the country, over 2,000 miles away, and yet it will only take 5 hours to fly home. That is indeed a miracle and something to be grateful for.

Gratitude Countdown: Day 2

Given that today is Veteran's Day (and 11/11/11), I especially wanted to give my thanks for all the men and women who are currently or have served our country in any capacity. I'm particularly grateful for my Grandpa Hayman, who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, my father-in-law who was a submariner in the Navy for 12 years, my brother-in-law Brigham who served a tour in Afghanistan as an Arabic linguist with the Utah National Guard and is now a Navy JAG officer, and my own David, who served seven years as a Korean linguist in the Navy.

While we remember those that serve today, don't forget those who love the ones who serve. I think we forget about the great sacrifice our military spouses and families make in order to support their soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen. Military wives deserve as much recognition as their spouses....and I'm not just saying that because I was one.

Also, go Navy!

Just throwing that out there. :)

Gratitude Countdown: Day 1

I can't believe it's already November and that Thanksgiving is only two weeks away. Where does the time go? I'm almost done with my roadtrip updates--and I'll continue to post them until I see them through to the bitter end--but I wanted to do my two week gratitude countdown in anticipation of Thanksgiving again. I really enjoyed doing it last year because it made me very aware of how much I have to be grateful for and how blessed I truly am. I have even more to be thankful for this year so I'll try not to do any repeats from last year. (Maybe. :))

I am grateful that David got into the MBA program at BYU and got out of the Navy. Now, the Navy was very good to us (I'm finding it weirdly hard to let go of our ties to the military) and it was a good job. But it was never David's lifelong career plan; rather, it was a means to an end. He gained some valuable things in those seven years: two degrees (AA in Korean, BA in accounting), financial stability, a home, and a wife and daughter. Though David enjoys learning new languages, he did not love his job. He did his job and he did it well, but he had no passion for it.

But now he absolutely loves what he's doing. He's really enjoying his program and comes home every night excited to share what he did and learned that day. It's such a nice change from the last two years. I'm so glad he got into this program. It was absolutely the right step for him and us.

Roadtrip: Liberty Jail and Independence, Missouri

We left Nauvoo around 5 p.m. (though we had to return once to retrieve a few things I left behind in the Visitor Center's bathroom....oops) and drove westward as far as we could before stopping in Chillicothe, Missouri. We spent the night at a brand new Comfort Inn just off Highway 36 which was very nice and well accommodated. The next morning, Sunday July 10th, we set off to visit more church history sites, namely Liberty Jail and Independence, Missouri.

Liberty Jail (and the Church's Visitor Center, pictured above) is located in the ironically named Liberty, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. Joseph Smith and a few other church leaders were jailed there from December 1, 1838 to April 6, 1839. It's sometimes called the "prison temple" since so many revelations were received there


Here's Zara, waiting for our tour of the jail to begin.

A reconstruction of the jail has been built inside the Visitor's Center. I thought it was an unique way to exhibit the jail, but well suited for the Church's purposes. With a cut-out of the jail visible, you get a great sense of the dimensions of the jail, including the thickness of the walls, without having to huddle inside the jail itself. More guests can be accommodated on the benches lined up around the jail, while the missionaries do their presentation.

I thought it made for a very interesting exhibition, though still a touch too long. Zara started to get very antsy and I had to remove her from the building.

David took over the picture-taking duties. Of course, he took a bunch more photos of tissue boxes.

After our visit to Liberty, we headed south to Independence, Missouri, another place of importance to the Church. The building above is the Church's Visitor Center in Independence, just across the street from the headquarters of the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized LDS church). While Independence did, at one time, host a small settlement of the early Saints, the town is significant because Joseph Smith revealed that it would be the site of the New Jerusalem or Zion during Christ's Second Coming. Basically, when Christ comes again, he's going to reign from Independence, Missouri.

This is the Community of Christ's temple. They had several buildings in the area.

There weren't many other Church-related things to see in Independence so I suggested we visit the home of Independence's most famous resident: Harry S. Truman. I've had a fondness for Truman ever since I read David McCullough's biography of him. I like that he was a simple, hard-working, and honest man who just happened to land himself in the White House, almost by accident. He dealt with some very serious issues and made some very difficult decisions during his Presidency. Through it all, I think he maintained his integrity and dignity so I was very curious to see his home.

We drove into downtown Independence, where we scheduled a tour of the NPS-run house. The park ranger who conducted our tour did an excellent job. Really, it was probably the best tour we had our whole trip. He was knowledgeable and very respectful of Truman and of the home without being overly praiseworthy. (Too often, biographers or curators of famous people fall so in love with their subject that they can't see any fault in them. I appreciate it more when they recognize that their subjects were human and therefore prone to mistakes and frailties like any normal person.) It was a beautiful, though modest home and seeing it and hearing of Truman's daily routines before and after the Presidency only reconfirmed my prior impression of the man. I highly recommend taking a tour of his home if you ever happen to be in the area.

Truman loved his hometown and thought there was no better place in the world. I don't know that I'd drop everything to move there myself (though David teases that we should, just to be ready for the Second Coming), I did find Independence to be a beautiful and charming town. Really, I was quite surprised to discover how much I enjoyed our time in Missouri. Who knew?

Roadtrip: Carthage Jail

On the same day we visited Nauvoo, we also visited Carthage Jail, the site where, on June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot and killed. The tour was conducted by a young sister missionary who had little taste for history and difficulty remembering the historical facts. She was obviously new to this assignment and very nervous which led to a lot of rambling nonsense. I really don't mean to be harsh on this sister, I really don't. I understand how difficult public speaking is and how tough it can be to lead and command a large group of people. This kind of thing takes time and practice. I just don't have a lot of my patience for mediocre tours, but again, that's my thing. Other people seemed to get a lot out of the tour and it's certainly worth the visit.

The jail has been restored to its appearance as it would have looked during Joseph Smith's incarceration and death.

In the basement is the tiny jail cell where Joseph and three other men were kept. It was dank, dark, and cramped in there. I could barely stand up in the room.

When the jailers heard that a mob was preparing to storm the jail on the 27th of June, they moved Joseph, Hyrum and the two other incarcerated men, John Taylor and Willard Richards, into an upstairs bedroom.

A mob of 150-200 men stormed the jail and shot through the door of the bedroom (you can see the bullet holes in the door above). Hyrum was shot in the face and died almost instantly. Joseph and the other two men tried to defend themselves against the attackers.


Joseph, who had moved near the window, was shot twice in the back and once in the chest and fell through the window to the pavement below. John Taylor was shot several times, but survived. Willard Richards was unhurt in the attack.

Carthage Jail, obviously, holds a great amount of significance and garners a great deal of reverence among members of the Church. Given the events that occurred there, many people understandably become quite emotional. David and I were quite amused, though, by the great number of tissues boxes that were scattered throughout the jail itself and the visitor's center. At David's insistence, here's only a few of the many, many boxes of tissue we passed on our tour.

Roadtrip: Nauvoo

The city of Nauvoo is nestled in a little bend of the Mississippi River, on the western edge of Illinois, not far from where Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois meet and merge. I'm not sure why any sane person would journey out to this remote city, population 1,141, unless they had ties to the Mormon church. It's become a mecca for modern-day Mormons, seeking to relive and revisit our Mormon past. It's a stop on any church history tour, which could also include Palmyra, New York, Kirkland, Ohio, Nauvoo, Illinois, Far West and Independence, Missouri, and Winter Quarters, Nebraska. From about 1839 to around 1844, Nauvoo (along with another settlement in Missouri) served as the headquarters of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and even reportedly rivaled Chicago in population. After the death of Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet, the majority of the Mormon residents were driven out of Nauvoo and forced westward, where they eventually settled in Salt Lake City.

Today, Nauvoo is operated as a living history museum (in the vein of Colonial Williamsburg). Half of the town [including the Nauvoo House, the Red Brick Store, and the Mansion House (Joseph Smith's home)] are owned and operated by the Community of Christ, formerly called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (R-LDS), an off-shoot of the main LDS church, which broke apart after the death of Joseph Smith and the question of his prophetic successor. The main LDS church followed Brigham Young; the R-LDS regarded Joseph Smith III, Joseph Smith's son, as the rightful heir. The majority of the town (and the bulk of the historic buildings and programs) are run by the LDS church.

Being a seventh-generation Mormon, I grew up learning all about early church history and the pioneers who crossed the plains to come to Utah. Some of my ancestors made that trek and I've always been fascinated by their stories. My family visited several of these church history sites on our big family roadtrip when I was seven, but I've always been eager to revisit these places. I remembered loving our time in Nauvoo. Of all the places I wanted to visit on this roadtrip, I was most excited for Nauvoo. And of all the places that we did visit on this roadtrip, Nauvoo was the biggest disappointment.

You have to remember that now I'm viewing Nauvoo as a museum professional (I like to think), who has had training in how to curate a museum, write and train docents to give guided tours, and make history easily accessible, relevant, and fun for visitors of all ages, backgrounds, and educations. Unfortunately Nauvoo, for me, failed to do this, which is such a shame. The Church has such a great opportunity to use this living history site as a way to teach Church history, but they staff it with senior missionaries who have had little training--and sometimes, little enthusiasm--f0r the history of the place and are more concerned with talking your ear off about their families and asking you invasive personal questions. Admittedly, the Church doesn't try to hide the fact that they use the majority of their historical sites as missionary opportunities, but it rings a little false when wizened old missionaries or nervous 21-year-old sister missionaries start bearing their testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel in the middle of an 1840s gunsmith shop or during a demonstration of 19th-century blacksmithing. It's even more annoying when you consider that the majority of their visitors are already members of the church; they're just preaching to the choir. Any non-Mormon, potential investigator to the Church, would, I think, only be turned off by such heavy-handed preaching. I mean, it turns me off, and I actually believe that the church is true. I thought that the section of Nauvoo run by the Community of Christ did it better: they were not in your face about the Church, and had competent and trained guides who actually taught some history, rather than shared a bunch of feel-good, gooey spiritual moments.

After this experience, it has now become my goal in life to somehow get myself in a position within the church, whether as a Church History Curator or a senior missionary assigned to Nauvoo, to actually effect some change in how the history of Nauvoo is taught. I would start by training the missionaries better and re-drafting their docent guides (if they even HAVE docent guides) to focus on the history of the particular building or shop and keep their tour under 5-10 minutes. One problem with the free-for-all missionary moment format is that the tours can take a long time depending on how much the spirit is moving the docent and how long-winded they are. It backs up the tours for incoming visitors and makes it extremely difficult to visit all the different buildings and demonstrations in one day and still enjoy the experience. I truly believe that if you focus on the history of the place and the lives of the Saints who called Nauvoo home, you will still touch people's hearts and possibly even make them interested in learning more about the Mormon church. The spirit is already there but the Holy Ghost is quiet, unassuming power that works carefully, tenderly, personally. It is not something to bludgeon over people's heads. But ultimately, even if a visitor doesn't want to convert on the spot after a visit to Nauvoo, they should still walk away with a greater understanding of the history of the religion that took form there and the people who left their hearts there. But it fails even it that most basic form.

So after saying all that, is it still worth it to visit Nauvoo? Absolutely. Your experience will not be my experience. You also have to remember that there is a constant rotation of missionaries there and some will be excellent and some may not be. We might have just gotten a really bad batch. (Admittedly, not all were bad.) Nauvoo is still a beautiful city with lots of interesting buildings, shops, demonstrations, sites, and stores to visit. It's a fascinating place....just make sure your expectations are not too high.

And now, a few of my favorite photos from Nauvoo:

The Mansion House, the home of Joseph Smith and his family. It also operated as a hotel.

The view of the Smith family homestead, leading to the gardens and family cemetery. Through the trees is a view of the Mississippi River.

Graves of Joseph Smith Senior and Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith's parents.

The graves of Hyrum Smith (Joseph's brother who was killed with his brother), Joseph Smith, and Emma Smith (Joseph's wife who chose to stay in Nauvoo after the majority of the Saints left for Utah).

Smith homestead

The Red Brick Store

Upstairs meeting chamber of the Red Brick Store where many meetings and councils were held, including the formation of the Relief Society.

Post Office and Printing Office

Zion's Mercantile, which now operates as a gift shop, deli, and hotel

The Nauvoo temple. It was burnt by mobs after the Saints left. It was rebuilt in 2002.

Roadtrip: Springfield, Illinois

Our next planned stop after St. Louis was Nauvoo, Illinois. Since there was no direct route to get there from St. Louis, I decided that we would take the I-55 north to Springfield so we could visit the home of one Abraham Lincoln.

We arrived at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in the later afternoon and inquired about taking a tour. But when I expressed my desire to also visit the Presidential Library and Museum, the Park Ranger recommended that we just go there since we wouldn't have time to do both that day. I had heard such glowing reviews of the museum that I really didn't want to pass that up. We took the time, however, to visit the historic neighborhood where Lincoln lived and to take a few photographs of his home.

Unlike most historic homes, which sit amid their modern-day counterparts, the Lincoln home resides in a historic neighborhood so you really get a sense of the context and time period of Lincoln.

How cute is that little baby of mine? It's so funny to look at photographs of her when she was just learning to walk and still a little unsteady on her feet because she is always on the go, go, go now. She runs circles around me now.

After our quick tour of the Lincoln neighborhood, we hopped back into the car to drive up town to the Lincoln Library and Museum. Now, I know most people don't share my same perverse adoration of any museum, large or small. David should win a prize for his good natured indulgence of my museum habit. He tolerates being dragged from one historic house to the next with nary a complaint, coughs up sometimes exorbitant admission fees without blinking an eye, and has become quite conversant on topics ranging from exhibition design and curating to what constitutes a good docent-lead tour and the controversies of museumship. Man, if only I could muster the same interest in finance. That husband of mine is a keeper.

Anywaaay....the point is: even if you don't love museums and you find them dreadfully dull and boring, you must visit this museum. It is visually stunning, beautifully curated, and presents the facts and minutiae of Lincoln's life with such ease that you can't help but be drawn in. Some museum professionals have derided the special effects and more entertainment-like aspects of the museum but I thought they were used very thoughtfully, without being heavy-handed, and did nothing to detract from the presentation of facts. I think learning should be fun and interactive. Some museums offer no fun, and some forget to include the facts with their fun. But this museum struck the perfect balance, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any photos inside the exhibitions otherwise I would have taken a ton of photos. We had to put our cameras away in the museum plaza, but I was able to take these two photos which maybe gives you an idea of what the rest of the museum is like. The museum is broken up into different stages (they call them "journeys") of Lincoln's life. On the left, you enter Lincoln's boyhood home to learn about his pre-presidential years. They talk about Lincoln's education (he was largely self-taught), his first encounters with slavery, his courtship of Mary Todd, his beloved sons, and his slow journey into politics and the road to the White House. You emerge from this section of the museum just after his election to the Presidency.

Journey two starts, literally, by entering the White House. (You can see Lincoln and his family in the right hand corner.) This portion included a section of clothing of the period, including a selection of some of Mary Todd Lincoln's beautiful custom-made gowns and "The Whispering Gallery" which showcases some of the less-than-polite things that were said and drawn (in the form of political cartoons) about the Lincolns. I found this room to be particularly effective. The majority of this exhibit, naturally, focuses on the Civil War, Lincoln's Cabinet and war strategies. They had an electric map which showed "The Civil War in Four Minutes." It was so fascinating, we watched it twice. It shows the changing progress of the war and where the battlelines were drawn and ultimately, how the North emerged victorious. They also delve into the devastation Abe and Mary felt by the loss of their son, Willie, and the drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation. The final section brings you to a recreation of Ford's theater, Lincoln's assassination, his funeral and the public's reaction to his death.

In addition to these two highly interactive exhibitions, there are several other smaller exhibits. One is the Treasures Gallery which showcases artifacts related to Lincoln in a far more traditional museum setting. They also have two theaters which play two different presentations, one called "Lincoln's Eyes" and the other called "Ghosts of the Library." We watched the latter presentation and I'm still flummoxed over how they did all the special effects. It was incredible.

I felt the two hours we had was enough time to see everything without feeling rushed, but I really could have spent the whole day there, just soaking everything up. Unfortunately, we were kicked out of the museum at closing time but we needed to get on the road anyway. We headed out of Springfield through the northwest end and took small, backcountry roads through miles and miles and miles of cornfields before stopping in Macomb, Illinois (about 30 minutes to the east of Carthage) for the night.

Roadtrip: St. Louis

So we left the "Gateway to the South" to head westward on the I-64 to the "Gateway of the West", or something like that. It took us about four hours to make the drive through Indiana and Illinois to St. Louis, which sits just across the Mississippi River in Missouri.

In planning a trip our stay in St. Louis, I convinced David that we should stay at a nicer hotel near the main attractions of the city; namely, the Gateway Arch and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. I made us a reservation at the Hyatt Regency at the Arch which sits just across the street from the arch. It was too expensive to book a room with a view so I chose a cheaper option but it turns out our room did have a view of the arch.

We didn't have a full view, but we could still see quite a bit of the Arch and surrounding area which was awesome. I loved our view.

Zara did too. The Hyatt was the fanciest hotel we stayed during our trip and I'm glad we paid the extra bit of money for the experience. It was a nice room, had a great view, and their breakfast in the morning was absolutely delicious.

Our first stop after getting checked in and settled in our hotel room was to visit the Old Courthouse, which was the site of the Dred Scott case in 1857.

Here's the inside of the rotunda of the Courthouse. It's a beautiful old building and now contains exhibits about St. Louis history and the Dred Scott case.

The Courthouse closed shortly after we arrived there so we headed over to the Arch to get our tickets for a ride up to the top.

It was starting to rain a bit so we were happy to get underground and out of the brewing storm.

Underneath the arch is this large showcase about the architects of the arch. There's also a gift shop and a general store full of old-fashioned candy and games.

While we waited for our turn to ride up to the top, we went through the Museum of Westward Expansion. I vaguely remember this exhibition from my family's big cross-country roadtrip when I was seven. I don't think the exhibit has changed since then.

Before entering the cable car/elevator to the top, you walk through an exhibit about the design and construction of the arch. Once at the top, we had to lean over to peer through these tiny windows to see out to the world below. (And yes, Zara and I are totally matching because we're awesome like that.)

By then the rain had really started to come down so we didn't get the clearest view.But it was still incredibly breathtaking to view the world from so high up. It's too bad that pictures never do panoramic views justice.

After coming down from the top of the arch, we wanted to head back to our hotel before figuring out where to eat dinner. As we emerged from the underground complex, we discovered just how big of a storm we were in. It was absolutely pouring and there was a big group of people huddled by the doors, trying to wait the storm out. We didn't know how long that would take so I snapped on the head covering of Zara's Ergo carrier, covered my head with a plastic map of the USA I had just bought and we ran for it. Luckily, our hotel was just across the street but between the downpour and waiting for the lights to change, we were completely soaked by the time we made it back to our room.

Since we didn't want to venture out into the rain again, we opted to get food from one of the restaurants in the hotel (a little bar/grill type place) and take it back to our room to eat, relax and watch a little TV before taking showers and calling it a day.

The next morning, after an absolutely amazing breakfast (by continental breakfast standards), I insisted that we take in a little bit more of St. Louis before heading out. I wanted to visit Union Station and so we walked there, stopping to admire buildings, parks, and statue gardens along the way. I really wish that we had had more time in St. Louis. From all I read about it, it sounds like a very cool city, with lots of interesting sites and attractions, many of which are free and very family friendly.
After a long walk, we finally made it to Union Station. It was started in 1893 and, like Union Station in Washington D.C., now serves as a mall, food court, and subway stop. It was also where the classic historic photo of Truman holding the incorrect newspaper reading "Dewey Defeats Truman" was taken.

A portion of is also used as a hotel, which is run by Marriott.

It's a beautiful stone building. I just love stone buildings. They look like they will always be there and remind me that man can erect some pretty amazing structures. I wish we still built buildings like this.

Once we finally figured out to get inside the station, we wandered through the hotel (which is the best preserved part of the building) and was filled with beautiful stain-glass windows and art deco decor.

This is the lobby of the Marriott. The rest of the station, including the mall portion, weren't as interesting. It doesn't seem like they get much foot traffic through there which made for a pretty sad little shopping center.

It was so boring that poor Zara fell fast asleep in her stroller. Since we needed to get back to the hotel in order to check out on time, we rode the subway to the closest stop to our hotel and got all set for a day backtracking through Illinois. I sure hope we get to spend a little bit more time in St. Louis in the future. It's one cool town.