This post is about our trip within a trip. While visiting our house in St. Joseph, Cindy and I did a quick trip to Hannibal, Missouri. And away we go.
The day after Father’s Day, Cindy and I took a short trip of three days and two nights to Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal is about a three-hour drive to the east. It is the hometown of Samuel Clemens or “Mark Twain” as you may know him. On our drive to Hannibal, we stopped in Chillicothe for lunch and to see some of the city’s murals. And there were a decent number of murals. Here are just a few we saw.
Many of the building’s windows had paintings in them that looked like people.
There was also an arts district with some interesting art.
Here is an artist working on a mural.
After our art tour of Chillicothe, we lunched at the Boji Stone Cafe.
The interior of the cafe was covered with music memorabilia.
I had a chicken salad sandwich that was very different with nuts and raisins but was tasty none the less. The food was above average, and the place is just interesting enough to earn a link. And the murals and art are worth a stop and look as well, so the city gets a link too. You know where to find them. As we drove on, we had to stop in Sumner, Missouri to see the world’s largest goose, Maxie. It was a statue, and it was very large.
If you are a sucker like I am for the largest anything, use the link at the end of this post to see the largest goose in the world. We continued on and made it to Hannibal. We stayed at an Airbnb that was above a closed restaurant. Here is what the inside looked like. It was perfect for our two-night stay.
There was a portrait of Mark Twain on the wall with an inspirational quote.
The city has numerous historic buildings. Here is the original McDaniel’s Candy Store, now known as the La Azotea Lounge.
Here is Tom Sawyer’s fence. I tricked Cindy into painting it for me.
This is Mark Twain’s boyhood home which is now also a museum.
Becky Thatcher’s home was there as well.
Mark Twain’s Father’s Law Office had a story about Mark Twain finding a dead body and bailing out of a window there.
This is Grant’s Drug Store where the Clemen’s Family lived for a short time when they hit hard times.
Along the main street, there were some buildings that were not necessarily historic, but interesting none the less.
There were also banners along the main street with quotes from Mark Twain and others.
This is a statue of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn that was near our Airbnb.
Just off of the main street were several buildings with murals painted on them.
During our stay, we took a river cruise on a river boat named…………”Mark Twain!”
It was an enjoyable cruise. We recommend trying it for yourself. You can use the link at the end of this post. Here are some of the interesting things we saw that you could see as well.
The next day we went to the Mark Twain Cave which was discovered in 1819.
As a child, Mark Twain played in the caves, which was very dangerous as many people would get lost in them and perish. Mark Twain’s time in the caves inspired one of his famous works, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” We took a tour of the cave, which didn’t come close to allowing us to see the entire cave structure. Our tour was a walking tour of about an hour that covered almost 1/2-mile of the cave. Here is the original cave entrance that is no longer used because it is not safe.
This is the “new” entrance that was established in 1890.
Numerous famous people have visited the cave. Here is Samual Clemen’s autograph on a wall. It is covered by a screen to protect it.
In 1879, Jesse James visited and signed a wall that we did not get to see on our tour.
Our tour did include several of the named areas of the cave.
This was autograph alley.
This formation was called “Injun Joe’s Canoe.”
Here are some general pictures from our tour.
Near the end of our tour, our guide told us an interesting story about the cave. When his grandfather was a kid, his grandfather and his friends would explore the cave at night. One night they had a plan to go deeper into the cave than they had ever gone before. Before his grandfather could leave his house, his grandfather’s mother told him he had to stay in that night. He stayed in while three of his friends went to explore the cave. They became lost in the cave and died before they could be found. Sad but interesting story. The Mark Twain Cave is also really interesting and worth a visit or two. Use the link below to see what I mean. After the cave visit, we drove across the street to the Cave Hollow Winery.
Even though we are usually disappointed with Missouri wines, we decided to try a tasting. I tried a mostly red wine tasting while Cindy tried the mostly white selection.
This tasting was the usual, not very good for our palates. But we will keep trying and hopefully it will pay off one day. If you like your wines on the sweet side, you should try a tasting here. We returned to our place and it started raining pretty hard. We had a decent dinner out in the rain, but it was nowhere near link worthy. We got a good night’s sleep and luckily it stopped raining the next day, so we had a dry drive home. Hannibal is a really fun place to visit. Check it out for yourself using the link at the end of this post.
My next post will be about our return to California with stops in Kansas and Texas. Don’t drink any bad wines until then.
LINKS