Where is Nauvoo

Nauvoo is on the banks of the Mississippi River.  If you fly and rent a car, fly in to Springfield, IL or St. Louis, MO.  The weather is nicest in May, June, September and October.  What is there to see?  A whole city that has been restored to its 1840s look.  Nauvoo was larger than Chicago in 1845 and was the 10th largest city in the United States.  Students studying American History will enjoy seeing wagons and stage coaches, houses fully furnished, a newspaper office, a tinshop, blacksmith shop, school, the Browning Rifle Shop and a craft center where you can learn to make rope, candles, weave, card wool, quilt, bake bread.  Tour guides are all dressed in period costumes and put on a humorous show every evening.  Admission is free and there are no "free will donations".  Come and see.

New Mission!

We've been called to serve six months in the Nauvoo Temple and we are excited to go.  This is a calling that comes through a recommendation from the Oakland Temple President.  We are grateful that we are fully trained and able to step into this assignment with only proceedures to learn.  The ordinances are the same, but the proceedures are different for each temple.  We are to report Saturday, April 23, 2011.

Thursday, February 3

Up early to deliver our car to the Sheraton Hotel.  Thrifty gave us a free ride to the airport and we were on our way home.

Wednesday, February 2 - London Temple

We had a 60 mile drive to the London Temple. It was misty and foggy but in the +s so it isn’t as cold.  We enjoyed our session, but it was small and we were the witness couple again.  The shift was small and again we had to feel our way around.  There is a large campus with a manor house for the presidency, apartments for the workers and apartments for distance patrons, and a nice visitor’s center.  The temple is as old as the Oakland Temple and due for a major remodel.  We met a missionary from Dallas.  He begged us to call the temple department and request to be assigned to London.  It was another 60 miles to our hotel.

We stayed at the Royal Chase Hotel in Shaftsbury.  We had our choice of a room in the new section (1950s) or the old section (1750s).  We took the old room.  The floor slanted!  I couldn’t get a picture that would show the crazy floor.  The room was comfortable but things didn’t stay on tables.  It was fun and we enjoyed it.

Stonehenge

Next, we went to Stonehenge.  It was getting late, but we paid the money and got an audio lesson that took about 30 minutes.  They told us what they know about Stonehenge  and what they don’t know.  It was fascinating.  It is an ancient calendar.  The openings between the stones allow the sun to strike the center stone.  Beginning with each solstice, and moving in a circle.  The large upright rocks are buried 1/3 in the ground.  They came from Northern Scotland.  We don’t know how they got them there.  They are all carved so that they fit together.  How’d they do that and why? 

Bath

We went through Bath  looking for the Roman Baths.  They were in the center of town but there was no where to park, so we left.  The center of Bath has been made into a pedestrian shopping mall.  The Jane Austin Museum might have been fun to explore.