We had an extra day in Hannibal due to severe weather coming into Iowa and causing us to skedaddle out of the way. We really enjoyed our time in Hannibal and would recommend spending a few days in the area.
We arrived on Monday afternoon, checked into the hotel, went for dinner, and then did our laundry. That way we were ready to spend the next few days exploring Hannibal and getting to know Samuel Clemens and his hometown.
Tuesday morning we went to the historic district of Hannibal so we could go to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. We also took a trolley tour around town, had lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and did some shopping. A severe storm was predicted for just north of Hannibal, so many of the shops and businesses in town were closing at 4 PM. We heeded their advice and finished up our sightseeing around 2:30 PM.
When we got back to the hotel, I asked the front desk clerk about what to do if there should be a tornado warning. She and the manager reassured me that they were prepared for their guests' safety. She showed me where to go should the tornado sirens go off, and she told me that the bank next to the hotel had the tornado siren just outside.
Thankfully the storms didn't come to fruition where we were, so the following day we were able to go about our plans. We had tickets to go on the Mark Twain Riverboat in the afternoon, so we went to downtown Hannibal a bit early to get some closer looks at things we had seen the previous day on our trolley tour.
We stopped for ice cream at Becky's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor, and I had huckleberry flavored ice cream. It was a pretty light purple and tasted good! The man running the store was a retired high school history teacher, so we enjoyed talking with him.
We had also gone into a local bookshop; the shopkeeper was a retired 4th grade elementary school teacher! I bought a handmade wooden Santa Claus there from a local artisan.
We also wanted to check out the Hickory Sticks store as that was the building Samuel Clemens had worked in as he got his start in printing business. It is now a quilt shop and is apparently pretty well known among quilting guilds. All I know is that the quilts they had hanging were beautiful.
Other things we saw in town were fire hydrants that were decorated, and murals on several of the buildings. The town had hired someone to do five murals, but then the townspeople got together and submitted ideas for others that they were allowed to create. It's pretty cool.
There are also statues of Samuel Clemens in town, and the famous Tom and Huck statue.
The trolley tour took us by some old houses and to Riverview Park where we had a good view of the Mississippi River.
I made a video from some of the pictures from the days we were in Hannibal of all things not Mark Twain - those will be in a future blog post. Let me know if you like the video format for multiple pictures. I'm still working out how to best make them.
Enjoy.
~ Cindy D.
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