Nauvoo

Since Mom got outvoted on the Hawaii trip we all figured it would only be fair to do Nauvoo on the next big vacation. I was actually quite excited to see Nauvoo since there is so much church history there. And there is also a lot of Leavitt history there as well.

Once again I used air mile points and we all flew into St Louis. When I say "we all" that means everyone except for Kira and Ben who was now on his mission and Brandon was home. It was great to see St Louis but I would recommend to anyone else who is wanting to see Nauvoo to fly into Kansas City since we ended up driving out to Independence anyway since there is so much church history there. We could have saved a day but we did ride up to the top of the St Louis arch and that was pretty cool. From St Louis we drove up to Nauvoo which took several hours and found our bed and breakfast. We thought it would be real cool to stay in an authentic old home that was actually built during Nauvoo's glory years. It turned out to be a beautiful home with some very friendly proprietors. It was perfect for our family, we took two rooms, one for us and one for the kids. Our timing to go to Nauvoo was also perfect because Lisa's young womans teacher was on a mission in Nauvoo with her husband and we got the VIP tour of just about anything we wanted. Elaine and Doug Streibel lived in a restored home right in downtown Nauvoo. They have rebuild several of the key buildings in Nauvoo and you can go and tour most of them. Some like Elaines are actually lived in and are not open for touring. Some of my favorite tourist attractions are the blacksmith shop, the brick factory and the Browning gun factory. In the brick factory they actually let you make little souvenir bricks. They were limiting them to one brick per family and they made them for you but since we had connections, we were each able to make one and we made them ourselves. It was quite fascinating and we inscribed our names on them before they were fired. Some other historical sites are the red brick store and the Lion House.

When the Mormons first settled into the area Nauvoo was mostly a swamp and very infested with mosquitoes and other nasty critters. The early saints realized that the water feeding the swamp was all coming from natural springs on the side of the hill so they dug a ditch across the face of the hill and drained the water into the Mississippi before it could get to the swamp. The picture of Alex and Sarah standing in what looks like a creek bed is the ditch that they dug. The stone bridge is the same creek. We spent a few days in Nauvoo going on wagon rides, watching pageants and taking other tours but then we made a trip out to Independence Missouri.

Independence is where the Mormons tried to settle before they went to Nauvoo. They started up a printing press, build many beautiful homes and farms and actually dedicated two sites for temples. Unfortunately the rapid growth scared the neighbours and eventually the governor of Missouri decreed that Mormons were a threat to society and passed a law making it legal to shoot a Mormon on sight. After several murders and rapes and at least one massacre where an entire town was wiped out (men, women and children) the Mormons packed up and left. As the Mormons were leaving the state Joseph Smith was being held in the liberty jail. What an ironic name for a jail. He was held there for an entire winter in very harsh conditions. The jail has been reconstructed and is open for tours. It was a solemn experience as we visited there.

On our drive out to Independence we headed through Amish country. The Amish don't believe in any modern technology and they only use horse drawn buggies and they don't use any electricity. It is odd how they do make exceptions for some things like refrigerators and lights in their stores though. We stopped and bought some "wholesome" Amish food. We all got sick. I'm not sure if our systems weren't used to good wholesome food or if we got food poisoning. We scheduled our visit to Carthage for the end of our visit. Once again Joseph Smith was in jail on false trumped up charges. The jail was actually in the upstairs of the jailers home. The jailer knew they were innocent people and let them out of their cells during the hot summer days. They were staying in an upstairs bedroom when a mob stormed the jail house and burst into the bedroom and shot everyone they saw. Joseph and his brother Hyrum Smith were killed, Willard Richards was shot several times but recovered. One bullet that would have certainly killed him was stopped by his pocket watch. John Taylor was shoved behind the door when it was thrust open and was completely unharmed. If you look at the picture of the jail you can see a well and behind the well are two windows. The upstairs window is the bedroom where the shooting happened. Joseph attempted to jump from the window but in doing so he was shot both from behind in the bedroom and from outside. He fell through the window landing near the well.

One of Joseph Smiths last wishes was for John Taylor to sing the hymn, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief". We all sat in the room and listened to a recording of the hymn being sung. It was a very special moment for all of us and left everyone who was there quite changed.

While we were in Nauvoo we tried to find where the Leavitts lived. All of the old records are available for study and we found that the Leavitts owned a farm east of Nauvoo where they were building a home, they rented land west of Nauvoo and they also rented a home in town. We think we found all three places but since they are nothing but corn fields right now we can't be entirely sure. Lisa's ancestor also lived in Nauvoo and we think we know where he lived. Frederick Kesler married a Pratt and so Lisa and the kids are descended from Anson Pratt and we certainly found where he lived. The Pratts were quite prominent.

So that was our visit to Nauvoo. It was very different than our trip to Hawaii and truly left us changed people. It almost makes me want to move there and settle on the ground where my ancestors lived. In fact I over heard a couple of obviously non-Mormon locals talking and the one guy was complaining to his neighbour how the Mormons are taking over Nauvoo. After what I saw I think he may be correct. Hey, worse things could happen. Mormons make good neighbours.

The kids are making candles.













Taking a break











Alycia and Alex swing dancing in the upstairs hall of the Masonic Lodge. Joseph Smith drew a map with chalk on this floor for Brigham Young. He had seen in a vision the way to the Salt Lake Valley and he was showing Brigham which way he should go.
















Brandon is proposing to this woman. She seems quite cold to me.




















There were several statues in this area and the kids were copying many of them.
















Brandon is preaching Hell Fire and Damnation. I think this is the Seventies Hall.










Along the road through town that leads to the Mississippi river are several signs quoting different pioneers. This is a quote from my ancestor Sarah Leavitt referring to the death of her husband. The road is often referred to as the "trail of tears" because the Saints all passed along this road as they were being driven out of town. We called it the "trail of sweat" because the entire week we were there was very hot.
















The kids with Adam-ondi-Ahman in the background.

Liberty Jail















The sight for the New Jerusalem Temple.













A plaque commemorating the printing press used by W W Phelps in Independence. This plaque was in one of the sidewalks in Independence.



The home where we stayed.

Hawaii

As Mom pointed out in her last comments there are several other vacations that I totally forgot about. Perhaps the most memorable to me is a skiing trip we made to Brighton. We stayed in the lodge at the foot of the ski hill and we could literally ski right onto the balcony and walk into our rooms. Some day I'll dig out some pictures and talk more about that trip. Today I'm going to talk about our trip to Hawaii. The sad part is that this was perhaps our first vacation where we didn't have all the kids. Kira was married and Brandon was on his mission. I had accumulated a lot of air miles on my trips so we cashed about half of them in and off we went with our four youngest children. We had actually considered several other potential vacations and it finally came down to either Nauvoo or Hawaii. When we took the final vote Lisa voted for Nauvoo and the kids and I voted for Hawaii.

Next we discussed in some detail where we should stay. It seemed like everyone always stays in Honolulu around Waikiki but we decided we wanted to get away from it all and after some studying we figured out that most of the real cool beaches are on the north and east shores so we picked out a condo by turtle bay and made that our home base for the week.

If you've ever rented a car before and you're really cheap like I am you will quickly find that Enterprise Rent a Car is about as cheap as you'll get. There's a reason for that, they have the worst service you'll ever find. We landed in Honolulu and got to the rental car place to find that they didn't have a mini van for us. They offered to give us two cars for the price of one but then that would mean that our family would be split up for the week. That didn't sound like a lot of fun to me so we waited; and waited; and waited. Finally a minivan came in and about two hours after we landed we were on our way. We drove up the middle of the island and enjoyed the beautiful view of the mountains, we also drove through some very interesting pineapple plantations. I kind of wanted to go tour a pineapple farm but there were so many other fascinating things in Hawaii that I wanted to see that I knew we wouldn't have time. Our first full day in Hawaii was a Sunday. To keep the spirit of the Sabbath we didn't go swimming and we chose that day to get a feel for the island. We went to BYU Hawaii campus and checked it out. We went to the temple; we found dozens of beaches and scoped out their locations and then we drove up the west coast. That is where many of the locals live and there are no tourist sights over there. We were warned not to do too much over there because some of the locals hate tourists and are known to beat up the occasional tourist now and then. We met up with Scott Warner who was going to school there and attended with him at his student ward. It was very interesting.

It would be impossible for me to remember what activities we did on what days so I will just briefly discuss our days in random order. One day we just went beach hopping. We would go to one beach for a few hours and then hop in the car and go to another beach. Some of these beaches are quite difficult to find and are only visited by the locals. They are beautiful beaches and have very few tourists. They have them all up and down the east coast. Another day we dedicated to boarding
Waimea Bay and the area. On one of those days we went and hiked into a ritual site for the original natives. It was fun traipsing through the jungle and we saw some beautiful sites. Another day we dedicated to Pearl Harbour. You've got to spend at least one day at Pearl Harbour. It is very sobering and I wouldn't do two days because it could put a real downer on your vacation. Probably the highlight of our vacation was the day we spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center. What a wonderful place. You could spend two days there but we made it one very long day. Another day we spent snorkeling in Hanauma Bay that is famous for snorkeling. We saw many wonderfully colorful fish. On one of our beach days we swam with these huge Sea Turtles. It is very freaky when you're snorkeling underwater and they turn and swim toward you. I was sure I was going to get eaten but they were just checking me out. They are big.
We drove into the crater of a dormant volcano. That was pretty cool.

We ended up spending two Sundays on Oahu so the second Sunday we picked a random church meeting to attend. I really like the church meetings they have in Hawaii. After church they had a big pot luck on the back lawn. There was some very good food there and we made many good friends. One summer we sent Ben to a football camp at BYU. His room mate turned out to be a big Hawaiian kid from Laie. As luck would have it, the ward that we attended was having their Ward Conference and the Football kids dad was the stake president and spoke at the sacrament meeting. We introduced ourselves and he invited us over for dinner that evening. They are a very nice family and we enjoyed our visit. They have a beautiful view of the ocean from their house. I far preferred meeting with with the natives over the student ward.

All too soon the week came to an end and we had to drive back to the airport. Usually on these vacations I'm looking forward to going back home and getting into our normal routines but not this time. I was quite sad having to leave the peaceful life we had for the week. It was a very beautiful place and we really enjoyed it. Sadly enough the Lord has arranged it so that we need to earn a living in this world and my employer was expecting me to show up and earn my paycheck. How sad.

--------------------trivia--------------------

At the time of Christ Africa was home to many races including whites, Asians, Pygmies (not considered black) and two races now called Khoisan and Xhosa. The blacks (Bantu) occupied just a corner of Africa. Due to a freak of nature the Bantu's gained a huge advantage over the other races and in a movement that closely parallels the European take over of the America's, the blacks engulfed the majority of Africa pushing the whites to the north, eliminating the Asian's and reducing the Khoisan and Xhosa to small settlements where the blacks didn't want to live much as the native Americans have been pushed to reservations in the deserts and other undesirable localities.

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A couple of cute girls I found hanging around the beaches. We were actually looking at a water spout that shot high into the air when the surf came in.








The east coast.













Alex walking along an empty beach.


















Three of the prettiest girls I know.













This is a beautiful island.











We found the coconuts fascinating.





















More scenery










The snorkeling was incredible.












You can't tell from the picture but this guy was at least five feet from nose to tail. He could really hurt you if he wanted to.









Probably the cutest snorkeler you'll ever see. She really wanted to get out there with us.

Vacations

So I think that is pretty much my autobiography. As I remember stories that I want to tell I will probably add them to the account but with Alex heading off to college I’m pretty well current. We used to go on some sort of vacation pretty much every year but as soon as kids hit high school it became very difficult. The first problem was with the kids going to Mount Carmel High School. If you wanted to be in the band program (as Kira was) then marching band was mandatory. In addition, band took up so much time that you couldn’t graduate in four years (at least not with all the University requirements) unless you took summer school. With summer school you couldn’t miss more than two days or else you were dropped from the class. So summer school took up all of July and Marching band took up all of August so out of necessity we were tied close to home. Westview has a better system but if you want to do sports then it is mandatory that you attend summer training. So with summer training, scout camp, girls camp then summer vacation was out. Over the years however there have been a few vacations that we have done as a family that do stick out in my mind. I think I would like to talk briefly about some of those. The problem is that they are all sort of jumbled up in my mind and I'm not sure which memory belongs to which vacation. The other problem is that these early vacations were before digital camera's and all of our print photo's are in boxes and only partially organized. I'm not up to going through all of them looking for photo's so you'll have to do with the pictures that I can easily lay my hands on. On one of our trips we camped at Zion’s Canyon. We hiked up the narrows a little bit and had a blast. The narrows are a portion of the river where it passes between two very steep cliffs. About half of the time you actually have to walk in the river. It was a hot day and walking in the water was a lot of fun. It was also extremely peaceful waking up in the morning and looking out onto the sun shining on the high cliff walls all around us. From Zions canyon we drove through Bryce Canyon but we didn’t really stop for more than to take a good look at the beautiful vistas. On another trip we stopped at Yellowstone Park and camped there. What a beautiful park. They had built a boardwalk out over a large area that had recently been burned in a forest fire so you could see how the vegetation was all growing back. It was fascinating for me to see the geysers and hot pools. I think my favorite was a place where you could sit on the bank of the lake and catch a fish and then turn around and lower your fish (still on the hook) into a hot pool and cook it. On one of our trips to Canada we stopped in at Rosemary and celebrated Canada day with our friends. It was wonderful for the kids to meet up again with old friends. I remember that Alex even won the greased pig contest. I think the locals were a bit upset to see a California boy catch that pig so quickly. I guess Alex still has a lot of the country blood still running through his veins. Of course there was the trip we all made to say goodbye to dad. What a great time it was getting together with all of my brothers and sisters for the first time in a very long while. When we still lived in Rosemary we always stopped in the interior of BC and camped. One of my favorite memories is stopping in those beautiful forests and taking a deep breath of the pine scented air. We always camped in a little tent trailer that I bought from the Gibbs. One time we coordinated with Lisa's Dad and Carol and met up at Shuswap Lake and camped there. That is when they decided to take Kira home with them for a week and then flew her back home to us. So began a tradition. After that when each of our kids turned six they flew them to Vancouver and kept them for a week. That is a tradition I hope I'm able to do with our grandchildren. Another time we drove down the Pacific coast and camped in the Redwoods. Those are some pretty massive trees. We stopped often and found all the cool things like the tree where you can drive your car through it. We also saw the oldest living tree and the world’s tallest tree. The oldest tree probably would have been the world’s tallest tree if it hadn’t been hit by lighting at some point in its life. We camped in the redwoods and in the morning we got to meet the infamous "Banana Slugs". Talk about gross. Those things seriously are the size of a banana. I remember waking up and seeing a huge shadow of something on the outside of our tent. I was quite curious about what it could be. Imagine a slug literally the size of a banana. Gross. We then drove on down the coast stopping various places. We stopped in this one town that Lisa found in her "book. They had several fancy old style houses and stores. The one place where we didn’t stop was the Hearst Castle. We really do want to get to that place some time. We have many wonderful memories and just talking about it makes me want to load up the tent and hit the road. What a shame that we need to earn a living.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The meteor that recently turned night to day over Utah was the size of a washing machine and was traveling about 300,000 miles per hour. If you could drive that fast then a trip from LA to St George would take about 5 seconds.

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I wonder why they call these things "banana" slugs?




























































I have no idea why Ben is carrying the Brooks bands flag. This is the Rosemary parade.










Kira and her good friend Amy in races.














I miss the fire department.










Lets see if I can get everyone's names straight. Left to right: Boyd Shaw, Lori (holding Zoe), Kelly, Carol, Jim, Alex, Sarah, Brandon, Alycia, Zach, Kira (holding Jordan), Ben, Mike, Lynn, Doug, Andrea, Fred (that's me) and Lisa.