Family Vacation 2011. Nauvoo trip Part 2

Since I have SO many pictures (and believe me I could have taken more) I decided to post Nauvoo into 2 posts, after all we were there 2 days so it should be easy right? But first I had to throw this one shot in...ha ha this is what typically could be seen when you looked back anytime we were driving. (nearly 4,000 miles in 10 days really is a lot of driving but it was fun)

As I mentioned here we stayed in Burlington Iowa which is about a 30-40 min drive to Nauvoo. We chose here first of all because hotels are MUCH cheaper here than they are in Nauvoo but we also thought the drive on the way back each night would give us a chance to talk about what we saw and how we felt through the day. Which really was a good decision because this is when we did our family scripture reading and usually read something in D&C that had to do with what we saw that day.
It turned out to be really nice. On the way there the first day we saw this old run down (maybe even abandoned) barn. It was really pretty, I wish the colors in the picture did it justice.
Yea! after 2 long days of driving we finally made it!

One of the first places we toured was the assembly hall. Talk about a cool building! when you walk in on the ground level it was a theater of sorts, (sorry my bad no picture) in this room they would meet for all sorts of community events, conferences, plays and such.

On the next floor up was a room that sometimes would be used for law enforcement and sometimes as a place for people to stay (a bit like a hotel). for display purposes it had many beds with even more quilts and other artifacts from the time period. Here are a few examples.
These beds were both in the same room, and there was more beds in that room as well. this would have slept several families at the same time..
They had quite a few quilts all through out this room showing the popular styles of quilts that were made back then. There are some beautiful quilts.

on the next floor was a large room that was used by the women as they would set up quilts and visit together as they quilted but the main purpose of this room was for fun. They often held dances and other such events in this room.
There was a loft in the top just the right size to fit a small band. This room was so big and open and loud I could only imagine how fun it would be to have a live band playing and be dancing around the room. What fun! (sorry I forgot to take a picture of the loft but one of the kids got one...if I could just figure out who that is in the middle of this picture. Bailee? Alex maybe?)
Next was the bakery, right next door.The oven at the bakery....and I thought my kitchen was small.One of the more hands on places to visit was the Family living center, where they taught us how to make a rope. Everyone helped, except me because I was happy to be taking pictures of the progress.
After threading the hemp into the proper places the worker made assignments. Alex wound the wheel...I don't remember how many times but it was A LOT.Harrisen was anxious for his turnBailee spun the wheel on the other side while Kirsti moves the spacer along to keep it from getting tangled and keep it tight.
Keep going all the way to the end.
Harrisen's turn to turn the big wheel a little more.
once they reach the end you can't just cut it you have to tie the ends off. That was the job for Mike...once they showed him what to do.
he did great.
Once the rope was done they gave it to Harrisen. He is so proud of his rope.

They also had demonstrations on making candles, making yarn, pottery, and other skills the early saints needed to have to survive and build up the community.
Next we made a quick tour of the Browning gun shop before going to see a play by the Young Performing Missionaries. It was a great play and now all my kids want to audition when they are old enough.

When we were done we had a BBQ with some really nice people that my sister hooked us up with that she met on her recent trip to Nauvoo. It was a nice way to end our first day in Nauvoo.