Briscoe Reunion-Day 2-Pt 1

In the morning we all woke and and did breakfast, World Cup Soccer for those so inclined, and of course the favorite pasttime of those Briscoes, 'intellectual conversation' :-P, and fitting in a nap for ellie (isn't she so cute??) before we hit all the sites.




My mother's parents, Gma & Gpa Briscoe, served a mission in Nauvoo about 10 years ago. It's kind of neat that while they served there they lived in the Gheen Home, which is the brick home that you first see when coming down the hill from the temple and right before you turn right to go to the visitor's center. Well, my Gma put together a list, a sort of "treasure hunt" of places we were supposed to go and see while we were there. So today was the sightseeing day. Everyone picked up their lists and took off for the visitor's center to get a map. I was glad we were familiar enough with Nauvoo that we could say, "let's skip the Bakery and make sure we get the Trail of Hope" or "let's skip the kids' games and head for Brigham Young's home". There was enough stuff on the list to fill two whole days of sightseeing . . .

First stop was the (1) candlemaking, because that is one of the things that Grandma did while she was serving here. Then we did get suckered into going to the (2) bakery, but the lady was nice and took a family picture in front of the fireplace there. Next we were off to (3) John Taylor's home and (4-6) the Jonathan Browning home. We ran into Gma & Gpa at (7) Brigham Young's home. The printing shop was closed while we were there, but we made it to the (8) post office, where it looks like James is quite crestfallen that there is no mail for him there.










On to the (9-11) Trail of Hope, where Darik points out a typo on the sign and pushes Ellie down the track for me. This was when Nauvoo really started to sink in. We could see the temple back over the trees just like the Saints did when they were being kicked out. I think my whole family felt the Spirit there. It was a great experience. We still found a way to laugh, though. Mike's nickname is "Meeks." And wouldn't you know it, but that great pioneer Priddy Meeks had his own plaque. We couldn't help but take this shot. The (12-13) Pioneer Memorial was neat, it had the names of all the known Saints who died on the trek westward. Ezra H. Allen is one of my ancestors. My dad was funny, he had the video camera and on the Trail of Hope he stopped at each one long enough to have someone read what it says . . . he was way behind us by the time we got to (14) The Mississippi. That's why he was all alone getting this shot by the statues (15). We snapped a few more shots (16-18) and made our way back to the house for lunch.