Trip to Nauvoo and Pageant
Today we decided to take a trip to Nauvoo to visit the temple and to attend the Nauvoo pageant. The weather was threatening when we got up but decided to take a leap of faith and go anyway. We left home at 5:30am and drove down. It rained like crazy for most of the trip down and we were a little concerned. With the rain as heavy as it was (we later found out that many of the tollways were closed in the Chicago area due to flooding), Sarah didn’t really feel like driving! 🙂
Angela and I attended a temple session at 10am and then met the girls and Rained like crazy the entire time. Angela and I did 10am session at temple and then met the kids outside for a picnic. It hadn’t rained too hard there so things were pretty dry. After eating, Angela and the kids went and saw “Just Plain Anna Amanda” (a fun live production for the kids) while I went and changed out of my suit and saved seats for the pageant. I just got back to the van when it started pouring huge raindrops! Whew! 🙂
After that, we didn’t feel like being out in the bad weather, so we checked into hotel, and went swimming. We had a fun time, except the pool had a huge amound of chlorine in it. It felt like you were breathing bleach! 😐 Ben is like a fish out of water and we had to watch him close becuase he would just run and jump in anywhere, even if you weren’t there to catch him. Once he jumped and we barely saw him. He was underwater for about 3 seconds but came up laughing! Yikes!
After we dried off and our eyes stopped hurting from the chlorine, we for quick dinner in Fort Madison before the pageant. Sarah, Kirstyn, and the boys were starving and wanted McDonalds, so we stopped there. We then kept driving and looking for a local place for myself, Angela, and Brittany. Our patience paid off and we found the BEST place! It’s called the Fort and famous for the original Wallyburger. It was a real hole-in-the-wall, but we decided to try it out. We were a little nervous going in there (corner, glass windows all around, 12 barstools, and 5 tables), but our opinion of the place changed quickly.
We went in and Angela asked the patrons if the food was any good. They had glowing recommendations and we started talking about where we were from, etc. It turned out that they are a cash only establishment, and we didn’t know if we had enough cash. Immediately, all of the people there said they’d pitch in to cover what we didn’t have! 🙂 Can you believe that? It gets better, however… We did find enough cash, but not enough for a tip and she said that she didn’t mind, just as long as we came back. She even was ready to throw in a complementary order of fries! 🙂
We ordered 2 Wallyburgers and fries and while we waited, they offered us a sample of their pulled pulled pork and that was outstanding too! We watched as they made the Wallyburgers and it looked GOOD! The Wallyburger is a full pound of meat! The patty is huge and after the cook put it on the grill, he covered it with a pan lid to keep in the juices! He then covered it with cheese, onions and mushrooms. YUM!
Angela and Brittany split one and I had one by myself. I could only eat about half! 🙂 We had some great conversations with the folks there and as we got ready to go, the guy sitting next to me (Robert) bought us 3 pieces of pie to go (1 of each)… pumpkin, strawberry-rhubarb, and cherry! We couldn’t believe it! We got his name and address and will send him something nice from Chicago. 🙂
There’s not a lot of places around like that anymore! We felt bad becuase we went in there to get food-to-go and ended up sitting down and eating, while the rest of the kids were with Sarah in the van! 🙂 Sarah wasn’t too happy, but we sure felt full and had a wonderful experience! We’re DEFINTELY going back there again!
It was raining by the time we got back to Nauvoo and were sopping wet by the time the pageant started, but it let up a little and there was no thunder and lightning in the immediate area, so the pageant went on as planned. It was wonderful, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! The mosquitoes enjoyed eating us too!
About mid-way through the pageant, the rain stopped and things started drying out (including us)! We felt the spirit, even though we were soaked. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were wet and dead tired, but were very happy!
We’ll all sleep well tonight! 🙂
