Hannibal, MO

Sometime last year, we were zipping through Missouri and made a pit stop in Hannibal, hometown of Mr. Mark Twain. There are so many things to see and do there; it's really a magical little town for anyone with an appreciation for American literature. We wandered through his boyhood home, the Becky Thatcher house, the Huckleberry Finn house, the J.M. Clemens Justice of the Peace office, and the Museum Gallery and Interpretive Center, which really only scratched the surface.

We also bought  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn on CD to listen to on the road, as well as a bag of huckleberry coffee. The coffee was dreadful; please avoid it at all costs should you ever visit yourself. 

Anyway, fast forward to the beginning of this month, when we were sent to Hannibal to test at General Mills and were there for a week and a half. I assumed we would explore some of the places we missed the first time around - the Mark Twain cave complex or the Mark Twain Riverboat - but no. Our hotel was in the heart of downtown, which meant we could roll out the door and walk here, there, and everywhere. This is rarely ever the case, and we took full advantage of it. 

The Tom and Huck Statue is found at the foot of Cardiff Hill (a favorite play area of Tom, Huck and co in the books) with the boys looking out over Main Street. It was erected in 1926 and is one of the earliest known statues honoring fictional characters. 

Next to the statue is a set of stairs that leads up and up and up. I climbed it a few times during our stay, but the first was especially fun because I didn't know where I was going :)

There are 244 steps altogether from the bottom to the top, which is good for the lungs and... the bottom, ha! The payoff for so much climbing is the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse. The original lighthouse was built in 1935 on his 100th birthday, but was leveled in 1960 by a windstorm and then rebuilt in 1963.

On one of my trips up, I met a sweet kitty; he very politely ignored my invitation to come along to the top :) 

Once past the lighthouse, there are neighborhoods to walk through and beautiful views of the Mississippi. That's the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge in the distance; you see that there is a very pervasive theme in Hannibal :)