Day 7: Saturday

After checking out of the resort, we had a quick breakfast buffet lunch.

We headed on the road to Nauvoo, IL. We took some back highways up to Nauvoo.. it was quite the beautiful drive. We stopped at a rest station on Highway 66.


Andy filled up at a gas station and surprised me with a single rose.. today is our one week anniversary. What a guy, right? ☺

After checking out the beautiful countryside, with tall navy silos dotting the landscape, and quaint Victorian farmhouses and green rolling hills, we finally made it to Nauvoo. Mind you, we are Utahns.. our idea of a big river is the Colorado. The Mississippi makes the Colorado look like a sad little creek. It was massive!!

We had our VZ Navigator tuned to Nauvoo, so we thought it would be a good idea to turn off into a small park and try to locate the Ellis Sanders home.. the B&B we were staying for the night. We put in the coordinates, and it said “you have reached your destination.” We were SURE that we hadn’t, so we drove around a bit, and sure enough, right where we pulled off was in fact the Ellis Sanders home.

For some reason they didn’t keep our reservation. They said they didn’t hear from us and thus canceled our reservations. Thankfully the log cabins where we had reservations the next day could extend our stay another night.

Let me tell you the Nauvoo cabins is the place to stay!! It really adds to the pioneer experience. There is small little bathroom with a old-time tub, and bunk beds and a larger bed. All the cabins come with their own history.

The family that stayed in ours was the Van Vleet family who lived out in Wyoming. We read their story together, and saw the family pictures on the wall.

We both decided to have a pioneer night. No internet (even though we did have access), and no tv. Just the fridge and microwave because let’s face it.. Andy has to keep his insulin cold and we didn’t have a stove.

We had dinner at the Nauvoo hotel. Man it was the best buffet ever.. they had steak, yams, green bean casserole and cherry cobbler.

After that we went to go see the Nauvoo Temple. The feeling of overcoming joy and happiness that you get at the temple is overwhelming. It’s gorgeous, and by far my most favorite temple. Andy explained the significance to the symbology of the many different symbols such as the five pointed stars and the sunbeams.

We went into town and found an old-time store. We bought games like hoops and fox & geese and played those games back at the cabin. It was an incredible bonding experience!!