Hannibal, Missouri

I love Mark Twain. So does the Hippygeek. So much, in fact, that the Hippygeek has been carrying one of his quotes in his wallet for the past 16 years(literally). That quote became our Mission Statement seen on the homepage. Therefore, our trip would not be complete without a visit to Hannibal, Missouri. The place Mark Twain spent as a child that would give him the inspiration to write about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

The quaint hip little downtown sits at the edge of the Mississippi River and back in the mid 1800’s was the third busiest port in Missouri. Now, it appears to survive on the tourist dollar. We had just missed the big Twain on Main annual celebration by a few days so we were just about the only tourists in town.

We were hoping to read Tom Sawyer to the Dudes before we got there knowing it would give more meaning to the experience but, we only got through Chapter 2. The accents and slang make for challenging reading and we just plain ran out of time. At least we got far enough to introduce the fence incident.

The Mark Twain Museum features an extensive collection of Twain memorabelia and 15 original Norman Rockwell paintings used as illustrations in Twain books. There is an interactive area that was fun for the kids and we downloaded a scavenger hunt list for the Dudes to locate items in the Museum, Twain’s Boyhood Home, The Old Drug store, his father’ Law Office and of course Becky Thatcher’s house. The best part was when I got to teach the Dudes how to DIAL a phone. Really, they had never seen a phone that dials.

We toured all of the historic buildings as part of our museum ticket and the Lil’ Dude even got to take a pass at Tom Sawyer’s fence.

Just outside of downtown there is the Hannibal version of Lover’s Leap which gives a great view of the Mississippi and Downtown.

In the Summer, the town sponsors a free concert on Thursday nights and we just happen to be there on a Thursday. So, we finished up our visit sitting in front of Mark Twains house, listening to music, watching the Mississippi River flow by and imagining Tom Sawyer having his first look at Becky Thatcher across the street.

“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” Ernest Hemingway