Happy Mother's Day!💐

 

Happy Mother's Day to my mother-in-law Mary and my two daughter-in-laws Zia and Toni! ❤  I am very lucky to have all 3 in my life.

We left Ottumwa, my birth-town, and headed south towards our next destination.  Our first stop?  Hannibal, MO.  A lot of people know it for it's ties to Mark Twain.  Palmyra, what I call my home town, is only 12 miles north of here.  As with many who live near a touristy place, Pat and I didn't visit a lot of places related to Mark Twain while we lived in Palmyra.  We stayed at  Mark Twain Cave and Campground this trip.  The cave?  Well, it was one of the places we have been to several times.  

We enjoyed visiting with many friends.  A special thanks to my good friend and former neighbor, Debbie, who picked me up, drove us everywhere, and returned me home so Pat would have a car.  Lots of memories shared and new ones made!

It's amazing seeing the number of stores at Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, MO.  Each time I go back they've remodeled a building and added another quilt store(s).   

We tried a new tea room in Hamilton.  We ate a lot of good food this visit.

The Missouri Quilt Museum is located in an old school and is a work in progress.  There's a lot to see with antique sewing machines, thimbles, and a variety of themed quilt rooms.  My second visit.  Debbie's third??

A display of miniature quilts.

Elsie Vredenburg from Tustin, MI, created

 Amish Easter Baskets in 1987.  It was located in the room with Quilts from The Collection of The National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.  This display changes monthly.  

Garden Maze was created in 1998 by Irma Gayle Hatcher of Conway, AR.  It also was on loan from The National Quilt Museum in Paducah.

The world's largest spool of thread.

J. C. Penney's Boyhood Home and Museum is located in his birth place, Hamilton, MO.

Debbie and I doing what we do best, lol.

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Palmyra.

Debbie and Linda.

We did not walk up the 244 steps to the Mark Twain Lighthouse, although I have in the past and Debbie probably has too.  It was placed on Cardiff Hill in 1935 as a memorial to Mark Twain's 100th birthday.  It was leveled by a windstorm in 1960 and rebuilt.  Great views of the Mississippi.

Mural by Ray Harvey depicting Hannibal in the late 1800's.  One of many murals throughout the town.

Statue of Mark Twain along the Mississippi riverfront.

View of the beautiful buildings in Hannibal's downtown.  The Hickory Stick quilt store was on our to-see list.

Where are the Piepers now?  East St. Louis, IL.