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No theme but plenty of fun on this year's display of plastic animals. The octopus was in a holiday mood. I experimented with a wavy "cracked ice" streamer this time. It was well-received but a pain in the butt to put up. The highlight for me was a real stink bug trying to mate with a giant plastic stink bug. Next year I definitely need to return to a thematic presentation.
Scroll through photos of previous holiday displays.
For the second time this month daffodils are blooming in Morningside Park. With temperatures forecast to be in the 50s for at least a couple days this week there will undoubtedly be more. I wonder if any will around to bloom at the more traditional time of year?
After a refreshing Mark Twain Pepsi, and an effervescent root beer at the Mark Twain Dinette, it was time to head out of Hannibal. We could have taken the train, there is a small station named after Twain's brother, Lionel, but we had a rental car.
To get to Illinois you drive on Mark Twain Avenue and cross the river on the Mark Twain Bridge. Had I taken a photo looking south you would have seen the Riverboat Mark Twain and the Mark Twain Caves beyond. Instead I was looking forward to the Land of Lincoln.
Too much going on this evening so, here, take a look at Grand Central Terminal.
I'm not in a writing mood tonight so here's dinner. Pasta with broccoli raab, sausage (from Harlem Shambles) and garlic. Not pictured: Otter Creek Stovepipe Porter.
There was plenty of frog jumping and fence painting activities going on in downtown Hannibal during Tom Sawyer Days.
I climbed these stairs today on my way to get the Sunday paper. The temperature was 20 degrees when I left my apartment.
While paying for the paper I heard someone say "I don't want to walk anymore. I'm cold and I don't want to walk anymore." I looked up to see a well-dressed couple, presumably Columbia students on their way to church. "Well-dressed" is probably the wrong descriptor. The woman was wearing dressy heels to get around in the snow and slush. She was also wearing a short dress. No jacket, no sweater, no gloves, not even a scarf. I did not know what to make of that.
What would a trip to Hannibal, Missouri be without a riverboat cruise?
Landlocked!
Oh, wait, that was a rhetorical question not a dumb joke. We took an hour-long cruise on the riverboat Mark Twain. First up to the Mark Twain Bridge, then down along the middle of the river to approximately where the Mark Twain cave (yes, everything in Hannibal is named after Twain) is located, finally returning up along the eastern shore.
There was entertainment and informative tour-guiding along the way but mostly I remember it being oppressively humid and 98 degrees outside.
The biggest snowstorm of winter hit town last night. I could hardly believe my eyes when walking through Morningside Park today. The snow must be 8-10 feet high on the retaining wall! Elsewhere the drifts were the deepest I've seen in quite some time. Good thing I was wearing boots!
By Franco the Great at Jacob Restaurant on Lenox Ave.
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