Nauvoo, the beautiful

Brandon and I went to Nauvoo for the weekend and had a spectacular time. I was devastated when I realized that I had left my camera at home :( so we stopped on the way and bought a disposable camera, but I'm guessing it will be a much longer process to get the pics posted on the web. I included a picture of the temple that I found online.
We were going down to see the Pageant (closing night), the Nauvoo sights, and to go to the temple. The drive is about 4 and a half hours from Chicago and it was a nice opportunity to get out of the city. We wanted to go "cheap" so we booked a hotel 15 minutes outside of Nauvoo in Fort Madison. We got to "Budget Host" and I couldn't help but laugh and duck my head because it was so ghetto (hey, this is what you get for $50 a night) and when Brandon went to check in (I refused and stayed in the car) there was a slight problem and their system had not recognized our reservation online and they were all full. Thank you for that, but we still didn't have a place to stay, so we drove around Fort Madison to find a hotel. "Santa Fe" had vacancies (wa hoo) but I was sure that they would rip us off since we were looking for a hotel that very night. The owners were the some of the most humble people and in Brandon's words, they were not business-saavy enough to know to charge us more, so we got a night's stay in Fort Madison for $42. Brandon is all about the one-star hotels (he claims that Budget Host was a 2 star online, but there is no way)...me, I'm a little more high maintenance than one star, but it makes for hilarious stories.
The pageant was a great production and the sights were very impressive. It gave me a great appreciation for all the the early Saints and all they did in the early days of the Church. It was a great experience! We also got to attend the Nauvoo Temple - it is so beautiful and very meaningful to think of the Saints and all that they sacrificed. All in all, a great weekend!