Missouri 2008 Official Vacation Planner - (Page 19) Facing: Hall of Waters, Excelsior Springs This page: Art Fair and Winefest, downtown Washington Huckleberry Dreams and Viniculture Hannibal, the Mississippi River town north of St. Louis, bills itself as “America’s hometown.” Mark Twain grew up here and set the fictional childhoods of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer in a fictional Hannibal he called St. Petersburg. Every year, thousands of visitors journey to Hannibal with Huckleberry dreams in their heads. Twain sites abound, along with theaters and fun parks. Spooky Mark Twain Cave and the rolling Mark Twain Mississippi Riverboat are favorites. Marceline, the boyhood home of another American cultural icon, Walt Disney, is a handy 90 miles west on Route 36. On many a fall morning, a warming mist lifts from the Missouri River to reveal through the scarlet and gold of a community forest the spires and roofs of beautiful Hermann. Snaking vineyards on the surrounding hills testify to the town’s place in this honored wine region. Hermann’s German-American heritage is preserved in old downtown buildings of European design and at the Deutschheim State Historic Site. Viniculture and history combine with fine restaurants, an active arts community, seductive shops and numerous cozy bed and breakfasts. Festivals fill the calendar year-round. Crowley’s Ridge and Carver’s Monument Kennett, in Missouri’s famous Bootheel, concentrates its welcomes in a walking downtown, from the Dunklin County Museum — a National Historic Register property — to the Dreaming gets you there and some inexpressible quality calls you back. gleaming aquatic center christened in 2005 by Sheryl Crow, a Kennett native and major donor. Antique and collectible shops lure strollers along the way. Cotton fields surround the town, while 25 miles to the north Morris State Park rises high on Crowley’s Ridge to scan the vast Mississippi floodplain. Imagine a long, open railroad freight car, dolled up and stuffed with trees, shrubbery and flowers. It really exists in Neosho and it’s a tip-off to the importance here of all things colorful and www.VisitMO.com 19 GEORGE DENNISTON http://www.VisitMO.com
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