4th of July in Hannibal, Missouri

Hubby and I spent all of last week helping my parents clear out the clutter in their three story house in Hannibal, Missouri.  However, on the 4th we took the day off from working to join with "America's Hometown" in celebrating Independence Day.

 

We began the day with a wonderful small town parade.

 

The local trolley car carried some of the contestants for the Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher look-a-like contest - a big honor in Hannibal!

 

Some of the Tom and Becky's rode on convertibles.

 

You've never heard a marching band like a band of bag pipes.

 

The local businesses had entries too.

 

Some of them were really decked out for the occasion.

 

After the parade we did a little Christmas shopping at the arts and crafts booths set up in the park on the town square.

 

Then we strolled the carnival set up down town near the Mississippi River.

 

Afternoon, found us near the Mark Twain museum where lots of other festivities took place.

 

The contest I wanted to see was the fence painting based on the story of Tom Sawyer and how he tricked the other boys in town into painting the fence for him that he was supposed to paint.  The contest was based on the boys' outfit (including everything in their pockets), speed, and paint coverage of the fences.

 

After the costume judging, the boys lined up across the street, racing to their fence at the "go" signal.

 

Finally, they slapped as much paint on their fence as they could before racing back to the starting/finish line.

 

We ended the day watching a great fireworks display.  Hannibal celebrated Independence Day all week long with more festivities but we had to go back to work.  More on that later!