The RundownLow point: The 80-year-old Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, moved into a dazzling new home on the banks of the Mississippi in 2006. We peer inside the metal-and-fritted-glass building but with our tight budget we can't afford to go in. Instead we walk across to the river, where we cool off with fresh lemonade at the farmers' market.
High point of the day: In the car we are listening to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Book on Tape, and when we visit Hannibal, Mo., a small port town 120 miles north of St. Louis, we step inside the home where the great American author grew up. At the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, we learn that Twain moved here when he was 4-years-old. His childhood and the town and the river it sits on served as inspiration for both Huck Finn and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I explain to my 6-year-old daughter, who loves listening to the story, that Tom Sawyer is based on Mark Twain who was really Samuel Clemens and the character of Huck is based on Twain's boyhood friend Tom Blankenship who was one of eight children in a desperately poor family headed by the town drunk. She finds this all confusing and gets frustrated. I decide to let her discover the museum on her own and she enjoys climbing around a re-creation of Huck's raft and his house and watching a Tom Sawyer movie.
Quote of the day: "He was lucky to have such a big house," says my daughter as she's touring through Twain's two-story boyhood home. Only a San Francisco girl who lives in a condo would say this. Twain's boyhood home is quite humble and small.
Sound bite of the day: James Miller was born and raised in Hannibal and at 75 years old he still lives here. I meet him at the Mark Twain Museum, where he dropped in to say hello to his daughter who works at the admission desk.
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