Weekend in Carthage

2 weekends ago, my generous in-laws took us & the Hanleys on an all-expenses-paid weekend trip to Carthage, MO. The only thing about Carthage I'd ever seen advertised was those giant Precious Moments Museum billboards on I-44, so my expectations for the little town were, well, pretty low. I was, however, delightfully surprised.

On Saturday, we had a private tour of the old Phelps Mansion (shown above & below). There were so many interesting details, including the 7 (or 10?) fireplaces that were all unique. Touring a home with two builders also makes for more interesting conversation and inquiries.



After touring the home & grabbing a bite to eat at the Humble Pie & Blazin' Coffee shop (I had chocolate cream pie & cinnamon coffee for lunch), some of us headed downtown for a little antiquing. Below, is the Carthage courthouse. Apparently, it is the most photographed building in Missouri. I'm not really sure how one would determine such a thing, but that's the word on the street.


Sunday morning, we took our time getting up and out. The weather was quite pleasant, so we decided to take a family walk downtown to look at all the old homes (the best thing about Carthage, in my opinion). There were too many to post on here, but I wanted to share my favorite one. I'm pretty sure it's a bed & breakfast too!



There were also a lot of big and beautiful trees downtown, which added to the pleasantness of our walk (except for the fact that their roots sort of tore up the sidewalk, which made it easy to trip a lot when I was trying to take pictures and walk at the same time).