Hi Robert.  Yes, I highly recommend that you visit Hannibal during the
December holiday.  I visited Hannibal last year between Christmas and New
Year's, and the good thing about it was that everything was open, but
there weren't any crowds.  I found the Boyhood Home and Museum quite
exciting.  I warn you in advance that while the Becky Thatcher Bookstore
does take credit cards, the Museum does not.  You might want to have
enough cash on hand in case you want to pick up anything from the Museum,
since I think they had a few items that Becky Thatcher didn't carry, e.g.,
calendars, coffee mugs, T-shirts.  It's hard to draw the line at what's
tacky and what's not (when you're caught up in the Twainian mood of the
place), but what the hell, you don't go to Hannibal every day.

The Mark Twain Cave (which I think was about 2 miles south of Hannibal)
was also fun.  I found that one day in Hannibal (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) was
adequate, since I was with family members who don't necessarily have the
same degree of enthusiasm for Twain as I do.  If your significant other is
as fond of MT as you, then two days in Hannibal will probably be plenty.

Sorry I can't provide details about the post-flood condition of the
Museum; I hope somebody else can.

Finally, there are a lot of good suggestions about what to do in Hannibal
already in the MT Forum archives.  I've sent the following search routine
to LISTSERV, and I'll forward the output directly to you whenever it
arrives in my mailbox.  It may take a while, so you may want to send this
subroutine to LISTSERV independently.

//   JOB    Echo=No
Database Search  DD=Rules
//Rules DD   *
search hannibal in twain-l
print all
/*

Regards,

Taylor Roberts
University of British Columbia