Eastern Escapades: Day 4--Watkins Glen

On the fourth day we went to the Sacred Grove one more time before we drove away from Palmyra. It was even prettier the second time. There are benches everywhere where a person could sit and contemplate, and we took advantage of them. It is just beautiful.

We also wandered the grounds around the Palmyra Temple (maybe one block away from the Sacred Grove) for a few minutes.

Then we hit the road again, heading west. We decided to spend a few hours in the Waterloo Outlet Mall (right near where the Amish sell their fireplaces and gazebos that are made by hand). I found so many clothes for my mission! It was a very successful trip, and I even had room for them in my suitcase (which was a carry-on).
Meanwhile, dad drove off by himself to go see a lock on the Erie Canal. I think that was his favorite part of the trip. To each their own. He is a water guy after all.

One of the many cute houses.

Then back on the road toward Kirtland. By this point we knew we wouldn't make it their before nightfall, so we called ahead to a hotel along the way in Salamanca. This made it so we had enough time to take the scenic route. We ate at a country diner, which was fun. Mom got a chicken wrap, but it was cold and pretty bland (she swears they just boiled chicken and put it in there). As her third yucky chicken experience on the trip, she wasn't very patient with it. She asked the waitress if she could microwave it for her to heat it up. We heard the chef grumbling in the back, with the waitress telling him to shush. It was pretty funny. Mom had offended the cook. We all got a good giggle out of it. I felt like we were definite (snooty) outsiders.
And back on the road. I love upstate New York soooo much! It is so beautiful! There are rolling hills covered in forests for hours and hours. They are filled with big, healthy trees of kinds that don't grow in Utah. The weather was perfect for us. I also love the people. Everyone was talked to was very friendly (perhaps not the cook, but we didn't talk to him in person). They are all kind, safe drivers (except the truck drivers--scary!). Most of them dress modestly out of habit and not because they are members, and when we walked past they would smile and say hello. I guess we didn't go to any big cities, but I just thought everyone was so nice.
An interesting observation Rachel made is that everyone out there had pretty nice cars. Not flashy ones, but we rarely saw a junker like we do in Utah all the time. Interesting.
Dad says that I can't live there because it is too far away from Utah, but I want to at least visit there again.
Our waitress at the diner told us of this gorge we needed to go to on our scenic route. It fed into one of the finger lakes (which are beautiful on their own. I wouldn't mind honeymooning there).
The gorge was in a place called Watkins Glen. They bragged of 19 waterfalls in the first mile. The gorge was lovely. It seemed to be the east coast version of a canyon. There are stairs built along the whole thing, so we could hike through it with ease (plus a bit of huffing).
The gorge is made of layers of solid gray rock (not like our red sandstone) worn through by the water. There were waterfalls every hundred feet or less. There was plant life everywhere--moss on the walls, trees above, and some bushes and vines clinging to the wall. It was humid and cool, and the light that trickled down from above was tinted green. We saw several frogs hopping along.

The beginning of Watkins Glen Gorge.

Behind a waterfall.

Sooo pretty.

It really was glowing green.

Then we kept driving through lovely wooded hills with the occasion lake or river for the rest of the day. Salamanca was less pretty, and had a huge casino. It was still nice to crash once again (after catching up in my journal, of course.)

Eastern Escapades: Day 3--Palmyra

On the third day of Christmas... I mean of our trip... we went to see all of the sites in Palmyra. It is the cutest little town ever! I think they must have a law there that everyone has to have cute houses because everyone does! They understand that that the garage should not be the focal point of front of your house. But that is a rant for another day.
First we went to the visitor's center at the Smith farm and the Sacred grove. This was the first time I saw sister missionaries on this trip, and it was interesting. I paid close attention to all of them on the trip. I'll comment more on that later.
I was also still pretty sick, but improving.
It was neat to be where everything happened. The Sacred Grove is beautiful. I always thought when I saw the restoration movie that the grove couldn't actually look like that. I thought there would be more weeds and underbrush and rotting logs and ugly trees. But it actually looks just like the movie. There are weeds and underbrush and rotting logs, but even they are pretty. The trees are tall, with most of their thin branches at the top with all of their leaves, so everything glows green. The forest feels reverent with the beautiful sounds of nature (birds, crickets, little clicky bugs). We loved it. There were so many paths that we could have wandered around there for hours.

The Smith home

In Joseph's room where Angel Moroni appeared.

The second Smith home where Joseph Smith Sr. hoped to retire.

The path leading to the Sacred Grove.

My parents being cute.

My parents being even more cute in front of the Palmyra Temple.

 Then we went to Hill Commorah. One of the sister missionaries there was my FHE daughter a few years ago! Crazy! It was also beautiful.

The Hill Cummorah Visitor's Center

The monument at the top of Hill Cummorah.

On our way down dad showed us an indent in the ground. What if the plates were buried here?! Just kidding. :)

Next we headed to downtown Palmyra where the Book of Mormon was printed. First, we got to drive down the street where the four churches still stand on opposite corners from each other, standing as a memorial to the Second Great Awakening and its impact on the "Burned Over District" in New York--the place where Joseph Smith started asking questions. None of the churches are small either, even though originally only the Presbyterians had a building. The rest used to be tents. Now they are all beautiful buildings.
The sister missionary in the visitor's center around the print shop was my favorite. She was enthusiastic, sweet, and sincere. I hope to be like her.

 We used the kitchenette in our hotel room to heat up leftover pizza, then headed to Fayette. We got to see the David Whitmer farm where the church was founded in 1830. What a cool place! The church is still standing, still growing, and still true. I loved it.

The David Whitmer home.

The church was organized in front of this fireplace (or one that stood here).

  

A funny failed family picture in front of the Visitor's Center there.

This sign is near the Whitmer farm. We thought it was pretty great.

That night mom, dad, and I did an endowment session in the Palmyra Temple. It is so small! It was very beautiful, though. All of the windows in the entire building were stained glass pictures of the Sacred Grove. The celestial room has an amazing chandelier, and the main window has a larger tree that clearly is the tree of life. It was pretty late and dark when we finished, so all of the windows glowed beautifully from the inside.

Eastern Escapades: Day 2--Niagara

After getting ready and eating our free breakfast we hit the road. We had decided to start in Palmyra and end in Kirtland on this trip, hitting the sites chronologically. We started in Ohio, drove along Lake Erie through Pennsylvania, and ended in New York. We ate at a local burger trailer along the way (again, mom didn't like her chicken) and the weather was absolutely perfect. I love New York's landscape!
Next we stopped to see Niagara Falls. I see why they are such a big deal--it's because they really are all that. They are amazing!!
First as we were driving up we could see the spray. The Niagara River itself is pretty big, so the amount of spray was impressive. Then we parked and walked through a park that overlooked the falls. It looked even more awesome. There is so much water moving over the edge every second, it is amazing.

In the Park.

So much water!

Then we decided to pay some money to go on the observation deck that hangs out over the river downstream of the falls, and then to ride the boat "The Maid of the Mist", which gives a better view from the river down below.
The observation deck was pretty cool. It was very windy. What ginormous falls! They kinda blew my mind.

It was windy!

On the Observation Deck.

Then we went down for our boat ride. They gave us complimentary blue ponchos--one size fits all--which we thought was kind of them (little did we know), so the boat looked like it was covered in blue smurfs or something. Accross the river we could see Canadians with the same ponchos. They looked silly, so I suppose we did, too. Having swarms of blue people looks pretty rediculous.

Blue Ponchos

 There were all sorts of people there. We saw Jewish families, Indian (from India) families, Chinese families, and what looked like Nepalese families. It was cool.
We got on the boat and claimed a spot on the front railing. The falls look way more impressive from below. It was still very, very windy, and the spray made us glad for the ponchos.
There are two parts to the falls. The U.S. owns one (the American Falls), and Canada owns the other (the Horseshoe Falls). I think the Canadians got the better end of the deal.
The boat started on the American side under the observation deck, went along the American Falls, and paddled right up into the middle of the Horseshoe falls. It was amazing! There was waterfall on three sides of the boat, entirely filling my vision! It felt like it was raining really hard. There was so much water flowing and boiling and falling and spraying!! It looked like we were in a boiling pot. It was clear the boat was doing all it could to just tread water and not head downstream. It was awe inspiring. I've never said "WOW!" so many times in my life not sarcastically. Totally worth the money.

The American Falls

Getting Wet

The Maid of the Mist

Sadly, we were getting too wet to take pictures of the Horseshoe Falls up close.

After we got off the boat we were a little damp and just thrilled that we had decided to do the boat ride. There is a set of stairs that goes right along side of the American Falls, so we decided to hike up them to get a closer look. We could tell they were getting a little wet from the spray, but it looked fun anyway. Silly, silly us. We hiked the stairs, carefully avoiding puddles so that our shoes wouldn't get wet and headed closer to the falls. The closer we got to the top, the more spray there was. By the time we got to the top we were being pounded by a thunderous deluge. It was absolutely nuts. I couldn't see anything unless I was looking down with my hood on. It was more forceful than any rain I've been in! Our shoes were as wet as if we had stood in a lake. As we were getting pounded, we just laughed and laughed. We laughed the whole way down, nearly sightless, and very soaked. I felt battered. The ponchos had helped (thank goodness for the ponchos!), but as we walked my shoes squelched out puddles of water. It was hilarious. I highly recommend it next time you go. :)

The Stairs of Doom

People getting pounded

My very wet shoes.

Dad has a picture like this of when he and Willie came here in 2005--this is in memory of Willie, who is in Arkansas on his mission right now, so he couldn't come.

 Then we drove to Palmyra. We checked in our hotel, the Palmyra Inn, which is adorable, but maybe not worth the price. Rachel and I had separate twin beds, and she was pretty happy about because of my cold. We ate some local pizza, and crashed really hard again that night.

Eastern Escapades: Day 1--Flying

This last week was amazing. My mom, my dad, my sister Rachel, and I went on a trip to the East to see where our church was restored. It was such a wonderful trip! So many great things happened that I am going to go through it day by day and make my web log--"blog"--a travel log. I'm certain that the pictures will be the best part. Enjoy!


The first day was mostly just traveling. Our flight left from Salt Lake City at 12:45 and landed in Dallas/Fort Worth where we had a three hour layover. From there we flew at 8:00 pm local time to Cleveland, Ohio and arrived at 11:30 their time, where we rented a car and drove to our hotel. Admittedly, not a very exciting day.
The fun part of the day was the excitement of knowing we were headed toward a week of adventure. As a family we have never flown anywhere, let alone on vacation. I had flown before to Phoenix to take care of my cousins, but that was five years ago. This was Rachel's first time flying ever. It was really fun to sit next to her and share in her excitement of the new experience. I think she made a few people around us chuckle with her comments.
The not fun part of the day was that I had a pretty bad cold. In fact, the very worst part of my cold landed on Monday. Now I know why it isn't fun to travel when sick--it is miserable. I was really congested and had a faucet for a nose. The worst part was the descent on our first flight. The change in pressure nearly killed me. A normal person can equalize fairly quickly, but a person whose sinuses are filled with junk can't. I felt like my face was a brick that might burst from under the skin any minute. My tear ducts felt like needles poking my eyes. I cried, partially from pain, but partially to relieve pressure. I was exhausted and glad to be on solid ground when we landed. You better believe that I used part of our layover to take a nap.

We ate Mexican in the Dallas airport. Mom didn't really like her chicken.

Dad did like his Tamales, though.

We found the comfiest chairs possible. This is after my nap=happier April.

Oh, another cool part of the day was on our second flight. I had the center seat again, and we were all separated, but the flight made up for it--we were flying at night in a lightning storm. It sounds scary, but it wasn't. We couldn't hear it, so it just lit up the clouds silently. Most often it was behind clouds, so entire banks of clouds would flash and glow. Now and then it would fork in front of the clouds. It was awesome. It flashed every few seconds, and we had  a good show for at least a half an hour.
That night we all just crashed in our hotel.

The Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.