On the Road Again
So last weekend we took and impromptu trip to Niagara Falls. We decided about halfway through last week that it would be fun to jump in the car and take the quick trip over. The plan was to drive over Saturday morning, spend the afternoon at the Falls, have a nice dinner and drive home on Sunday morning. We booked a great hotel, it was very pricey but it was literally on top of Niagara Falls. You could hear the water rushing outside the window. We had great weather, which was lucky since an overcast weekend was originally predicted. The first hard lesson we learned was that taxes in Canada are INSANE. We paid anywhere from 8-20+ dollars in taxes every time we bought gas or food, and it was also added to our hotel bill. Couple that with the deterioration of the dollar and WOW, those were some unexpected expenses. If you're planning to visit Canada, be prepared! Last time we went over the American dollar was much stronger and we didn't notice the taxes. Let that be a word of caution to those that believe in universal health care, someone has to pay. But enough politics and more pictures. Because there are so many I put together a slide show for each section of our vacation. Just click to visit each slideshow.
On Sunday morning we decided to head to Palmyra, NY instead of heading home. Palmyra is only about 3 hours from Niagara. We stayed at the Palmyra Inn which is "the hotel the Mormons like" according to a local. We got a good laugh out of that. The hotel is only five minutes from the Palmyra Temple and the Smith farm and about 10 minutes from town. Palmyra itself does actually sport a church on all four corners of its main street and 3-4 more right near downtown. We visited the site of the first publishing of the Book of Mormon. That was very interesting and the church has done an amazing job of restoring the building. We learned a lot about how this little book came to be. There was also a 'gallery' in the building where a few of the most loved LDS paintings hang. I really love seeing that sacred art up close and personal.
My favorite part of our little trip was visiting the farm. The home where the Smith's lived is so very small and they had 3x as many people in it as we do in our little townhouse. I gained a new appreciation of what it means to be crowded. The little house was rebuilt, so its not the "real thing" but you do get an idea of what every day life was like for this hard working family. The Sacred Grove is much closer to this little home then I ever imagined. It's only about 30 yards from the back door to the edge of the trees. I was really thrilled to walk the same steps as Joseph. I tried to imagine what he was thinking about as he made his journey to pray. There is a little stream at the edge of the grove, which I also didn't know, and I could almost see young Joseph jumping across the stream on his way. He was only 14 after all. The grove is very large and very peaceful. The trees don't have leaves or buds right now, but there was one tree that still had a bright burst of orange leaves. I suppose we all have our flights of fancy and in my mind I like to think maybe that's the spot! We spent maybe a half hour walking the path through the grove before heading up to the larger home that Alvin began building before his death. It was to this home that Joseph first brought the plates and this home is 85% original. It was really amazing to see the fireplace where they took up the bricks to hide the plates. There is also a shed where Joseph hid the plates in the hay and that was really cool to see. The Palmyra Temple looks down over the grove, we wish that we had been able to go through a session in the temple but it wasn't to be for this trip. Click here for the Palmyra slideshow.
We planned again to head home after stopping at Hill Cumorah, which is about 2-3 miles from the Smith farm, but decided to go through Pennsylvania and Ohio on the way home. We drove through some 'country' roads in New York, which is really a beautiful state of rolling hills and lovely trees and farms. We stopped in a little town near Buffalo for lunch at a place called Mangia! If you're ever in Aurora, you really should stop, the food was spectacular!
We realized as we approached Cleveland that we were passing right by Kirtland, OH and decided to stop for one more night and visit Kirtland before heading home. Fortunately Eric had a few vacation days to use up before the vacation calendar at his work resets in June. We stayed in a really seedy Travelodge near Kirtland, being short on funds limits your choices! But Kirtland has a really nice visitor's center where we spent about 2 hours on Tuesday morning. The Kirtland Temple is still owned by the Community of Christ (former RLDS), which was disappointing, and we didn't go in because they charge for the tour. We did visit the Newell K Whitney store and home and a reconstructed lumber mill. The store was really a highlight and upstairs we got to sit in the School of the Prophets. We also got to see Joseph and Emma's living quarters in the store which is where they lived for a while when the first came to Kirtland. The highlight was definitely the School of the Prophets. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died while we were in the store and so I only have about half the pictures to post. The other half are on my cell phone and I don't know how to upload those yet. When I figure it out I will post the other pictures which include the mill, temple and NKW home from the outside. Kirtland slideshow ahoy!
We got home late on Tuesday, my happy 31st, tired and broke (this happens when 2 day vacation turns into 4!) but it was truly one of the best vacations we have been on - even when you include the knock down yelling match I had with Eric's dad over driving in low gear while we drove through New York...but that's another story!
Mom and Dad, if you have trouble with the pics let me know and I'll burn a CD for you!
On Sunday morning we decided to head to Palmyra, NY instead of heading home. Palmyra is only about 3 hours from Niagara. We stayed at the Palmyra Inn which is "the hotel the Mormons like" according to a local. We got a good laugh out of that. The hotel is only five minutes from the Palmyra Temple and the Smith farm and about 10 minutes from town. Palmyra itself does actually sport a church on all four corners of its main street and 3-4 more right near downtown. We visited the site of the first publishing of the Book of Mormon. That was very interesting and the church has done an amazing job of restoring the building. We learned a lot about how this little book came to be. There was also a 'gallery' in the building where a few of the most loved LDS paintings hang. I really love seeing that sacred art up close and personal.
My favorite part of our little trip was visiting the farm. The home where the Smith's lived is so very small and they had 3x as many people in it as we do in our little townhouse. I gained a new appreciation of what it means to be crowded. The little house was rebuilt, so its not the "real thing" but you do get an idea of what every day life was like for this hard working family. The Sacred Grove is much closer to this little home then I ever imagined. It's only about 30 yards from the back door to the edge of the trees. I was really thrilled to walk the same steps as Joseph. I tried to imagine what he was thinking about as he made his journey to pray. There is a little stream at the edge of the grove, which I also didn't know, and I could almost see young Joseph jumping across the stream on his way. He was only 14 after all. The grove is very large and very peaceful. The trees don't have leaves or buds right now, but there was one tree that still had a bright burst of orange leaves. I suppose we all have our flights of fancy and in my mind I like to think maybe that's the spot! We spent maybe a half hour walking the path through the grove before heading up to the larger home that Alvin began building before his death. It was to this home that Joseph first brought the plates and this home is 85% original. It was really amazing to see the fireplace where they took up the bricks to hide the plates. There is also a shed where Joseph hid the plates in the hay and that was really cool to see. The Palmyra Temple looks down over the grove, we wish that we had been able to go through a session in the temple but it wasn't to be for this trip. Click here for the Palmyra slideshow.
We planned again to head home after stopping at Hill Cumorah, which is about 2-3 miles from the Smith farm, but decided to go through Pennsylvania and Ohio on the way home. We drove through some 'country' roads in New York, which is really a beautiful state of rolling hills and lovely trees and farms. We stopped in a little town near Buffalo for lunch at a place called Mangia! If you're ever in Aurora, you really should stop, the food was spectacular!
We realized as we approached Cleveland that we were passing right by Kirtland, OH and decided to stop for one more night and visit Kirtland before heading home. Fortunately Eric had a few vacation days to use up before the vacation calendar at his work resets in June. We stayed in a really seedy Travelodge near Kirtland, being short on funds limits your choices! But Kirtland has a really nice visitor's center where we spent about 2 hours on Tuesday morning. The Kirtland Temple is still owned by the Community of Christ (former RLDS), which was disappointing, and we didn't go in because they charge for the tour. We did visit the Newell K Whitney store and home and a reconstructed lumber mill. The store was really a highlight and upstairs we got to sit in the School of the Prophets. We also got to see Joseph and Emma's living quarters in the store which is where they lived for a while when the first came to Kirtland. The highlight was definitely the School of the Prophets. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died while we were in the store and so I only have about half the pictures to post. The other half are on my cell phone and I don't know how to upload those yet. When I figure it out I will post the other pictures which include the mill, temple and NKW home from the outside. Kirtland slideshow ahoy!
We got home late on Tuesday, my happy 31st, tired and broke (this happens when 2 day vacation turns into 4!) but it was truly one of the best vacations we have been on - even when you include the knock down yelling match I had with Eric's dad over driving in low gear while we drove through New York...but that's another story!
Mom and Dad, if you have trouble with the pics let me know and I'll burn a CD for you!
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Jamie