Day 11--Palmyra

We woke to a little drizzle, but attended church in Palmyra with 500 other visitors! We filled the chapel and entire cultural hall!  I have never seen two sacrament tables before, one in the chapel and the other in the back of the cultural hall.  I wonder what this ward looks like in the middle of winter with no visitors?!

We walked around the Palmyra temple, and then The Sacred Grove. 

I love the etching of the sacred grove on the front doors.  Evidently there are lots of stained glass windows inside with the same motif.

The lobby was designed so that special windows of clear glass overlook the Sacred Grove.

I think I need to add a visit back here to attend a session needs to added to my bucket list.

The view from the temple window.

The Sacred Grove was beautiful and peaceful.  It felt just like being in the temple. We all took some time alone to think and pray and then we read the first vision together.  Several people sat on benches with scriptures in hand.  Others just strolled, alone with their thoughts.  The rain started back up, so you could hear it hitting the canopy, but we stayed nice and dry.

After that we took a tour of the Smith family farm. Their original log house where Joseph saw angel Moroni for the first time and then the Frame House where they lived when Joseph returned home with the plates. We saw the original brick fireplace where he hid the gold plates. 

Our last stop was Hill Cumorah where Joseph found the gold plates. We hiked up to a monument and saw the large grass area where the pageant used to be. I'm so bummed that we missed it.  That's one thing that won't get checked off my bucket list!!  Darn!!

As left the Palmyra area, we had another two hour drive to Niagara Falls!! We took a quick peek at the falls before heading to our hotel for the night.

Total steps walked--11,968

Day 10--NYC to Palmyra Road Trip

Hello Palmyra.   After a week and a half relying on public transportation, it was nice to have our own wheels. We rented a minivan and drove 6 hours to Palmyra. 

Once we were out of the city, the drive was beautiful and so green. The highway took us through some sleepy towns and along one of the finger lakes. We stopped at Taughannock Falls which was a short beautiful hike to a 250 foot waterfall.

We stopped at Taughannock Falls which was a short beautiful hike to a 250 foot waterfall.

Then on to a couple of church history sites. We toured the Whitmer farm where Joseph Smith finished translating the Book of Mormon and where the church was first organized.

The next stop was the Grandin Building where they printed the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon (and our tour guide was Martin Harris’ fourth great granddaughter!). It's really cool to see these places come to life, especially because we are studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year.

We stopped by and saw the Erie Canal and then ended the day in Rochester for some really yummy ribs at Dinosaur BBQ.  The flooding was the aftermath of Elsa!!

Total steps walked today--9,841

Day 9--NYC

Today is our last day in New York City!  I'm afraid we saved the biggest for last!

Carson, Emma and Amy got up early to go to Central Perk. I had never watched the TV show "Friends", so I really didn't know anything about it.  Luckily, Elsa had passed, so we had pretty nice weather, for New York City in July!!

The rest of us met up with them at the temple. It was so cool to see the temple in the middle of the city. We couldn’t get to the recommend desk because of the security guard in front!

I spy Angel Moroni!!

Then we spent several hours exploring Central Park and only got through the bottom fourth of it! It's huge!!  I kept looking for the field where Elf helped Santa fix his sleigh, but couldn't find it!!

We did find Tavern on the Green...

and a sand court where the kids played a little VB.

Emma found an ice cream...

And Wyatt found a pretzel.

Also, we found the horse drawn carriages, and some fun sculptures.

Probably the most fun was rowing a boat in the lake.

It's hard to believe that right outside this amazing part is a crazy, noisy city!!

Then on to 5th Avenue to finish our (window) shopping at Tiffany’s, Bloomingdale’s, Dylan’s Candy bar, and Carson’s highlight of the trip—The Nike Store with five floors! 

Goodbye NYC...you wore us out!!

Total steps today--21,725