Day 28 – Niagara Falls area

(8/6)We had a wonderful day today – possibly the best of the whole trip.  We all got up at a relaxed pace, ate breakfast, loaded the van and headed about 10 minutes to the Amherst Ward sacrament meeting at 10:00 a.m.  It is a very young ward and we got to hear lots of children’s testimonies.  We wanted to stay for some more spiritual nourishment in second hour, and all enjoyed our lessons and fellowship.

Next, we headed northwest about 30 minutes to our hotel and got there early before check-in.  So, we went and found Tim’s restaurant, Tim Horton’s.  It is a chain with a variety of foods offered, sort of a one-stop shopping  for food of all members of the family.  It was great food and very reasonably priced.  We headed back down Niagara Boulevard and relaxed in the lounge of the hotel until our room was ready.  This Microtel is brand new since May and all rooms were booked, so the maids had lots to do.  We all napped before awaking and heading to the U.S. side of Niagara Falls.

Once there, we found some cheaper street parking than the $20 lots and wandered around looking for reasonable food and souvenirs.  We were disappointed in the lack of options and noticed many businesses have gone belly-up.  Not a good economy.  Solinda suggested we go to the Canadian side. 

 

At first, it looked like a mistake – as the wait was almost 30 minutes and we had to pay a toll.  Once, we got on the Canadian side and made our way left, we saw a packed tourist area for about a mile and slowly made our way down looking at deals.  We all decided to eat dinner in the world famous Skylon tower at night  (Solinda had spoken with an older couple at the Smith farm who mentioned their kids loved it so much years ago that they still speak fondly of it years later).

After purchasing tickets at the bottom, stopping by the washrooms, and checking out the Canadian arcade games, we headed up the elevator.  It was a great experience!  We got a great window table facing the falls.  Sam and Sariah got to sit next to the window and loved watching the falls change color with the spotlights for over an hour.  They also both ate as much food as Tim since this was our first buffet of the trip.  Both of them ranked the experience at the top of the trip with Hershey’s park.

We then went up a level to the overview level and spent a good 30 minutes looking and listening to the view in all directions.  We could see our van parked, got to hear a concert below us and loved the view of the Canadian side at night.  Interestingly, we could see Toronto and all the lights on the northern side of Lake Ontario off in the distance (we are headed there tomorrow). 

We got a few souvenirs on our way out, and hit a gas station for restrooms on our way out.  Interestingly, many families with young  kids were still out wandering the streets at 11:00 at night.  The gas was sold in Canadian dollars per liter and the kids got to talk conversions.  Solinda and Tim noticed that our phones have no messaging or Internet functions in Canada and we will be driving with a map for our Canadian journey.  We were happy with the simple and funny Border Patrol agent who got us into the U.S. in less than 5 minutes.

Day 27 - Pittsford to Williamsville, NY

(8/5)After a so-so night's sleep, Solinda ( who kept getting kicked by Sam and Sariah in the night), Nathan and Sariah went to Dunkin' Donuts and got egg pockets and a dozen donuts for the family.  We walked back and the family devoured them.  We let the boys sleep in and they were ready upon our return.  We ended up leaving the Garden Inn at 10:30 in the rain, gassed up and arrived in Palmyra a little after 11.

Our first stop was where most of the Church sites in Palmyra are located - at the Smith family farm.  We had a wonderful guide from the Phillipines - sister G.... - who challenged us to think about our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and to find our modern Moronis and thank them for leading and guiding us along.

We began with the Smith log home where the angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith and tutored him many times as to what to do with the plates years before he actually received them.  We could feel the beauty and peace of the occasion both upstairs and downstairs and this was a testimony builder for all 5 of us.

Next, we walked up to Alvin's home and other buildings on the farm.  It was neat to see and learn about their life.  I could tell the boys were impressed about the amount of work involved in clearing so many trees and farms off of the land.  Also, we learned several places where Joseph was instructed to hide the gold plates from the angry mobs which ransacked the property many times.  However, the lesson is that the work of God will not be thwarted as long as His  servants remain faithful and steadfast in following His instruction.

We lastly headed off on the hill where the Sacred Grove is located.  It was quite an adventure due to the mud.  We still had our ponchos on and the temperatures were in the 60s - which is winter weather for us 29 Palms folk!  Although it is unknown exactly where Joseph prayed, we all enjoyed the time trying to see where and thinking of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ being there with us.

Next, we headed north to Palmyra to the printing shop of E.B. Grandin.  Although he was not a member of the church, he honored his deal with the Smith brothers and printed 5000 copies of the Book of Mormon.  Although some local residents had asked him to stop printing it, he told them he would honor the deal and it is interesting to note that he never had the establishment ransacked.  Probably as a result that he had many friends and was respected in the community.

We learned all of the details of his life (he only lived to 39 years old) and all the steps in the printing of the Book of Mormon.  Timothy was especially inquisitive and asked more questions than Nathan.  Sister Ericson invited those of us who had not done Moroni's challenge in Moroni 10:4 (Samuel and Sariah) to do so and we will be following up.  This was a very educational and inspirational stop, as well.

By this time, it was 2:30 and we headed back across Main Street to the Pizza Place where Bill Clinton, Glen Beck and more famous people have visited since 1982.  Great food and then we headed south to the Hill Cumorah.

We enjoyed the statue of Christ facing all of the passerbys on State Route 21 and pondered the work there before Tim joined the missionary matching game.  He walked in a circle with his eyes closed around a circular table with 110 different languages of the Book of Mormon.  Solinda then told him to stop and he grabbed a copy of the Icelandic translation of the Book.  He was smiling as he is so intrigued with that part of the world.  We then hiked up and around the hill and saw what a great view to the west and southwest prophet Moroni and prophet Ether had on this very hill.  A very solemn thought - both of them had just seen the destruction of their people and this was the final resting place of their records.

The wind was very strong from the west and we were all quite cold as the wind chill was in the low 50s.  We headed back down the hill, loaded up and drove 2 miles south to the interstate-90 before heading west one hour the Clarion Inn here in Williamsville.  3 hours of laundry(this is our last to pay for) and some shopping finished the special day off.

Day 26 - Harrisburg, PA to Pittsford NY

(8/4)After a good night's sleep, we all got up and on the road about 8:40 so we could be at the Hershey's Chocolate plant for a tour.  We spent about one hour there shopping for the kids.  We also got gifts for Angela Steinbach's kids, Olivia (6) and Gavin (3), along with a birthday gift for Sariah's friend, Vivian.  Sam really loved the tour the most and we all had a good time sitting in the cars for the tour through the factory.  We got to see the history of the plant, built in 1908, and all the steps in the creation of cocoa, which comes from cacao (almost 80% from West Africa) and has vanilla, milk and sugar added.

Tim got some driving action in and took us north to our lunch stop at the Arrowhead Restaurant in Milton, PA.  We really loved the homey atmosphere, cheap prices, artwork, good food and inviting attitude of our elderly waitress.  We gave some recommendations to our friends at the next stop.

Stop #3 was off the beaten path a little bit up at the home of Melvin and Vicky Castleberry, our friend Angela's parents.  Angela is up visiting from Virginia with her kids and we renewed old acquaintances for about an hour.  Nathan enjoyed talking with Vicky and Angela's older brother, Mike.  The kids also played outside the entire time with their new football from Hershey's.  A highlight for all was watching Sam ride a little motorcycle for several minutes and grinning the whole time!

We then headed west on back roads off of the phone grid until we came out of the mountains just north and east of Williamsport, PA.  It is a beautiful area and was a good start to our beautiful drive north up through the tallest Appalachians we have seen on the future pathway of Interstate 99 which is still coming.  The road was great and we made great time in great country with no people, yet full of beauty and wonder.  We could imagine how beautiful it is here in the fall with all the colors mixed together on mountain after mountain.  We enjoyed this and got some heavy rain until our stop in Mansfield, PA for Solinda's promised stop at Sheetz for dollar shakes and smoothies that were incredibly good and cheap and mixed by a machine right before our eyes.  We had to drive through the town and were so impressed to see pictures of the town's military service personnel from various wars posted on the main street all the way out of town.  What town pride!  This was a nice ending to our driving in Pennsylvania, which is our favorite state along with Vermont.  Both have friendly people, rolling hills full of lush vegetation with small towns and hardly any people in them.

The next stop was a slow hundred miles north through the vineyards and hills of the Finger Lakes region.  We dropped onto the shore of Seneca Lake from the south and headed along its eastern shore up to Fayette, New York outside of Waterloo.  Here we visited the Peter Whitmer farm, where many great things happened in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over a brief 18-month period in 1829 and 1830.  We all enjoyed seeing the cabin where the last portion of the Book of Mormon was translated into English and many sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were received from heaven.  The videos showing the faith and miracles received by the Whitmer family where sweet and built our testimonies of the truthfulness of this work!  We are so thankful to be members of our Savior Jesus Christ's inspired work and look forwards to serving him all the days of our lives.

One note that made that stop humorous was the thick and intense smell of manure in the area as nearby farms were spreading it on the fields!  We all thought it was terrible and funny at the same time and got major laughs out of it!

After a vicious thunder storm battered us for half an hour, we made it into Pittsford, NY just south of Rochester for our stay at the beautiful Hilton Garden Inn at 7:30, a longer day than expected.  The kids got to relax while Nathan and Solinda went for a walk to get take-out food and a break from the kids...