Days 33 & 34 - Allegan to Council Bluffs, IA to North Platte, NE

(8/11 & 8/12) We left Grandpa and Grandma's  after 8 and hit the road hard for a 600-mile day - our longest of the entire trip.  We were cloudy for the first half and did get to see Niles, Michigan up close for the first time.  The kids did an excellent job and we arrived in Council Bluffs before 6 (we gained an hour) without any major delays.

The twelfth began at a relaxed pace.  We let everyone sleep in and ended up leaving at 11 for the Winter Quarters Visitors' Center.  We all enjoyed the tour from a young sister and then watched some videos afterward.  Solinda had a deep realization from the Spirit during the tour and realized that she is so grateful for all of her ancestors being faithful to the call of the Prophet, Brigham Young.  They were asked to sell their land and businesses in Iowa and continue on to Zion in Utah - AND THEY DID!  We did hear twice that those Saints who remained behind were not able to stay strong in the faith and all of them and their descendants left the Church.  So very sad!

By coincidence, Solinda came upon a little card for the Kainesville Tabernacle.  We asked Elder Shupe about it and he mentioned many important events there, so we backtracked east and then south to get to it.  We are so glad we did!  We learned it was built by 200 men in a three-week period out of cottonwood.  We had never heard of it, but so many important things in the history of the Church happened there:  Brigham Young and his counselors were sustained as the first First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve reconvened, and all of the Saints were able to sustain them in a series of large conference meetings.  Doctrine and Covenants 136 was also received there as a guide on how to move west.  We also learned about the pasts of Lyman White, Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery as they struggled during the time of 1847 with  their testimonies.  Oliver also walked into conference here and asked to rejoin the Church before he was asked by Orson Hyde to bear his testimony to the Saints here!  The last cool information we learned is that the Tabernacle was built by the Historical Society of Council Bluffs in the 1990s and was then donated to the Church - a labor of love!

We left at 3:30 and made great time across Nebraska and everyone except Nathan got good nap time in.  We only stopped for about 5 minutes and still made it into North Platte before 7:00 - still on Central Time.  We saw the weather at the rest area and knew we had to beat the storms.  While we ate a wonderful dinner at Perkins, the storm started to hit.  By the time we finished and got in the car, it had started to hail on us!  We quickly found a nearby Sonic and parked for about 10 minutes before getting back.  The rain was so intense, we could only go about 10 miles an hour with the windshield wipers on high.  We enjoyed the exciting experience and learned on the weather channel that flooding would be until 10 pm.  Glad we were already checked in!  There was a long line of cars trying to check in during the chaos.

Day 32 - All day in the Allegan Branch boundaries...

(8/10) Today was a special day with Grandpa Gary and Grandma Linda Abbott.  We all let Solinda and Samuel sleep in until 9, ate a wonderful breakfast cooked by Grandpa, and then headed to all parts of the Branch boundaries where they are full-time missionaries.

Sam and Tim went on the zipline all the way across the Kalamazoo River.  We then ate a nice picnic lunch together and then hit the beat.  Sam and Gary got haircuts in Otsego from a member, then continued to the town of Plainwell and got some ice cream.  We then traveled west to the Country Health Foods, off the beaten path in the trees back in Pullman, at a store run by Seventh-Day Adventists.

A favorite stop by all was at the home of Heintzmans.  Wendy and Curt were fun to talk to.  Our girls hit it off and were instant friends.

We loved picking blueberries together as a family from their orchard.  It was neat to learn about their farm and harvesting.  Sariah went out on the lake in a paddle boat and Tim and Sam took some swings on their rope swing over the water.  It was a full 100-mile day around the branch...

Back at home, we finished the laundry off and had a wonderful night together planning and playing games together.  Scripture time together was special to start and end the day.

Day 31 - Toronto to Allegan, MI

(8/9) A tough morning.  We were all tired, but got up by 8, ate, then headed southwest from Toronto across southern Ontario to Port Huron, Michigan.  Weather was good and the roads were great.  We had a little trouble reading the signs and lost about 15 minutes.  Traffic was great all day once we cleared the outskirts of Toronto.

The trip went well and the real highlight & lowlight was entering the United States again at Port Huron.  The bridge took us one hour to cross.  However, the view straight north over Lake Huron was awesome and was enjoyed by all the entire time.

Tim was a great copilot and guided us into Allegan.  Solinda drove the last 45 minutes and did a great job.  We were excited to get to Grandpa and Grandma's, and Grandma Abbott was outside and happy to see us when we pulled in.

After resting awhile and eating together, we went to see the sights of Allegan.  We went by the Browns, saw all of the churches and various city buildings.  We then stopped by the Church's branch building and ended at the Allegan Waterfront Park along the Kalamazoo River.  We had a wonderful day!

Day 30 - All day in Canada...

(8/8) After  a late night, a late breakfast, a girls' trip to the mall and relaxing in the Woodbine Hotel and Suites, we headed out for an afternoon and evening in downtown Toronto.

Our receptionists at the front desk were very helpful and we headed south and then on Dundham Street to the Kipford Station.  It was interesting because without phone coverage, we used mapquest and the atlas like over a decade ago.  We had no problems, bought our tokens and hopped on the subway from the green line to the yellow line and got off about 20 stops later at Union Station in downtown.

We finally figured out that we needed to walk west to get to the Rogers Centre.  On our way, we noticed a food court right below street level at the base of the Simco Tower.  We ate at 4:00, but enjoyed it so much.  Sariah ate McDonald's, Sam ate cajun food, Tim ate a wrap at Freshii's, Solinda got Japanese at the Wok and Nathan ate Mediterranean cuisine.  Everyone love our food and it was a very relaxing alternative to eating ballpark food across the street.

We then walked down a block and turned south right at the base of the world-famous CN tower - only to find that the Rogers Centre is located immediately adjacent to the west of the tower.  We had a good time waiting right by it and people watching for about an hour.  We sat in a little park in the shade between the ballpark and the tower.

The game-time temperature was perfect all night in the low 70s.  The roof of the Centre was open and we sat in the upper deck of the left field side and got a great view of the CN Tower the entire game.  We enjoyed watching it light up in different moving colors about the last half of the game.

The game had over 40,000 in attendance and was highlighted by two home runs by Josh Donaldson.  The bullpens locked the game down after the fourth inning and  the final score was an exciting 4-2 win for the Blue Jays.  Highlights were Tim catching a ball in batting practice off the bat of Chase Headley in right field, Sariah joining the Kids' Club, and it being Sariah's favorite ballpark.

We rode the Subway back to the hotel and got into bed and asleep by 12:30.

Day 29 - Niagara to Toronto

(8/7)Today was a relaxing day.  We took our time getting up from the late night and headed back to Niagara Falls.  After a family vote, we chose to purchase tickets for something Solinda has been looking forward to with great anticipation:  The Maid of the Mist boat ride, which has been running for about 150 years.  We got blue souvenir ponchos with it and boarded the boat smoothly to the falls.
The boat took us up to the base of both the American Falls and Niagara Falls.  The water is extremely choppy constantly, as there is such a massive volume of water booming over the falls.  The mist is so strong, the sun almost disappears and visibility is very limited.  The kids loved it so much as people on the boat were screaming and exclaiming constantly as waves of mist hit intensely and the boat was rocking from the waves.  The ride was a wonderful 20 minutes and we will never forget the great view of the falls, the zip line and the wonderful cliffs carved by the Hudson River on both sides.

After we got off of the ride, we hiked to the base of the American Falls right by the green and mossy plants - which are constantly nourished by the falls every day of the year.  We rode up the elevators and onto the observation deck.  The whole experience only took an hour and a half.

We then departed the U.S. via the Rainbow Bridge with ease and were into Canada in less than 5 minutes!  We took Queen Elizabeth Way all the way to Toronto.  Although the speed limit was 100 kilometers per hour, Nathan drove 105 to 110 in the slow lane as drivers blasted ahead to groups of other cars with reckless abandon.  We almost saw 3 accidents.

For our food stops, we ate lunch at a stop that had Subway and A & W.  All prices were in Canadian and we had to look up the rate of exchange used by our credit card company.  It is 0.79 US dollars for every 1 Canadian dollar, which makes all prices that much cheaper than they appear.  Solinda mentioned to the family that the server had troubled understanding her.  This is a reminder that all people have an accent and learn that when they travel...

We checked in at 3:30 to our hotel, the Woodbine Hotel and Suites.  This is a very fancy establishment, with older architecture and design.  There is a large banquet hall where a massive Indian wedding is taking place.  The southern Asian population in the area is dominant and every store we have visited, we have noticed the heavy emigrant population from Africa, the Caribbean and India/Pakistan.  Canada has a much more open immigration policy than the US and we see many living the American dream.  It is refreshing and a good experience for our kids to see so many different children of our Heavenly Father living in harmony in our great land.

Dinner was at the Swiss Chalet and Sariah and Samuel amazed us with yet another big appetite meal.  They had ribs and fries and drinks and a side and a dessert, while the other 3 of us chose items we were interested in from the menu.  All of us got stuffed and enjoyed the unique food experience.

It rained on us 3 or 4 times in our travels today, with more expected for tomorrow...