Niagara Day!

Today we arrived at Niagara at about 9:30.  We had a good drive here and crossed the border into Canada.  We went to our hotel and dropped off our luggage and then went back down and parked.
Here are some shots of the day!

 Crossing into Canada.

We are getting close now!

Border crossing.

A sign for Jake.

 Tyson gets a good view of the Falls.

 Maid of the Mist at American Falls.

 How would you like a barrel ride?

Self Portrait.

Sun bathing birdies.

 Maid of the Mist restaurant. 

Yes, they were here

 Canada!

 A nice view of the Falls

 Kiss anyone?

White water!

Bus time.  We rode the bus alot.  There is no place to park in Niagara!

Spencer, a game for you!

We visited the butterflies!

Souvenir time!

And now my feet hurt.  It was a warm to almost very hot day.  When we returned to the room at 8:00, it started to pour down rain!

A Fun Day in Palmyra, Snatch and Grab and Other Good Stuff!

Day 2 in New York was spent in Palmyra.  We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel.  We are staying at the Country Inn and Suites in Henrietta.  It is a little way from Palmyra.  The weather was around 88 with a little humidity, to say the least.  The GPS has been working pretty well and didn't lead us astray. 

So first, Here is a picture of the Lehigh Restaurant in Henrietta, last nite.  Boy, lots of food at a really good price.  Jamie had pierogis, Ty, spaghetti and I had Yankee pot roast, all served with soup, rolls, potatoes, or fries and mac salad and we add and couldn't eat it all.

So our first stop at Palmyra was the Hill Cumorah visitor's center.  Here we are out front. 

Tyson  was really fascinated with the original Book of Mormons from the first printed editions.

Here is a table with the Book of Mormon in all the languages it is published in including Braille.

The Hill Cumorah.  Beautiful, steep, green and spiritual...

Statue of Moroni.

Tyson climbed down a different way from the Hill then Jamie and I.  I told him to take some pictures.  He found a little ground squirrel.

A little meditation on the Hill

Viewing the Smith Log home.

Walking along the road from the Log home to the frame home we saw the Temple peeking out from through the trees.

A very special bedroom....in the Smith house.

The Frame house.  

A special box kept in the Smith Frame house.

The bricks in the fireplace were removed to hide the plates from the 'bad guys"/

This little guy was in the garden of the Smith Frame house.

The barn, and we also saw the cooper's shop.

The entrance to the Sacred Grove.  A nice pace to contemplate.

So here are more pictures of the grove.  We wondered where the event took place.  We thought this was a good place.

Now we are at downtown Palmyra.  The Grandin printshop in the background.

Here is the inside of the print office.  My dad was a printer and the stuff we saw was very familiar to me, "The Printer's Daughter."

Upper case, Lower case!

Here is Ty folding the pages of the big pages that were Book of Mormon pages.

On the way to the Whitmer Farm, Ty got a little tired.  Somewhere about this time I opened the glove box to get the money for the Toll booths....I had about 20-25 dollars in a plastic bag...It was gone.  Not lost, but stolen.  What we think must have happened was that when Ty got out of the car the last time on Main street Palmyra, Jamie locked the door before he closed his door and thus it wasn't looked.  We had stuff in the car, but it was all there, just the money was taken.  I guess we have to be thankful for small things.... but it made the mood a little grumpy for a while.

So here we are at the Whitmer farm.  It was great to see where the Church was organized.  There is a chapel here built for the 1980 Sesquicentennial of the Church organization.  Here they had a church meeting that was for the April 6th church conference in 1980.

The 1980 time capsule is here.

Here is the inside of the Whitmer house where they organized the Church and President Hinckley was seated at this table in front of the fireplace.

The last view as we left.  The missionary at the Farm suggested we go eat at the Mennonite store and deli close by and we did.
I bought some Amish books here and the workers were their Kapp and dresses and looked just as I imagined.

Here is a quilt for sale at the Mennonite store.

The last thing we did was to go to the temple.  It was Tyson's first time at the Temple and it was special to be at Palmyra for a special event like that.  The Temple president came and spoke to us about all the special events in Palmyra and it was really special.  The young man that was the one that baptized Ty was a Utah man, newly married, who was in Rochester at med school.  He and his wife were from  Salt Lake and his mom was German and born in "Frankfurt".  He went on a mission there and was able to pronounce the names very well, without hesitation.  He also had a Hofheins connection and was acquainted with Jake's cousin, Amy Hofheins.  And that was how the whole day in Palmyra was, someone we met, was from Highland, Lehi, or close by and at the Hill Cumorah visitor's center was an Elder Fuller who was the brother of Heber from Highland.  Spence knew Bishop Heber very well.

A beautiful, lovely day!