East Coast Extravaganza, Part 1: Palmyra

As Adam graduated from high school, we realized that our family would soon start leaving home, so we wanted to do a big family vacation while we were still all together.  So eventually we decided to go to the east coast to see New York City, Palmyra, and Washington, D.C.

As luck would have it, my niece Marchella and her husband Mark Mathusek had just bought a house in New Jersey, just across the river from Manhattan, and Marchella invited us to stay with them while we were there.  Meanwhile, Linette’s Idahoan friend Kleet Barclay and his wife Holly were living in Virginia near Washington, D.C., and invited us to stay with them, too.  So in the end we only had to spend two days in a hotel (in Palmyra) during the entire trip.  That was good, because everything is more expensive when multiplied by 7.  It was very kind of both of those families to take in our entire family.

So the plan was to fly to New York City and stay with Marchella for one night; then drive up to Palmyra for two nights; then hit Niagara Falls on our way to Washington, D.C., where we would spend several days before returning to New York City for the last couple days of our trip.

Saturday.  Flying to New York.  So on Saturday, June 2, 2012, we boarded a plane in Salt Lake City and embarked on our grand adventure.

We arrived at the JFK Airport at 11:30 p.m., stuffed our luggage into a rental van, and navigated to Marchella's house.  We took a couple of wrong turns we had to recover from, but eventually made it there.

Mark and Marchella's house was very cute, and they had aerobeds all set up for us when we arrived, which was so nice.

Here is Sienna, ready to go to church in the morning.  Mark had done the nice wood floor himself.

Church was very nice.  It is a small ward with a strong missionary spirit.  Mark Mathusek's parents live in the ward, as does his married brother, and they all sat on the same side of the chapel.  His brother taught gospel doctrine, an when he had us introduce ourselves, I said, "I'm Marchella's uncle, which is why we were sitting in the 'Mathusek-tion'".  Ugh!

Here is the front of Marchella's house.

We hung out on the back patio for a little while, playing with Emma, their hyper-happy dog.

Mark's parents came for dinner, and it was wonderful visiting with them.  I was sort of wondering if Mark's mom could really be as nice as she seemed at Marchella's wedding, and as I listened to her talk about dealing with troubled youth and such, I realized it was true (perhaps moreso).  She also brought us some umbrellas, which ended up saving our bacon in Palmyra and especially New York City later in the trip.

Here she is holding the dog, which had been spazzing out when they arrived.  Her comment was, "Someone needs to get Emma to break out of her shell."

Sunday afternoon we drove the 5 hours from New Jersey to Palmyra, New York.

Sunset in upstate New York.

The kids got a little stir crazy around hour 4...

Monday, June 4, 2012, we did baptisms at the Palmyra temple for names we had found ourselves.  I loved how the stained glass had trees in it in honor of the nearby Sacred Grove.  While there, we asked about Elder and Sister Schmidt, a couple in our ward who were serving a mission there.  They came in and helped with the baptisms and we also had a nice visit with them that night in their apartment.  They are from Germany and are often referred to as "the German couple."  That night Sister Schmidt said, "I've never been so German as I am here!"

On the way out of the temple, we bumped into Linette's sister and her husband, who happened to be in Palmyra for their anniversary! What a great place to see them!

We had a lot to get in that day, so we rent right to it.  First we went to the Smith family log farmhouse.

Then we walked down the gravel path to the framed house where the Smith family lived for a little while.

We caught a glimpse of the temple through the woods along the way.

(200mm zoom lens...activate!)

It drizzled a little on us, but not too badly.

Our sister missionary was very nice, and here she is explaining that this barn was used for threshing the grain, and never to house animals.

Here is the tree the Smith family planted when Alvin died.

Finally, we walked down a path away from the log home and into the Sacred Grove.

 There was no gravel inside the grove, so our footsteps were suddenly so quiet.  The only sound in there was of the rain dripping through the trees.

Sienna saw this tree that had been cut down and said, "That's sad."  When I asked why, she said that in school she learned that some birds can only live in hollow trees and that they're rare.

Next, we drove up to the Grandin printing shop, where the first copy of the Book of Mormon was printed.

I thought it was interesting that just before the Book of Mormon needed to be printed, Mr. Grandin had bought a new press that could print pages like those shown on the left, instead of the crummy pages they used to print like those on the right.

Here is "esimorp s'inoroM" (Moroni's promise).

And here is shown the "upper case" and "lower case", which is why we call the letters that.

An original copy of The Book of Mormon.

At that point, we were starving, so we ate at the "Happiness Garden," a tasty hole in the wall across from the printing press.

We also drove 45 minutes to the Peter Whitmer farm, where we began with a tour of the visitor's center.

 

The farmhouse was very small, considering what an important thing happened there.  (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was organized there on April 6, 1830).

Finally, we went to the Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith received the golden plates.  Here are some of the costumes used in the big pageant (which was not going on when we were there).

And here's the reason all of this means anything.

Here's Kelsi flirting.

And Adam tried on a costume (via Photoshop).

Finally, we climbed the Hill Cumorah,

where Adam took great delight in rolling Jared down the hill.  ("Look, I'm just trying to roll you down the hill.  Is that so unreasonable?")

It was an awesome but long day, so Kelsi let some of it out.

I thought the kids looked like they were having such great fun just running around.

Here is the parking lot at the Palmyra Inn.  Apparently Mormons are into white minivans and SUVs.

Slumber party!

The next day, we drove two hours to Niagara Falls before driving another 7 hours to Virginia (near Washinton, D.C.).  The falls were indeed impressive, and one of the highlights of our trip.

While there, we rode the "Maid of the Mist", which was awesome.  Here's the family all decked out in ponchos.

(Here is Jared, ready to not get wet).

And off we go!

Passing by the American Falls.

Seagull party!

Approaching the Canadian Falls.

Once inside, we were surrounded on three sides by the roaring falls.  The sound was deafening, the boat was rocking from the waves, and the mist turned into a downpour of rain.  It seemed like we were all going to die! It was awesome.

Most people tried to stay dry.  Kelsi's hood blew off and she just embraced the experience.

Linette, not so much.

Everyone seemed so happy getting soaked!

What a great experience.

Afterwards we were starving, so we all helped eat Erika's taco salad. 

Woo-hoo!

And with that, we drove down to Virginia, watching "Newsies" on a laptop, listening to music and talking and laughing along the way.  The trip was off to a great start.