Since Monday we have driven nearly 2,000 miles and nearly touched the Canadian border, as well as visited many other interesting places. We took one of our kinda-spur-of-the-moment trips.
We've had this trip in mind for a while. We wanted to see Palmyra, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and our Great-Grandmother on mom's side. Trying to plan it was too hard. So mom got a hotel room reservation for the first night and everyone chose a few outfits and mom put them in a suitcase. The next morning, Monday, we got in the car and started driving.
Everyone was really good. Braden hardly cried. The kids didn't fight. We learned that you don't need as much food as you think you do and the food doesn't have to come at regular intervals. We put some rolls and muffins in our purple bucket, a plastic crate that serves us well, along with two water buckets, apples, and a few boxes of cereal. The rolls and muffins ran out on the first day, the pretzels ran out the second day, but the cereal and apples lasted the whole trip. We refilled the water buckets almost every night. We stopped once for pizza and one night the hotel provided spaghetti. Naturally, you might say that nine people cannot survive on apples for a week, and it's true. We ate the hotel's breakfast every morning: waffles, yogurt, cereal, eggs and sausage, muffins, juice- we ate a lot in the morning to make up for missing dinner. So that's what we ate and we enjoyed it.
The first day was spent driving up through Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, to New York. The wild flowers were gorgeous. The landscape was also beautiful. We saw many rainbows. The second day we drove some more to the Hill Cumorah and Welcome Center. The welcome center was just like what you expect to see in Temple Square, and the missionaries were eager to help up. We loved the atmosphere and we really enjoyed being there. At first, the hill seemed unimpressive. The front half was green grass flowing down into a huge green lawn. The other two-thirds of the hill was forested and peaceful. We walked on the trail through the woods to get to the monument near the top. Then we walked to the top of the hill. Suddenly you see why Mormon would choose the place for the Nephite's final battle [see Book of Mormon and the Book of Moroni, in the Book of Mormon]- it gives a clear view of surrounding land for miles around. If the place was clear-cut, as it might have been all those years ago, you'd be able to see even farther. We couldn't resist rolling down the hill. That gave us another idea of why Mormon favored the place- trying to walk up the hill was tough and tiring! It's pretty steep and takes a long time to hike up. We stayed there and then drove to the Smith family farms. The two houses were very well restored versions. There were two kitchen gardens and a small apple orchard. There was a threshing barn and a coopers-shop. A missionary took us around the grounds and told us the facts about the buildings and the family that lived there. It was so beautiful! We walked through the Sacred Grove. It was like walking in a temple, even though the ground was a little swampy from recent rains. The sunlight came through the trees and the wild flowers bloomed. The youngest kids, who knew it was a quiet place but didn't want to be quiet, looked at the deer tracks and the wild strawberry plants. We had arrived just in time for the last visit of the day. We went back to the Hill Cumorah for a little bit before driving on to our hotel.
The next day we drove to Niagara Falls. There was a completely different atmosphere than the church sites. There was also a ton more people, from all over the world. There is no 'Niagara' Falls. Instead, there is a beautiful horseshoe-shaped collection of falls. Thousands of gallons pour over the rim every minute. Rapid and tree trunks added visual interest to the falls. We walked around and found, surprisingly, that of all that there was to see, the dandelions growing in the grass were more interesting than the falls. Hannah and Katie made bouquets, as did Gavin, and David put a flower in each of his shirt pockets. When we were all done we drove back to the Hill Cumorah to go inside the welcome center, watch the movie, and see all the displays and mini-movies. There were a lot of touch screens and interesting facts so we could've stayed there for a long time. But, sadly we had to drive to the hotel.
We also visited our great Grandmother for a few hours and rode the metro to Washington, D.C., to visit the Smithsonian. There are pictures on the pictures page and more posts to come.
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