Historic Kirtland

Our final site seeing stop on our summer vacation was Kirtland, Ohio to see some LDS church history sites.  We saw the Kirtland Temple, but didn't take a tour inside.  Since this temple is not owned by the church and not a working LDS temple, anyone who wants to can take tours inside.  They were done with tours for the day when we got there.  The temple is still very special to the LDS people and I'm sure they would like to own it someday.  The missionaries at the Kirtland visitor center said they have a good relationship with the Community of Christ (the church, formerly Reorganized LDS that owns the temple).

 Here you can see the scale of the building.  Huge!

Nearby are some other church historic sites.  It's a little village with restored buildings from early church history.  We saw a short film about Kirtland at the visitor center.  Then we saw the Newell K. Whitney store.

 Inside the store

 Upstairs in the store

 At the Newell K. Whitney home.  We didn't get great pictures of a lot of things 'cause John and Grant were melting down at the same time.

 We did get to see the saw mill

 And the ashery

It was a beautiful area.  He had a nice visit at Kirtland, although these pictures may not adequately reflect it.  It was a nice end to our busy vacation.  After Kirtland we rested, then drove the rest of the way home the next day.  So much adventure, but nice to be home again.

BONUS PHOTOS!!

Once we got home, Scott googled our major route out and back

Nearly 3000 miles  And that's not counting our day trips here and there in New England

And our overzealous and untended garden once we got back

Super zucchini!!  Sigh...time to do laundry

Niagara Falls

Continuing on in a westerly direction we drove to Niagara Falls, New York.  I'd never been there before and neither had the kids so it was cool to see.

There are lots of activities to do and see but all we did was ride Maid of the Mist, the little boat that goes up close to the falls so you can see it.  It was blazing hot!  And wearing those plastic ponchos felt really hot while we waited.  

Luckily it was a short wait.  We were soon able to get on board.

We found a nice spot up top on the falls side.  John still couldn't see without assistance.

First we passed American Falls

There you can kind of see American Falls behind Scott

Here's a little better view of American Falls.

We got only barely misted at American Falls

And up ahead is Horseshoe Falls

That's when things got serious!  Seriously wet.

We got past some point and started getting large sideways rain kind of "mist"

Everyone on the boat screamed and cheered

Some moments were a little lighter than others

We kept John as dry as we could.  I wasn't sure if my camera would be the same after or if the pictures would turn out, but it all seemed to work out.

Thank goodness for ponchos

The mist felt nice 'cause it was super hot

Some pictures from the observatory point

There's the Canadian version of Maid of the Mist that runs from the other side of the river.

Glad we got to see the famous Niagara Falls!

Palmyra, New York

After visiting Vermont we headed to Palmyra, New York to see the LDS church history sites there (read a little about them HERE).  Here we are visiting the Smith family log cabin.

 

It looked humble from the outside, but I was impressed at how much there was was inside.

 The family Bible (not their actual Bible, but a "period" Bible)

 Upstairs in the log cabin where the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith.  The house was rebuilt (I think they said) but the foundation was the same, so its really on the same space as before.

After visiting some of the Smith family buildings we walked down to the Sacred Grove, which was on property behind the Smith farm.  I didn't realize it was so close, but it makes sense.  

 In spite of our sometimes rowdy group, we still had a very peaceful walk through the sacred grove.

You'll see John (almost 2) is walking and Grant (3 1/2) is being held.  Maybe this ground too closely resembled sand.  Or maybe he had fallen down and then wanted to be held.  I can't quite remember now.  :)

Stopping to rest on a bench.  I did appreciate that there were many paths through the sacred grove, so others that were in our tour group weren't subjected to experiencing it only with our children.  They were well behaved, but at times less than reverent.  Here is John trying to climb up on a bench.

We saw the Palmyra Temple too

It was very quiet that day 

And we are on top of the Hill Cumorah.  Down below is the site of the Hill Cumorah pageant.  We were there on a Monday and the last day of the pageant was two days before.  We weren't planning or wanting to go, but I had expected to see a lot more people around still.  Nope.  It was very quiet.  Fine with me.  I don't like crowds.  

 The Moroni Monument

I had been preparing my first primary Sunday school lesson about how the Holy Ghost testifies of truth - just that specific aspect of the Holy Ghost - and Scott pointed out that I should use this scripture on the side of the monument.  I did end up using it in my lesson and mentioning that we saw it at the Hill Cumorah.  I think it's a great scripture, but the kids were only mildly impressed.  ;)

And speaking of kids and a possible lack of appreciation for what is before them - here is Grant putting John in a headlock at a less than appropriate time and place. Oy!

I always enjoy church visitor centers, so we looked around the one at the Hill Cumorah.  They had a display of Book of Mormons in many different languages.  John's favorite was the one in Polish.  He kept grabbing it to read and even after I would put it back (with the hundred or so others that look just like it) he would find it again and bring it down to "read."  So, Polish?  I don't know, but he liked that one. 

It was an exciting day and we got some Chinese take out at the end of it all.  This was my fortune: Girl.  Actually that was just my "learn Chinese word," but it still seemed apropos.  More vacation adventures to come!