Days 5-8: Niagara, Upstate New York, and the Catskills

We left Chicago early Monday morning, determined not to get stuck in morning rush hour traffic like we had during our visit 8 years earlier.  We drove to South Bend, Indiana so we could have breakfast on the campus of Notre Dame.  It was a very rainy morning, but Sam would not let weather dissuade him from walking around campus and getting pictures in front of "Touchdown Jesus", the golden dome and Knute Rockne.  It was a perfect Notre Dame experience since we enjoyed donuts, juice and Digger Phelps, former basketball coach and current ESPN analyst.  He's hiding in the background with the ball cap.  Sam wanted to say something to him about Danny Ainge or Jimmer, but he was having a serious conversation with a bookstore employee.

Then it was back in the car.  Our next stop was Lansing, Michigan for lunch and another capital picture.

 We spent most of the day in the car, and the kids were really good.  Such good sports . . .

 Yet so very excited to be out of the car when we made our stop in Lansing.  It was rainy there as well, but no one really cared.

 Lansing, Michigan State Capitol Building

From Michigan, we crossed into Canada, and drove for several more hours till we reached Niagara Falls.  It continued to rain all day long.

Tuesday morning we woke up hoping for better weather, but weren't really in luck.  We still headed out to see the Falls.

 The Canadian side really is lovely, and we had a great view of American Falls.  Horseshoe Falls is barely visible, but it got worse throughout the morning.

We couldn't see the water drop until we were right above it.

 We didn't have much of a view of Horseshoe Falls because it was so rainy and overcast, but the kids were still happy.

We had brunch at Tim Horton's, which I thought was the best deal ever.  We had to get some Canadian money from an ATM, but knew we wouldn't need it anywhere else so we decided to spend it all for breakfast, and it was actually hard to spend $20 because it was so cheap.  Yummy!

From there, we crossed back into the US into upstate New York, and headed toward Palmyra.  The sun finally showed itself right as we were arriving at the Hill Cumorah site.

 The visitor center was so nice, and the kids really enjoyed all of the exhibits and the film we watched on the prophet Joseph Smith.

Then we walked up to the top of the hill.  What a beautiful, peaceful place.

 After spending quite a while at Cumorah, we headed to the Smith Family log cabin.  We took a tour of the log cabin and the frame house with a darling sister missionary, and the kids loved being where Joseph Smith lived when he was a boy.  Again, we were the only visitors and the missionaries were glad to have us.  We were glad we had the church sites all to ourselves.

That night we slept in a suburb of Rochester called Henrietta.  Wednesday morning we woke up and headed back to Palmyra to spend the morning in the Sacred Grove.  It had rained all night, with flash flood warnings, so when we got to the grove we were informed we had to just stay on the main path and not venture back in because it was flooded out.  Kind of a bummer, but we were still able to enjoy the peacefulness of that sacred place, again, all to ourselves.

After the Sacred Grove we drove into Palmyra to the Grandin Printing Press site where the Book of Mormon was first published.  The tour was really interactive and fun.  Nobody else but the missionaries and us.

Before we left Palmyra, the kids wanted to go back to Cumorah and watch the longer movie about Joseph Smith and hike to the top of the hill again.  They really loved that place!  We initially chose the 15-minute film about the prophet over the longer one because we weren't sure how all of the kids would do for an hour.  But we had seen the short film many times, and Ellery couldn't stop thinking about the longer version.  I am so glad we went back and watched it.  The kids were enthralled with the film, and really took it in.  The rest of the trip, Bennett measured time off of that movie.  "Mom, how long will we be here?  So is that about the same amount of time as the long Joseph Smith movie we saw?"  And to be perfectly honest, we really wondered how much of any of this Reagan was taking in.  Well the first Sunday we were back in Denver, the lesson in Sharing Time was all about Joseph Smith and the First Vision, and the subsequent events.  Our primary president held up a picture of the Angel Moroni appearing to Joseph Smith in his bedroom, and asked if anyone knew what Moroni told Joseph.  Reagan held her hand up high, and Jessica called on her.  Reagan confidently responded, "He told Joseph Smith where to get the golden plates."  Jess was visibly surprised that Reagan knew the correct answer, and had Reagan come up to the microphone and repeat what she had said.  I am so grateful that we had an opportunity to take our kids to these very sacred places at this point in their lives, and am hopeful that the things they saw and heard and felt will serve as a great source of strength to them throughout their lives.

Then we drove out to the John Whitmer farm, where the Church was formally organized.  Another great visitors center with neat exhibits -- the church does such a great job with their sites.

 It was in farm country though, so it was a bit stinky.

That night we slept in Syracuse.

Thursday was spent driving from upstate New York to New York City, via the Catskill Mountains.  The Miller ancestors lived in the Catskills for a generation or two (Henry William Miller who has the statue in Council Bluffs was born and raised in this area of New York before moving with his brother to Quincy, Illinois where they joined the church), so it was a family history day of sorts, and the Catskills really were beautiful.

 It was another rainy day.  Our first stop was Albany for another capital picture.  What a neat building it was.

 Albany, New York State Capitol Building

Then we headed through the Catskills.  Such a beautiful drive.

 The area Sam's ancestors settled was called Lexington.  We found the cemetery where Henery Miller was buried, the grandfather of Henry William Miller.  What a neat find.  The kids enjoyed grave hunting, although most of the markers were very hard to read.  It took about 15 minutes before we found Henery's.

We drove into New York City around dinner time, and pulled into our Fairfield Marriot in Queens.  We were initially very concerned -- we assumed all Marriot's are in good, safe locations, and that assumption was debunked.  We were scheduled to stay at this hotel for three nights, and had serious doubts about that plan based on the adjacent warehouse district and barred windows of the neighboring retail stores, but decided we would stay there that night and then make a new plan.  We felt safe once we were inside our tiny little room, and ordered in pizza and rested up for a few days in the city.  The kids loved the New York style pizza - cheesy, large slices.

The hotel had billed itself as having great views of Manhattan and we were up high enough that at least we had a nice view from our room.  Sam and I spent the night mentally preparing for the next few days in Manhattan with 4 children under 8.  We started to think we had made a terrible mistake.