Palmyra et al Family Vacation - PT 2

A now a continuation of our trip to Palmyra (see last post for the first half)

Saturday was our church site day. The weather was a lot warmer than Friday (which was cold) and it was actually a very pretty, a bit crisp fall day.

We went first to Hill Cumorah, which was about a 20 minute drive. It's a nice visitor's center, and they were just waiting for us to come in (it was a slow day). The sister missionary was really wonderful and did a great job engaging the kids. NOTE: always better to get the sister missionaries as tour guides than senior elders. The sisters are fun, engage the kids, know how to gauge their attention temperature and move along whereas the senior elders kind of have forgotten what it's like to have antsy kids.

I've never really spent a lot of time at the visitor center, but could have spent longer in the back with the exhibits. With kids, it's about a 20 minute visit...with no kids it could be an hour. The boys then climbed the Hill Cumorah and the girls drove to the top.

We then drove to the Joseph Smith farm. The area has changed since the last time I went there. For starters, they had found the original site of the first Smith home (site of the Moroni visit) and have rebuilt that to be as authentic as possible, down to homemade nails. (In fact, they had to use manufactured nails at the end to be done in time, and Hinckley saw them and commented on that during the dedication...he was assured they were temporary. The whole house was built by hand to keep it authentic).

After you visit that house, you walk down a trail to the Smith's second house, which is the original house and has stood since 1820s. (I had visited that before). You can see the hearth where the plates were actually hidden at one point. And the tree planted in the yard when older brother Alvin died (now it's a big tree). Then you can walk into the Sacred Grove.

I would have enjoyed more time in the Grove, but the kids weren't really going for that. So we took the short path But at least we made it there. Afterward, we drove to the temple which is also on site (and is also new, too). Across the street is the stake center. (Incidentally, the old stake center near the Hill Cumorah is now the city's town hall).

We then drove into town and saw the Grandin Printing Press building, which was a favorite of all of us. We again got a sister tour guide and had a wonderful time. It's spiritual, historical, and interesting. Fun to learn how they actually printed it. Kids do enjoy this part. From there, we drove out of town, saw the Alvin Smith grave site, the Erie Canal (which Josh is studying) and then the Martin Harris farm.

From there, we stopped at McDonald's near the Thruway and drove to the Whitmer Farm. It's about a 45 minute drive and not tons to see there. There is a chapel which has a small visitor center, but nothing too earth-shattering to see at the visitor center. The highlight is to go to the re-created cabin out back where the church was organized. We have a senior elder here, and it kind of dragged.

We drove back to our hotel and went to Chilis for dinner. Go for the "2 for $20" which gives you an appetizer, two main courses, and dessert. Not bad!!!

Then swimming and off to bed.

Sunday, we tried to go to church in Canadagia but found a locked building (stake conference?) and started the drive home through the Finger Lakes and through Ithaca. It was a pretty drive, but a bit windy, and Josh felt queasy for much of it. And the drive felt longer with the kids awake and not always happy. Plus, why do kids always say they need to use the bathroom 5 minutes after you just stopped for someone else to use it?

We went through Ithaca, and down through Binghamton so we could go see Harmony Penn (near Oakland, PA). It's a little road that takes you to the Harmony site, which just has a statue and some historical markers (plus a cemetery) but no on-site presence. A little out of the way, but worth the visit.

Instead of doing I-80, we came across I-84 just to make things different.

All in all, a very satisfying vacation, not overly expensive, and I really enjoyed it. Wouldn't really do anything differently. Family was at the perfect age to do this trip before the new baby in January....

Palmyra et al Family Vacation

Hi all:

Some friends have asked for details about our Church Sites trip on Nov. 6 to 8, so here's a little travelogue that may help in your planning, along with our highlights.

We left on Thursday night around 5 p.m. as the kids had Friday off for a school conference. I was surprised that the mapping systems said it was fastest to go on I-80 through NJ and Penn. to Scranton and then up through Binghamton and Syracuse, and then on to Rochester.

Driving at night definitely has its perks and its drawbacks. It was great the kids all fell asleep at some point. But I had some heavy rain in NJ, and then snow going over a peak outside of Syracuse, and all that in the dark wasn't fun. But the new Honda van drives smoothly and that was part of the reason for the trip.

We arrived at the Homewood Suites in Victor, NY around 11:30 p.m. -- it took us about 6.5 hours with stops, snow, and rain. I'm a big fan of Homewood Suites as it has sleeping for 6. This unit had one big bedroom with two doubles, then a small pullout couch for the little boys in another room -- along with full fridge, microwave and oven. The rate was $150, but we knew of a promotion that got it down to $135. We felt it was the perfect location as it was just off the Thruway and perfectly situated between Rochester and Palmyra, which was convenient. We liked the free hot breakfast each morning, the pool was the right size (and actually warm) for the kids, and low hassle.

On Friday, we got in the van again and drove to Niagara Falls. I had never seen it and I was actually very impressed. It's about a 1.5 hour drive, I believe. We arrived around 9:30 or so. The Maiden of the Mist boats close in late October, so we couldn't do that. But the state park was free except $10 to park (which allows you to park at the welcome center and then over on Goat Island....I never mind paying a little into the system to keep it up and running).

I knew that the view is more impressive from the Canada side, but I also knew that all U.S. citizens need a passport when driving into Canada now. Unfortunately, I didn't look closer to see that kids with a birth certificate can go sans passport so we could have driven across as Kathryn and I have passports, but alas, we didn't. Something for next time.

But the view from where we were was amazing. I'm surprised we could get so close to the edge at the top of falls. It's not really very fancy but I like that it's just kinda simple and I like that the safety experts haven't shut down such close access. All in all, we spent about 1.5 hours there.

(For the record, the towns on the NY and Canada side look very cheezy and dated...yet again, kind of refreshing to not see everything all "Disney-fied". It is what it is)

We then drove back to Rochester to the National Museum of Play (and Toy Hall of Fame). We felt this is the best kids museum we've been to. We arrived around 2 p.m. and stayed until about 5:30. Lots of open space, no crowds (as it was a weekday), and fun things for everyone, including a well stocked arcade of video games familiar to me (Asteroids, Tapper, Defender, Q-Bert, Popeye, Ultra Bowl, Berzerk). From a career perspective, it was fun to walk through the Toys Hall of Fame and identify the Hasbro stuff.

We returned to the hotel (about a 20 minute drive) and tried to go to Chilis, but a 45 minute wait at 5:15 at night. Well, what else do you do in Victor? So we went to Denny's which was surprisingly fun and good. The highlight was Sammy making a biscuit snowman. Then a visit to the pool and everyone collapsed into bed.

Sat and Sun. to be covered in my next post....