Niagara Falls and Palmyra

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Something I’ve wanted to do since I moved out here was attend the Hill Cumorah Pageant. This last weekend, I checked that one off my list. Several friends and I rented a minivan and headed up to Rochester, NY on Friday night. Since we were already so close, we also decided to head up to Niagara Falls.

Once we got to the falls, it started pouring rain. We had rain coats, but we still got soaked. None of us really minded though. We took lots of pictures and just had fun in the rain. We headed down to the observation deck for a few more pics before we headed down to the Maid of the Mist. My parents took me on this boat ride about 18 years ago, so it was fun to go on it again. It is really cool to get so close to the falls and since we were already wet, we didn’t care about getting more wet.

One of our friends is actually from Canada so we decided to cross the border so he could show us some Canadian classics like Tim Horton’s and some great Canadian candy.

On the way back from Canada, we had to stop at Texas Roadhouse. This is one of my friend’s favorite restaurants, so anytime we go on a road trip he looks up the nearest one.

After a great dinner we headed down to the Hill Cumorah. The stage is quite impressive. All the characters come out before the show to meet and great. Our Stake President was with his family performing in the pageant, so we had to get a picture with him in costume.

The pageant was really neat and had good effects for a pageant. Unfortunately, halfway through the pageant, there was a crazy lightning storm, so they had to cancel the rest of it. I was really disappointed, but there was nothing I could do about it.

On Sunday after church, we headed down to all of the church sites. We saw the Martin Harris farm, the Grandin Press shop where the Book of Mormon was printed, Joseph Smith’s log home and frame home.

Then we spent a good amount of time in the Sacred Grove. The spirit was really strong in the grove. It truly is sacred ground. I was glad I had time to sit and reflect there. I would love to go back.

Then our last stop included hiking to the top of the Hill Cumorah. It was a packed weekend and a great trip (except for the fact we sat in 3 hours of traffic on the way back).