We had such a great weekend! Friday evening, after Bill's first final, we hauled a big suitcase and a few bags of snacks on the subway to pick up our rental car.
It took about a half an hour to get out of the city and we made it to Scranton PA and spent the night. Some of you may recognize the building above from the opening credits of the TV show, The Office. Scranton is a pretty cool town.
We left Saturday morning and headed up through northern PA on back roads to enjoy the beautiful fall colors and small towns. It was gorgeous! Below is a picture of the Susquehanna River.
Our next stop was Fayette NY and the Peter Whitmer Farm. This is where the LDS church was officially organized on 6 April 1830. There is a beautiful visitors' center and the Whitmer home has been rebuilt to look the same as it would have back then.
Then we were off to Palmyra. We first came to the Hill Cumorah. It is right off the main road and there is a beautiful drive up to the top. We spent a few minutes up there and then went in to the visitors' center. Just as we were walking through the glass doors I recognized one of my old institute teachers sitting at the main desk, Brother Ed Pinegar. He was such a great and funny teacher and I didn't know that he and his wife were serving a mission there. It was fun visiting with him for a few minutes.
We decided that we wanted to spend the night in Palmyra so we could go to church the next morning, so we jumped back in the car and drove up to Niagara Falls for a quick peek. We got there just as the sun was going down, but got a pretty good view. It's an amazing sight.
We woke up early Sunday morning so that we could see the Smith Home, Sacred Grove and Palmyra Temple before going to church. It was pretty cold, but such a neat experience to be able to see where Joseph Smith received the First Vision and where the Restoration of the Church began.
After a very nice church meeting, we got packed up and checked out of our room and drove into the town of Palmyra. I fell in love! It is such a peaceful, pretty town. We stopped at the printing shop where the first Book of Mormon was printed, the grave of Alvin Smith and the Martin Harris Farm. (I don't think the garages are originals?) ;)
Sadly, we had to start back for Manhattan to turn our car in. It turned out to be another beautiful, crisp autumn day and the drive was great. I'm so glad we were able to squeeze one more fun trip in before Bill's finals and the arrival of our little pumpkin. We're getting very excited for this upcoming adventure!
