We left SLC on June 7th for the red-eye flight from SLC to JFK. We had a lay over in Las Vegas We had a layover in Las Vegas that turned out to be about 3 hours later than we had hoped because of some nitwit that decided to get off the plane in NY just as they were prepared to take off which caused the plane to arrive in LV late. We arrived in NY at about 8am - we were tired but happy to be on our way.
We were happy that we reserved the car ahead of time because they were about out of cars when we got there. We called Monica to let her know that we were in town and we would be making our way to the Poconos but would come back to NY on Sunday to visit. We purchased our GPS prior to the trip (and it's a good thing we did!) We named her Sheila because we chose the Australian accent to give us directions. I missed a turn or 2 getting out of the airport so Sheila took us down "Broadway" for a very long time - we kept thinking she would eventually have us turn toward a main freeway but we just kept going. We think we were in Brooklyn but honestly, we had no clue! We just kept going and finally got to a tunnel that goes under the water (Hudson?)and over to the Jersey side. That was actually kind of cool. We still kept going on side roads for quite a while but I figured as long as we were headed toward the Poconos, I'd just keep following Sheila's directions. Finally!! We made it to a main freeway!! The first thing Scott and I noticed were all of the TREES!! Holy Cow!! The trees lined the freeway for miles and miles! It was very cool!! We finally arrived in Pocono, PA at about 3pm. (What fun we are having so far...remember we started this journey at about 6pm the night before). Ü We couldn't check into our condo until 5pm so it was probably good that we took the "scenic" route to get there. We decided to go pick up some groceries to pass some time. It just happened to be Nascar race weekend at the Poconos so we saw a few Nascar guys at the local grocery store.
This is the 2008 Dodge Avenger that we got to drive around in for 2 weeks. We put about 2,500 miles on the car while we were there!
We were happy that we reserved the car ahead of time because they were about out of cars when we got there. We called Monica to let her know that we were in town and we would be making our way to the Poconos but would come back to NY on Sunday to visit. We purchased our GPS prior to the trip (and it's a good thing we did!) We named her Sheila because we chose the Australian accent to give us directions. I missed a turn or 2 getting out of the airport so Sheila took us down "Broadway" for a very long time - we kept thinking she would eventually have us turn toward a main freeway but we just kept going. We think we were in Brooklyn but honestly, we had no clue! We just kept going and finally got to a tunnel that goes under the water (Hudson?)and over to the Jersey side. That was actually kind of cool. We still kept going on side roads for quite a while but I figured as long as we were headed toward the Poconos, I'd just keep following Sheila's directions. Finally!! We made it to a main freeway!! The first thing Scott and I noticed were all of the TREES!! Holy Cow!! The trees lined the freeway for miles and miles! It was very cool!! We finally arrived in Pocono, PA at about 3pm. (What fun we are having so far...remember we started this journey at about 6pm the night before). Ü We couldn't check into our condo until 5pm so it was probably good that we took the "scenic" route to get there. We decided to go pick up some groceries to pass some time. It just happened to be Nascar race weekend at the Poconos so we saw a few Nascar guys at the local grocery store.
This is the 2008 Dodge Avenger that we got to drive around in for 2 weeks. We put about 2,500 miles on the car while we were there!
Our condo was pretty cool. It was up in a mountainous area. We had a kitchen, living room and small bathroom upstairs and 2 big bedrooms downstairs. The resort was spread out quite a bit. It was a little outdated but I had my expectations set pretty low and was pleasantly surprised when we arrived. They had all kinds of facilities at the main building for guest convenience and entertainment. There was a gorgeous golf course just up the road from where we were staying. Scott and Trevor were able to go golf one day while Kendra and I stayed back and did some laundry, went bowling, and played a few games. Scott said that each of the golf carts came equipped with a GPS system and it was a good thing they did because he said they may have had to kill a deer to eat before they found their way back out again.
There was wildlife all over up there...deer, bunnies, butterflies, chipmunks...it was neat to see so many of them up close. It was a peaceful retreat after hours of driving and a couple of days in NYC.
New York City was neat to see. After a great tip from Monica, we found a parking lot in NJ to park the car for about $8 and take the FREE ferry across the water to NYC. That was one of the things we actually liked best..it was a nice relaxing ride and it went passed the Statue of Liberty each time. The weather was almost perfect. The east coast was just cooling down from one of the hottest spells they had in years. 
Our first day in NYC, we met up with Moni and Jim and ate wonderful NY pizza and pasta...mmmm! We went to The Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center. It was neat to see but I can't say that it was worth $20 each to go up there. It was all part of the NY experience though. The elevator ride up to the top was cool. They had a mini light show going up. Once we got to the top, it was way high up but in comparison to all of the other tall buildings surrounding it, it didn't seem as high up as it actually was. It was neat to see the city from up that high though. Jim told us about many of the buildings and which companies occupied them. We got a good view of Central Park and really got a good visual of how small the big city really is....everything built tall on a very small island. We walked around a lot and saw Grand Central Station, Central Park, NBC, M&M store and probably many other things.
It was crazy in NY...we happened to hit the day that they were celebrating Puerto Rico Day. We were convinced that there were more Puerto Rican's in NY that day than there were in PR. Every street in the city was roped off for the parade. We ended up walking several blocks just to find a place to cross the streets. It was hot that day and we were quickly tiring out and were glad to finally get back to Monica and Jim's for a rest in their nice air conditioned apartment. Monica and Jim fixed us a yummy dinner and we relaxed and visited.
One of the memorable experiences we had was when we were waiting for the fairy on the NJ side, there was a lady walking around yelling, "One dollar! Everything gots to go!! One dollar!" She was relentless trying to sell her Puerto Rico flags and whistles. We didn't give in though even though she warned us that we would pay $5 for the same things once we got to NY. In fact, we left NY without any PR souveniers. Kendra did a fine impression of the lady selling her things and it became an ongoing phrase that was repeated many times thoughout our trip.
We went back to NYC a few days later. Jim was at work so we spent the day with Monica. We walked down to the Ed Sullivan Theater where the David Letterman Show is filmed. We walked around the corner to the Hello Deli but Rupert Jee wasn't working that day so that was kind of a bummer.
We also visited St Patrick's cathedral. Monica's apt building is across the street from the LDS Manhatten temple. We had hoped to attend church there on Sunday but the church was being renovated for asbestos. I walked into the temple portion and asked for a temple schedule card...I just wanted a peek at the inside. There is a guard that sits at a desk just inside the outside door. Inside there are 2 sets of doors...one that leads to the church and the other that leads to the temple. Someday maybe we'll make it back again and be able to do a session.
Another great highlight of the trip for all of us was the day that we drove to Palmyra, New York where much of the church history began. It was about a 4 hour drive from the Poconos. We got kind of a late start leaving and the drive was a little longer than what I had anticipated but we were still able to see many things and feel of the spirit that still resides in Palmyra. We stopped at the Visitor's Center first which is at the same location as the Hill Cumorah where the prophet Joseph Smith first found the plates which were translated into the Book of Mormon. I was impressed with how Palmyra still has a very "small town" feel about it. It doesn't look like much development has taken place since the Smith family lived there. The missionaries at the Visitor's center advised us to go check out the other sites first because they would be closing before the Visitor's center. So we headed down the road to the Smith property. There were several acres of land that the Smith's owned. We were the only family visiting this location when we got there so we got our own private tour. The sister missionaries took us to the log home which was a rebuilt replica of the original. It was incredible how strong the spirit was as we walked into the home. The sister missionaries shared their testimonies of Joseph Smith and the restored gospel. As we looked around at the small modest home, I tried to imagine what life was like back in the 1800's when the Smith's lived there. We went upstairs to the room where Joseph was visited by Angel Moroni. The feeling I felt in that room was unbelievable. I couldn't believe that we were actually there. The sister missionaries were so sweet. They shared stories and testimonies with us and offered to take pictures of all of us.
We also visited St Patrick's cathedral. Monica's apt building is across the street from the LDS Manhatten temple. We had hoped to attend church there on Sunday but the church was being renovated for asbestos. I walked into the temple portion and asked for a temple schedule card...I just wanted a peek at the inside. There is a guard that sits at a desk just inside the outside door. Inside there are 2 sets of doors...one that leads to the church and the other that leads to the temple. Someday maybe we'll make it back again and be able to do a session.
Another great highlight of the trip for all of us was the day that we drove to Palmyra, New York where much of the church history began. It was about a 4 hour drive from the Poconos. We got kind of a late start leaving and the drive was a little longer than what I had anticipated but we were still able to see many things and feel of the spirit that still resides in Palmyra. We stopped at the Visitor's Center first which is at the same location as the Hill Cumorah where the prophet Joseph Smith first found the plates which were translated into the Book of Mormon. I was impressed with how Palmyra still has a very "small town" feel about it. It doesn't look like much development has taken place since the Smith family lived there. The missionaries at the Visitor's center advised us to go check out the other sites first because they would be closing before the Visitor's center. So we headed down the road to the Smith property. There were several acres of land that the Smith's owned. We were the only family visiting this location when we got there so we got our own private tour. The sister missionaries took us to the log home which was a rebuilt replica of the original. It was incredible how strong the spirit was as we walked into the home. The sister missionaries shared their testimonies of Joseph Smith and the restored gospel. As we looked around at the small modest home, I tried to imagine what life was like back in the 1800's when the Smith's lived there. We went upstairs to the room where Joseph was visited by Angel Moroni. The feeling I felt in that room was unbelievable. I couldn't believe that we were actually there. The sister missionaries were so sweet. They shared stories and testimonies with us and offered to take pictures of all of us.
To think that it all started with a young boy reading a scripture and having the faith to see if the scripture was true.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and abraideth not; and it shall be given him.
~James 1:5
As we walked down the dirt road to the Smith's "framed" home, we looked to the left and saw the Palmyra temple poking out of the trees....way pretty! The framed home was about 80% original and really seemed like a nice spacious home for back in the day. This was the home where Joseph lived during most of the time that he worked to translate the plates. The fireplace in the living room was used to hide the plates on several occassions.
While we stood in the kitchen, the sister missionaries asked Trevor if he would share his testimony with us. By this time, I was a sobbing mess! I had hoped that we would be able to feel the spirit that so many had testified of when we went to visit the Sacred Grove. I had not expected to be so overwhelmed by the spirit as we visited the Smith homes. What a neat experience it was for us!
The box on top of the dresser is a replica of the box the plates were kept in.
After visiting the homes, the sisters left us alone to go out to the Sacred Grove and explore the rest of the Smith property. The grove was much bigger than I imagined. There was a great sense of peace as we walked through there. There were several places in there to sit and reflect. Trevor and Kendra both went off on their own and Scott and I found a place to sit and pray and take it all in. It was such a pretty place and I could see why Joseph would choose that as a place of refuge to go pray to Heavenly Father and ask for help and direction.
While in Palmyra, we also walked up to the top of the Hill Cumorah. It was quite a hike to get to the top but very pretty to look out across Palmyra from the top.
We drove to the other end of town and toured the building where the first 500 Books of Mormon were printed. They sold for about $2.50 which was kind of expensive for the time. The books were covered with sheepskin leather. Joseph Smith was insistent that even the cover of the book would testify of the Lamb of God. It was amazing to think of the manual labor involved in printing the books and setting each individual letter in place. They told us that they started with a printing press that would only do 8 pages at a time then were able to get a new one that did 16 pages at a time. As a souvenier, they gave us a replica of one of the sheets that they would print.
Next door to the Printing place, there was a small gift shop. We found some t-shirts on sale that had some funny LDS humor sayings on them - the kids loved them so we got a few. Kendra's say: "99% Nephi / 1% Laman I will go and do but I will murmer all the way there" and "I Love Mormon Boys" Trevor's say: "Peculiar", "Touch me not, For I have not yet gone on my mission", "Men are that they might have joy" (with a big yellow smiley) We also got one for Scott that says, "I Stinketh Not" 
While staying in Pennsylvania, we thought it would be fun to go explore Hershey and see what the fuss was about down there. We toured the Hershey plant which is geared for much smaller children than our own but it was still cool to see that much chocolate in one place. They had an amuzement park next to the chocolate factory. Trevor convinced us to go check it out so we did. The bad part was that not long after we got our tickets, a big storm came in and rained on our parade - they shut the rides down before we had a chance to try most of them. We hung out and tried to wait out the storm but had to give up hope after a while. We still had to drive back to the Poconos. One of the cool things about Hershey, PA is everything there is all about the chocolate...even their street lights are shaped like Hershey Kisses!
I can't believe how much I have written just "highlighting" the things that we did back there! We tried to take it easy and do something relaxing about every other day...we were getting tired of driving for hours and digging for change for all of the toll roads. In fact, the day we left our resort, they opened the new toll station to get into the resort!! Thank goodness we were on our way outta there - they'll nickel and dime you to death!
One other stop we wanted to make in Pennsylvania was Philadelphia. We decided that we would stop on our way to DC where we needed to check in our rental car. Philadelphia is a cool town. It has a park-like atmosphere to it. We saw Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's grave, and some other historical sites. We certainly felt the spirit of the people who lived long ago to form the great USA that we live in today!
Ben Franklin's grave site - it's customary to throw coins on the graves. We saw this at every cemetary we visited.After leaving PA, we headed toward DC to see about keeping the same car we rented in NY but getting the cheaper DC price (which we did Ü). It was a long drive but very pretty to see this part of the country. We decided to come back to tour DC on another day because we all just wanted to get settled into our new place in Williamsburg, Virginia. We were all excited to see our condo in Williamsburg. I would say that it was an upgrade from the Poconos...the condo itself was newer but the beds were still just as hard. I was impressed with Williamsburg - it seemed that everything we needed to go see was within 10-15 minutes from our condo. There were stores, restaurants, amuzement parks and everything!! We had definitely had our fill of driving so this was a welcomed relief! Plus our condo had a Washer/Dryer in the unit so we could wash clothes whenever we wanted to.
Battlefiled in Jamestown------Captured British Cannon----- "Trophy case" of captured cannons
Statue of Liberty given from the French
Virginia is a beautiful state - again, I was impressed with all of the trees that lined the streets. I still couldn't believe how many there were! We went to visit Jamestown where the Revolutionary war took place. HOW COOL!! There were still many original cannons all over the place. The battlefields have been preserved and still had the mounds and foxholes that were dug by the soldiers. We saw George Washington's camp site where he organized his troops. It was acres and acres of land. There were also some houses throughout Jamestown where people actually live. It was neat to see how even the houses fit in and it felt like we had stepped back in time...everything was kept up really well. We went to some grave sites and saw many "unknown soldier" gravesites. It really gave us an appreciation for what people went through to give us the freedoms that we enjoy in our country today. This is a place that I definitely would like to return to again some day. The people were very friendly - both Scott and I commented on how even the maintenance guys at the condo would take time to say hello and ask how we are doing. We got to celebrate Father's Day while we were here. The kids bought Scott the new Journey CD and a Sacred Grove shirt from Palmyra.
Of course we had to mix in some entertainment with the historical visits. We bought a pass for Busch Gardens and Water Country USA for the week. We could go as often as we wanted and stay for as little or as long as we would like. This was nice to be so close to the condo, it gave us more options and flexibility. This year was great! Kendra now dared to ride the scary roller coasters (as long as it wasn't on the front row.) We did convince her to go on the front row a time or two and she did survive. We all love the roller coasters and the park wasn't very crowded so we had a blast! Our favorite was the Griffon - holy smokes that one was fun!! It takes riders all the way to the top then it stops and lets us hang for about 5 seconds before taking a 205 foot drop at 70 mph straight down toward the water. Another roller coaster we fell in love with was Appolo's Chariot. We went on that one a lot and had fun making different poses and faces for the camera that takes everyone's pictures. I didn't buy any of them because I'm too cheap but it was sure a hoot seeing our results as we got of the roller coaster. I also thought it was neat to see the blanket of tree tops as I looked out from the top of the roller coaster. I'm telling you - I can't get over the trees! The pics I took of the trees didn't do them any justice though - you'll just have to go check it out yourself.
Water Country USA was ok - none of us are huge water fanatics but we had a good time riding on the slides - there were many of them in addition to a wave pool. The slides all started to seem the same after a while. It was fun for a day but that was plenty for us.
We also spent a day in Washington DC because, hey! we can't go all the way across the country and not visit the nations capital. We visited Arlington Cemetary - it's very huge and very hilly. It was a good workout to walk around that place but it was neat to see some of the sites of some great Americans that have been laid to rest there. We also went to the Aerospace Museum. We spent most of our time in here. Kendra and I could have seen the place in about 30-45 minutes but we had the boys with us and they like airplanes and history. Most things in DC close around 5pm so we didn't go into any other museums. The security in DC is very tight. We paid $20 to park for the day and they checked our ID and checked our car for explosives before letting us in. We walked over toward the White House and stood outside the south fence. We were casually taking pictures when the guard announced at 5:35pm that the fence was closed. WHAT?!?! You can't close a sidewalk and fence!! Isn't this AMERICA??!? Ok - I didn't throw a stink about it but I did think it was odd. We took a couple final pictures and went on our way. Turns out, some dark SUVs were leaving the premises so they had to close everything down so they could get out "safely". By this time, Scott and Trevor were tired of walking and were ready to get back on the road again. Kendra and I still wanted to visit the Lincoln Memorial so we found a place to park and Kendra and I walked up to the memorial to take some pictures. I'm glad we did because this really was one of the highlights of our visit. The Korean War Memorial was neat to see too. It was starting to rain a bit so we didn't venture much further. We hooked up with the boys again and headed back to VA.
I can't end this blog without also telling you about the contest that Kendra and I were having thoughout the trip. Kendra likes to find coins on the ground and is always looking for the unwanted treasures. I challenged her to a contest to see who could find the most money during our trip. She got off to a head start by picking up some coins that I dropped from my pocket. Surprisingly, we didn't find too many coins laying around - even with all the walking in NYC. I can't remember the amount of money that we had but she was in the lead for the majority of the trip so when it was time to go home, I really had to get my game face on. We had a layover at JFK and when I got off the plane, I immediately started scowering the floor for money. There were several pennies all over the place so I ran around like a psycho picking up the pennies before Kendra caught on. It was fun - Kendra was chasing me fighting for pennies here and there. My competetive nature would not let her win! By the time we got on the plane, I had a slight lead and was feeling pretty confident with my likely win. We arrived in SLC around midnight..we were all tired and ready to sleep in our own soft beds. I was sitting on the cart return while waiting for our luggage to arrive. I wondered if there were any coins in the coin return and thought it wouldn't hurt to check......SCORE!!!!! I think I got $1.50 or something like that out of there! I was delighted and Kendra was mad that she didn't think of it sooner. It was the clincher I needed to claim victory over the queen of the unwanted treasures! Ü
This vacation turned out to be more than I ever hoped it would be. We were able to see so much history, gain a deeper appreciation for the freedoms that we enjoy in this great country, increase our testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and most importantly, enjoy some good quality time together as a family. I feel truly blessed to have such a great family!!
