We had such a great family vacation!! It was jam packed busy, not much time to relax, but we saw a lot of really cool things and had some great experiences together as a family!
The first day was uneventful. We woke up at 3am, packed the last minute things and began the 15 hour drive that really took 17 ½ hours, to Lexington. We stayed with my cousin Shannon, but since we got in late we didn’t get to talk very much.
The next morning we woke up at 7am and were on the road again. We stopped at the John Johnson House and took a tour of the house. It is where Joseph Smith was tarred and feathered and where he received the revelation in D&C 76. It was neat to visit. Then we drove to Kirtland and took part of the tour to the historic homes in Kirtland. I especially enjoyed seeing the School of the Prophets and hearing about the revelations received in some of those buildings. Then we went to the Kirtland Temple. Since it’s owned by another church we had to pay to take the tour. The video had some inaccuracies in it which made it difficult to feel the Spirit at times. Errolyn and Cameron especially noted that they didn’t “feel” the same when they were in this building or during the video as they had in Kirtland and they both wanted to leave. I didn’t make them watch the whole video but wanted them to see inside of the Kirtland Temple. It was neat to go inside of the temple, and even though it’s owned by a different church now and isn’t used as a temple anymore, Mike and I both felt the Spirit in the room where Jesus had appeared inside the Kirtland Temple. Although in general, I have to agree with the kids, it did feel uncomfortable and different in the other areas or the building we initially began the tour in. We decided to go back to the LDS Visitor’s Center and watch the video we had initially skipped. The Spirit was strong during the video and the kids remarked about the difference in how they felt during that video versus the previous one.
Then we drove to Niagara Falls. I had never been to Canada before so that was neat for me. On the drive I began getting sick, really sick. At first I thought I was car sick, but later realized I had a bad stomach bug. It lasted about 24 hours, for which I was grateful. I hobbled to the Falls with the family to see the Falls at night. They were beautiful, but I wasn’t able to enjoy them much because I was feeling so sick. Niagara Falls was the one thing I had really, really wanted to see on this vacation so I was upset I wasn’t able to enjoy them. Thankfully, I received a tender mercy the next morning and felt good enough to enjoy the Falls. I took a lot of medicine to additionally help me and by the end of the day I was great. We took the Maid of the Mist boat ride to Niagara and it was beautiful! It was just as magnificent and wonderful as I’d imagined!! I secretly wished we could have spent a couple more days there just hiking in and out of the Falls, but I was still satisfied with our boat ride and the walking we’d had.
Then we drove about an hour to Rochester and went to the Museum of Play. It was ultimately a giant toy museum with a lot of really cool things for the kids to do and play with. Mike and I both thought it was ok, but the way the kids raved about it we will probably have to go back next time we’re in the area if we still have young children. Then, we drove 30 minutes to Palmyra and ate at the Chill n’ Grill. The ice cream was good, but the food was overpriced and not that great. We checked in at our Bed and Breakfast and I was dying. During the rest of the vacation we’d had nice Hampton’s or Hilton Garden hotels, but this was the one city that was completely booked up. I would have been fine at this place except the entire house stunk horribly of moth balls. I didn’t know what to do because there was nowhere else to stay in the entire city and we’d already paid half the money up front. So, I sucked it up and slept with a shirt over my face to block the smell. Additionally, the kids couldn’t play outside because there was a high voltage fence to keep the coyotes away from the sheep and there were cats at the house which Logan and Cameron are both allergic to so we had to medicate them both.
After checking into our B&B, we went to the Palmyra Visitor’s Center. They showed a video about the Restoration and I noticed that Logan was quiet and watching instead of being wiggly. At one point near the end of the video I felt the Spirit especially strong and Logan must have too because he lost it and started bawling. He said he was feeling the Spirit a lot and it made him feel good. He didn’t know how to express himself and so he just cried while I held him. He’s a good boy. Afterwards, we went and got our seats for the Hill Cummorah Pageant. I was saving our seats while Mike was playing frisbee with the kids in the field way behind us. Apparently, one of Mike’s old best friends that moved to Connecticut coincidentally was also at the Pageant the same night we were. Mike got to talking to his friend and Emma ran off. Mike came back to me thinking she had come back to me, and she had not. Thankfully we found her but I was majorly freaking out and didn’t let her out of my sight after that. The Pageant was great and the special effects were really cool. The kids all enjoyed it too.
In the morning, we woke up early to go to the Sacred Grove and to get out of the stinky house. The Sacred Grove was really neat and the Spirit was really strong there. This was the second place I was really looking forward to seeing. We all separated a little so we could have our own little prayers and reflect and feel the Spirit in the grove. Then we toured the Joseph Smith Farm which was nice. Then we went to the Book of Mormon Publishing site. We were going to go on a tour but Emma and Logan were melting down so we did an abbreviated visit there. Afterwards, we went to the Palmyra Temple for Errolyn since it’s her favorite temple and then the kids climbed Hill Cummorah with Mike while I stayed behind with Emma. Then we drove to our hotel in New Jersey which was the nicest Hampton I’ve ever stayed at. We decided to not go into New York City that night but to catch up a little, relax, do laundry, and get to bed early. Well, at least the kids went to bed early but I was still doing laundry until midnight.
The next morning we woke up early and took the ferry from New Jersey to the Statue of Liberty. The crown tickets were sold out 3 months ahead of time and since we only decided to go on this trip 2 months ago, we were only able to go to the Monument, but it was still way cool. This was the third place I was really looking forward to seeing and it didn’t disappoint. It was so cool! We saw some Sister Missionaries helping at the Statue which I thought was interesting. We didn’t get to talk to them since the line for free Statue Certificates that they were helping with was too long. Then we took the ferry to Battery Park in New York. Apparently there was a bad heat wave the week we chose to go to New York and D.C. Instead of nice 80 degree weather, it was extremely humid and hot… even worse than where we live now. So, when we got to Battery Park and the kids saw the fountains that were coming out of the ground… they had to go in. They played for a while and loved it, although later realized that wet clothes and a lot of walking can lead to unpleasant chaffing.
Then we saw the Freedom Tower which Logan was really looking forward to seeing (I read him a library book about what happened before we left) and the 9/11 Memorial. The 9/11 Memorial had giant in-ground fountains that took up the entire space where the twin towers had once stood. I thought they were pretty neat. We took the subway twice and Cameron and Logan both that it was so cool and wanted to ride it everywhere. Then we paid a fortune to go up the Empire State Building. Mike and I both decided we’d never go up again because of the price, but Cameron, Errolyn, and Logan all said it was in their top 5 things they did on the trip, so maybe we’ll have to go again someday. Cameron was terrified at the top but in the end it was his favorite thing of the trip. Errolyn, of course, loved it. Then we walked around Times Square which was ok. When we were in Niagara we walked down Clifton Hill which was this super cool street with tons of nightlife and cool shops… I thought that street was even cooler than Times Square, but it was still fun to see. I also saw the Bull on Wallstreet, which normally wouldn’t be cool, but now that I’m into stock trading it was cool to see. We took a private fairy back to New Jersey and it was wonderful. It was a smaller ferry that went faster and had an open top and the breeze was wonderful and the view was amazing. In general, I wasn’t fond of New York City… too busy and dirty for my taste, but it was still fun to see the sights.
The next morning we drove to Philadelphia. Every time I had looked for tour tickets online for Independence Hall there were always tickets available for the following day, so I was waiting to book my tickets to make sure we were able to do everything in New York and didn’t need to go to Philly later rather than earlier the next day. So, it turns out all of the next day tickets were sold out when I went to buy them the night before, such is life. We showed up early and were able to get some walk-in tickets for 12:30pm… but it was 10am and we didn’t want to wait around for 2 hours. So, we saw the Liberty Bell and decided to go on to Valley Forge… we’ll see the tour next time. We were just going to do a quick drive around Valley Forge when I noticed the bike rental place there. My kids all love to ride bikes, so we quickly decided to rent bikes. I have not been on a bike in a while because of my knee injury (which hurt a little afterwards, but not horribly), but I absolutely loved riding around at Valley Forge. The scenery was so beautiful, the breeze was heavenly, and it was so fun to ride around as a family and stop and see the sites without having to look for parking. This is the best way to see Valley Forge! Made my top 5 list for the trip. After we turned in our bikes, we drove back to the Washington Chapel and it was beautiful… very different from anything I’d seen before.
Then we went to the Hershey Factory. We took the tour, which was like a Disney ride and was cool. Then we went to the Hershey Creation Studio and the kids created their own ice cream sundaes with any topping that Hershey had… yes, way too much sugar, but they loved it. Logan has decided that he should never eat that much sugar again because it makes his stomach hurt… lol, I wonder why? Then we drove to Gettysburg. We had borrowed some CDs from a friend to take a driving tour of Gettysburg. We did about half the tour before it got dark. The kids really enjoyed catching fireflies since they had never seen them before.
The next morning was Sunday. We all got up and were going to go to church in Hannover and then finish the driving CD tour in Gettysburg. However, and I know I’ve done this once before, I stupidly and accidentally took an Ambien when I woke up instead of my Synthroid. I was getting the kids dressed for church when I started having major vertigo and told Mike that the room was spinning. It was he who discovered I’d taken the wrong medicine, so I ended up sleeping the entire morning and Mike took the kids to church. I felt badly for not being able to go, but once I take Ambien I am out in 20 minutes whether I want to be or not. We finished the driving tour of Gettysburg and Mike had a great time seeing all of the battle sites. This was his favorite part of the trip. The kids didn’t enjoy the CD part as much, but enjoyed getting out and climbing the towers and rocks at some of the battle sites.
We drove to our hotel in Dulles and then decided to go see the Memorials since they are free. The Lincoln Memorial is my favorite. The Memorial is so grand and wonderful and I just feel such a kinship and pride for Abraham Lincoln. We also saw the WWII Memorial, but the fountains were off, and then we saw the Vietnam Memorial. We found a soldier with my maiden name and the kids were all excited to see a name they knew so we took a picture in front of the name. The kids also enjoyed seeing the Washington Monument, even though it was still under construction from the earthquake.
The next morning we woke up early to get into the city. We stopped by the Museum of American History. We had several friends (and my husband went there last month) tell us the only thing worth seeing for kids was the Star Spangled banner exhibit, so we saw that and a cool dollhouse and left. Then we went to the National Archives. I saw another family with a lot of kids, all dressed modestly, and I could make out the faint impression of an outline under the mom’s shirts so I asked if they were LDS. They were, and were from Minnesota. We talked in line for a while and then saw the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. It’s always neat seeing those documents. Then we went to the Air & Space museum. The kids enjoyed it, but aren’t the types to read everything so even though we walked through all of the exhibits we didn’t take more than a couple of hours there.
After lunch, we took pictures in front of the Capitol and then met an intern for our Congressman at the Cannon House building. Because we e-mailed him ahead of time we had a private tour set up. I didn’t know that there were underground tunnels in D.C. that connected everything. We took the underground tunnel to the Capitol and it was way cool. We skipped all of the lines because the intern would flash her badge and we would walk right into everything. She showed us things that aren’t on the regular tour and it was really neat. By the time we were done with the tour, the Library of Congress was closed so we took pictures in front of it and the Supreme Court building, which was under construction. Then we went to the Museum of Natural History and that was really cool. I wished we’d had another hour there, but we still got to see everything. The kids really enjoyed the exhibits, but Logan especially loved everything. He loved the mummies, he loved the dinosaurs, and he loved the giant insects. They had a room full of jewels, some from Marie Antoinette and also the Hope Diamond. Emma LOVED this room. At every piece of jewelry she saw she would gasp in awe and exclaim, “My crown!” or “My necklace!” It was so cute. Afterwards, we went to the Jefferson Memorial and then saw the D.C. temple at night which was really pretty. I didn’t realize it was also Cameron’s favorite temple. I’m kicking myself for not having him bring his recommend so he could do some baptisms while we were there… didn’t even think about it, but he still enjoyed seeing the temple.
The next day we went to the Air & Space Museum in Dulles. It was way cooler than the one downtown. We watched an IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope and then we toured the planes and space shuttle. The three oldest went on a Space Shuttle simulation ride and then a fighter pilot simulation ride which they all really enjoyed. Emma got to sit in a small airplane and drive, which she thought was cool. Then we went in the observation tower and saw and heard the air traffic controllers and their screens. After a few hours there we decided we would go to Mount Vernon instead of back to the Library of Congress. None of the kids were looking forward to the tour of the Library and we had several friends tell us we “had” to go to Mount Vernon, so we opted for that. The kids had an activity where they had to go to different exhibits to fill out questions to get a prize, which they enjoyed. I enjoyed touring George Washington’s home and Mike enjoyed the museum. They had a cool 4-D movie about the Revolutionary War. Emma enjoyed the play room with the doll house, dress up clothes, babies, etc., but there was a 20 minute time limit so she was crushed when she had to leave so soon. Then we drove out to Arlington and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Kennedy grave with the eternal flame. Logan thought it was so cool that the cemetery was so big and that he could see the Pentagon in the distance.
Then we went to the Visitor’s Center at the D.C. temple and walked around the temple. The grounds had been closed for the last couple of weeks for maintenance so it was the first night open and a great way to end the vacation. It’s such a beautiful and grand temple that you can’t help being impressed with such a structure as well as feel the Spirit there.
We slept in the next morning since the drive to Shannon’s wasn’t very long. On the drive back we had the kids watch National Treasure and they were all excited to see so many things in the movie that they had just seen in person. Even Emma was excited to see things she recognized. We made it to Shannon’s house and were able to talk for a couple of hours before going to bed. We woke up at 4am to begin the long drive back home. We were doing great until 6 hours from home and then Emma threw up. We stopped the car, cleaned it up, and then 10 minutes later she threw up again… everywhere. It was horrible! We found a rest stop to clean up at while Emma lay on a picnic table. Emma threw up again at the rest stop, but then was good for the rest of the trip. We got home at almost 11pm, started some laundry, gave everyone showers, and then went to bed.
It was a long, jam-packed vacation but all in all, we had a blast! We saw so many really neat and wonderful things, had a good time together, and hopefully will provide our kids with some fun and neat memories. We’ve realized we don’t have too many summers left with Cameron before he goes on his mission, so we’ve made a goal to have memorable summer vacations and see some well-known sites. We’ll probably have to repeat the vacations eventually so the younger ones can see the same sites, but it will still be fun. Cameron will study U.S. History this next year in school so I’m excited that he was able to see so many things he will study about. I’m also excited that we were able to see so many church sites and the kids were able to have their own spiritual experiences. I’m also glad the kids had fun… yes, it was mostly in places we didn’t expect (the Museum of Play, Hershey Factory, fountains at Battery Park, catching fireflies in Gettysburg, and D.C.), but they had fun. What a great vacation!!
