Mini Vacation, Day 1: Palmyra, NY

(Warning - this is REALLY picture heavy. If you're a friend on Facebook, these pictures can be found on my Profile as well.)

We left our home in Connecticut at 8:35 in the morning on Thursday, April 22, headed…north. We had a 5 and a half hour drive ahead of us. (Luckily, the kids were GREAT on the way up. Siu Jeun slept a lot, and Ming Wai watched movies. Lots of movies.)
(I should explain that this was all very last minute. We had talked, vaguely, of taking this trip this particular week, but the details never panned out. On Tuesday of that week, Lo Gung called me and said that work was light…and he could take a few days off at the end of the week if I still wanted to make this trip. Yes! Visiting Palmyra and Niagara Falls was on our To Do List before we left New England. On Tuesday night we sat down and picked out rooms on Priceline.com. Wednesday I did laundry and packed, and Thursday we hit the road.)
 
(Hanging out in the visitors center, and Ming Wai with some pretty tulips)

(Near the top of the hill, Angel Moroni statue)
   
(Looking down Hill Cumorah from the top, and Looking up Hill Cumorah from the bottom)
Day 1: Palmyra, NY
We made a quick stop about two exits outside of Palmyra for a bite to eat, and rolled into town about 2:30 pm. Our first stop was at the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center. The hill is…steep. Really, really steep. The kids did great getting up it…Siu Jeun walked most of the way up himself! Of course, as soon as we got to the top…the sprinklers came on. And nothing in this green earth can make a three year old scream I GOTTA PEE!!! faster than…a sprinkler. So, we didn’t spend a whole lotta time up time. Lo Gung scooped up Ming Wai and hurried her down the hill, while Siu Jeun and I moseyed our way back down. (In the last picture, you can see he was a bit put out – he walked all the way down the hill, and when he got there…he couldn’t even find Dad. What’s the point, if you can’t even find Dad?!)

For the uninitiated, here’s a quick history. AGES ago (starting BC), there were people living on the American continents called Nephites and Lamanites. They decended from Nephi and Laman, sons of a prophet that fled persecution in Jerusalem and ended up in the Americas. Nephi and Laman had a falling out of sorts (Laman tried to kill Nephi. Big no-no in family relations!) and divided into two tribes. The Nephites were, in general, the God-following half of the island, and they kept records of their civilization. LOTS of records. Fast forward. There was a prophet named Mormon, a Nephite, who was witnessing what he believed to be the end of his civilization. The Nephites and Lamantes were in a war, to the death, and the Nephites were losing. He made it his life’s work to take the HUNDREDS of years of records, and edit them down to one book that would chronicle the civilization from the beginning all the way to the end. He wrote his new book on golden plates, knowing that they would last (very nearly) forever and could be found by…whoever found them down the road, so that the story of his people wouldn’t die with him. He died before he could finish, and he passed the work on to his son, Moroni. Moroni finished the editing of the work, went to the top of the highest hill in the area, dug a hole, lined it with rocks, placed his (and his father’s) life work in the hole, covered it with another rock…and walked away. That is as much as we know.
Fast forward again to colonial America. White Man has arrived, settled, colonized, revolutionized and become a country. In upstate New York, there was a lot of interest in religion going on. Revivals every weekend, preaching from soap boxes…that sort of thing. A 14 year old named Joseph Smith was trying really hard to figure out which church was right..and was having an awful time of it. Everybody read the same Bible, but everybody interpreted it differently. Finally, he read in James 1:5 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” So that’s what he did. He went into a grove of trees near his home (we’ll see that in a second), knelt down and prayed…and was answered by a personal visit from God the Father, and Jesus Christ. They told him, essentially, that none of the churches were entirely right, and that They were going to restore the church of Christ, just like it was during Christ’s ministry.
As part of that restoration, Moroni (now an angel) visited Joseph Smith and told him where he had hidden the record of the people that had lived here. (They were important, because it was another testament of Jesus Christ – he visited the people here after his ministry in Jerusalem was done.) And where were they buried? Hill Cumorah!
Got all that? Ok. Moving on.
Next stop – the Palmyra Temple.

(Big Sis pushing Little Brother keeps them both occupied!, and Angel Moroni, on top of the temple.)

(An “artistically blown out” shot of the temple - ‘cause we’re going to pretend it was on purpose- and the required “flowering tree beauty shot.” Heh.)

(Me and the kidlets, and a final shot of the front of the temple)
(PS – I made that skirt Ming Wai is wearing, and it was a HIT with her. Yea for that!)
(PPS – Note to self. That shirt makes you look pregnant. Repurpose it into something else. ANYTHING else. Immediately.)
From the temple grounds, we went on to see the Smith Family farm, just down the street.
 
(The log cabin the large family lived in for the first winter, and a close up of the ropes on a “rope bed”. The mattress/ticking was suspended on ropes, instead of slats as we use now. I thought this was especially cool because my grandparents own a similar bed, brought across the plains by Grandpa’s ancestors, and since converted to a slat bed.)

(Siu Jeun and a fabulous missionary/tour guide peeking out the back door of the log home and the log home’s kitchen. All 11 of the family members would gather here every evening to listen to Father read from his Bible.)
 
(There was a small litter of fox pups living on the farm, and a picture of some of the farm fences)

(The Smith “frame home”, as opposed to the “log home.” Their son, Alvin, started this for his future bride and aging parents, but died before he could finish building it. Eventually, the Smiths hired a neighbor to finish building it, and did move in. Also, a picture of the detail on a hand-painted oilcloth “rug.” Mrs. Smith was (locally) quite famous for the lovely rugs she made.)
 
(The pride and joy of Mrs. Smith’s kitchen – a soapstone sink. It had no running water, but it did sport a pipe that would let the waste water back out into the yard, saving her the trip. Also, a picture of the “bee skep” – bee hives made from hollowed logs.)

(Family shots in the Sacred Grove. Remember our lesson from above? These are the woods where Joseph Smith went to pray that day, and consequently had his vision.)

(Now we have Little Brother pushing Big Sister. She was tired…and he was antsy. Perfect solution!

(Introducing, the inhabitants of Casa LoLo…Shadow Style.)
Our last stop was at the Lake Stone House. The house stands on the land that used to belong to a Mr. Martin Harris. Martin Harris was a friend to Joseph Smith, and helped him as a scribe while translating the Book of Mormon into English. Mr. Harris’ house burned down ages ago, and the next owner of the farm (I believe) built this home (in the 1830’s?). The Church has since bought the farm land, and the home is currently the residence of several missionaries, I think.

And that’s Day 1!! We found our hotel after this, grabbed a quick dinner at a nearby noodle place, and the kids conked out at about 9 pm. We all slept like rocks that night.
(I’m sorry these are taking so long to put together. It was a really packed trip!!)