As we made our from the west side of New York to New York City, we made many stops along the way. Some were intentional, and others were spontaneous. Watkins Glen was a spontaneous stop and I wish we had made more time.

Hallie had told us about her beautiful visit Watkins Glen when she lived nearby but with our packed itinerary, we just couldn’t it it in. And then as we were driving, we realized it was only about 40 minutes out of our way. It only left us an hour to explore but it was well worth our time. We hiked into the canyon as far as we could given our time constraints before having to turn around and luckily in our short time we saw several waterfalls and it was a great stop to break up the driving.

One of our planned stops was on our last leg – making our way to New York City – a stop at the Priesthood Restoration Sites in Harmony, Pennsylvania. This site was just 20 minutes outside of the first area Hallie’s served in so although they had invites to go with members, they weren’t given permission to leave their area.

While not as well known as some of the other church history sites we visited, it holds a significant piece of history. We enjoyed the interactive visitor’s center and video, a guided tour of the property, the quiet “sugar bush” grove and wandered over to the Susquehanna River and skipped rocks. It was a slow and reflective stop on our journey – we weren’t in a hurry so we soaked it all in.

We went from Harmony, Pennsylvania to Newark, New Jersey where he crashed for one night and enjoyed takeout and game three of the NBA finals, Knicks vs Spurs. It was an intense game and there was a lot of yelling at the TV.

We’re not Spurs or Knicks fans, but you better believe since we were in New York City during the finals, we became Knicks fans!

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In Hallie’s 18 months, she served in just four areas. So our last two stops in Hallie’s mission tour led us to Rochester and Binghamton (she didn’t feel the need to go back to one of her areas!)

If you ask Hallie, her favorite area was Rochester. I think it has something to do with the fact that she only spent one summer in New York and she was assigned to Rochester. It didn’t matter where she was assigned; her summer area would have probably been her favorite! On top of that, Rochester was home to some of her favorite friends and members so we were excited to go visit and Hallie made sure we were there over a Sunday so she could maximize the people she would see at church.

Without any coordination, her companion, who served with her in Rochester, happened to be visiting with her family the very same weekend which made our Sunday visit even more special. The A team was reunited!

Hallie was close with several members in this area, including several she taught and it was fun meeting some of them.

Two members in particular who took her under their wing were the Stake President’s family and his counselor’s family. They found out Hallie’s first week in the area that she played tennis and they took time out of their busy schedules on numerous occasions to play with Hallie and her companion – one the highlights of her whole mission!

We were touched when they invited us over for lunch after church and we quickly realized we were meant to be friends. It’s no wonder Hallie was drawn to them.

How do you thank people who carried your child when you couldn’t? Playing tennis for Hallie was an immediate mood booster even though she was rusty and it was often drizzling rain. The court is where she felt at home even when nothing else resembled home. The let her use their racquets, the provided competition and my heart was full of gratitude beating both of them.

We made our way to Binghamton, which was probably her second favorite area – the first area she served in. She was there for 6 months and they were all so warm and welcoming (several no pictured).

We were able to meet one of her companions still serving – they got along so well and their time serving together wasn’t long enough. The bishop’s family invited us over, which was so generous and he happened to go to junior high with Steve, small world!

We had some unwanted excitement at their house that evening. Briggs was playing with their kids in part of their 8-acre forest. Before long, I saw Hunter walking up the hill holding Briggs in a cradled position. He didn’t appear to be in distress but he was complaining his foot hurt and he couldn’t walk. As we investigated the source of his pain, I removed his black sock only to realize it was saturated in blood. I rung it out in the sink for a minute before the water wasn’t pink. He had some type of deep puncture wound. We examined his shoe and found the bed of the shoe completely bloody. The cause was a mystery – we can only assume something in the forest had pierced his shoe and punctured his foot. He was a champ as strangers surrounded him trying to help him get the wound cleaned up. He was as calm as could be – except he couldn’t put any pressure on his foot, and he’s our toughest kid.

Nothing like an unplanned urgent care visit on vacation!

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Buffalo is the last area Hallie served in and it was the first area she returned to visit. There were two places Hallie wanted us to see and a simple request: Anchor Bar (Home of the original BBQ wings) and Niagara Falls and a visit to her church building where her missionary district was playing volleyball – we happily obliged.

We hit up Anchor and the church the night we rolled in. The wings were tasty and Hallie enjoyed introducing us to her last companion as well as the others she had served around. She had only been gone 3.5 weeks so everyone still felt familiar – in fact her district was exactly as she had left it – they just backfilled her!

The next morning we hit Niagara. Our original plan was to take the traditional Maid of the Mist ferry. The night before, I was buying tickets and I saw another excursion, Cave of the Winds. I was watching videos of people taking an elevator down and then hiking close to the waterfall and getting absolutely drenched. I showed the kids and they didn’t share my same excitement. The idea of getting soaked and then having to continue walking around wasn’t the best selling feature. I didn’t book either excursion and figured we would book it when we got there.

When we arrived, we walked through the park straight to falls and peered over the edge. There we could see the ferry the kids opted to take. But as we got even closer to the edge and looked straight down, we could see people in yellow ponchos getting soaked. I think it was Bennett who was the first to say, “That looks fun”. Which is funny because I’m pretty sure he was the harshest critic of the idea the night before. Slowly but surely, all the kids were on board.

The plan was to walk Cave of the Winds and then after, we would get a different view of the falls by ferry. We weren’t prepared with water shoes so we had to improvise by removing our shoes and putting them under our ponchos.

We had an absolute blast, and while the photos provide a quick snapshot, they don’t come close to telling the whole story. The videos of the kids laughing, splashing, and even lying down in the falls are what truly capture the experience.

I wasn’t entirely surprised that once we made our way back to the top of the falls – the kids weren’t quite as interested in the ferry ride. Once you walk through the waterfall, looking at it from afar isn’t the same thrill! We probably should have started with the ferry and ended with the hike. Either way, we experienced the majesty of Niagara.

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The week before we were leaving for New York, we were disappointed to learn the forecast called for rain every day we were going to be in New York. Not ideal, but it was out of our control. So we packed extra shoes and umbrellas! And then we continued to watch the weather change. Our trip full of rain shifted to just a few days of rain – the days we would be in Palmyra and the Sacred Grove. And then when we were in Niagara Falls, we saw a window of sunshine and we opted to head to Palmyra a little early in hopes of spending some time in the Sacred Grove before the rain – and it was the best audible we pulled the whole trip.

We got there just a little bit before sunset, which turned out to be the best time. We took the guided tour around the historic homes (including the reconstructed childhood home where Moroni first visited Joseph Smith) and then made our way through the grove with the last light of the day filtering through the trees. It was quiet and peaceful and oddly uncrowded; it created a reflective environment for all of us. Before long, our group of seven naturally drifted apart, each of us finding our own quiet place to sit, think, and simply enjoy a few moments of stillness. (The stillness could have lasted all night if it weren’t for the aggressive mosquitos who decided to join us in the grove!)

This impromptu evening definitely made my highlight list.

Our evening in the grove was a stark contrast to the first time Hallie visited the grove the first winter she was in New York.

We walked the grounds of the Palmyra Temple – the first temple to have an online dedication that both Steve and I participated in when we were in high school. It sits on some of the original land from the Smith farm and has a beautiful, bird’s-eye view of the grove.

The stained glass wrapping around the temple is intricate and impressive, depicting the grove.

The next day was the original day we had scheduled in Palmyra. We started the day at the Hill Cumorah. We went back to the temple and did baptisms with the kids and made another stop at the Sacred Grove. No tour, just wanted the opportunity to be back in the grove for a little bit. Our last stop of the day was the Grandin Print Press. My expectations were low for this main street museum but it far exceeded my expectations. The sister missionaries giving the tour were animated and entertaining and they did a great job of keeping the attention of even our youngest visitor and we all learned a lot.

God’s fingerprint from the day: After our tour, we walked out of the print shop and we were standing on the sidewalk discussing what we should do next. Should we go get ice cream? Should we drive 35 minutes to another historic sites? We stood outside debating for probably 10 minutes.

As we stood there talking, I noticed two women walking toward us, and one of them looked strangely familiar. The closer she got, the longer I stared, and the more certain I became that I knew her. About the same time I recognized her, she recognized us. She immediately walked over to us and wrapped us in a hug with tears running down her face.

Years ago, she lived just one street away from us and we became friends her and her husband. Her son and his family were living with them at the time, and her grandchildren became good friends with Hallie and Hunter. They moved away nearly five years ago, and not too long ago, her husband passed away unexpectedly and we hadn’t seen her since. We were a familiar face from her life with her husband and it made her emotional, which in turn made us emotional.

It’s a good thing we stood on the sidewalk for so long debating our next stop!

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Just 3.5 weeks after Hallie got home from her mission, we made the trek back to visit her mission. It wasn’t always the plan to go back so soon after she came home, that’s just how it worked with our summer schedule and the boys’ commitments. In hindsight, waiting until the end of the summer might have given Hallie a little more time to settle into life at home before revisiting so many mission memories. But once we were there, we knew we had made the right choice. It was a meaningful trip for all of us.

There are a lot of church history sites in her mission and just outside her mission so we decided to expand the trip to take in a few more sites.

We started in Kirtland, Ohio – which is rich in history. When Hallie and Hunter were young, we visited friends and they took us around to the sites, but the kids were little and they don’t remember any of it. So they were taking it all in with fresh eyes.

We knew that spending hours walking through museums and historical sites isn’t every kid’s dream vacation, so we tried to keep a good balance. We let the kids set the pace and resisted the temptation to see every single site just because we were there. There were a few moments when Steve and I were ready to drive another thirty minutes to visit one more isolated site, but the kids had reached their limit. And honestly, that was okay. What we did see – they enjoyed and they were willing participants. 

Kirtland is a small town and we spent about 5 hours visiting the temple (as a museum, not a functioning temple) as well as Joseph and Emma’s home, a cemetary and “historic” Kirkland which housed the Newel K Whitney store, Whitney home, the ashery and mill.

Everyone agreed the highlight of the day was the temple; the first temple built in this dispensation. The temple where miracles and spiritual manifestations have been recorded and we couldn’t help but feel that while we sat within those sacred walls.

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