St. Louis

St. Louis was one of my favorite stops on the trip. It was a big city, but not too big. Everything was nicely centralized downtown, but the traffic congestion wasn't bad at all. My favorite part was it was clean. The sidewalks and the buildings, it just seemed clean and fresh. I really enjoyed St. Louis. We went to a Cardinals games. Their new stadium was right downtown and made of beautiful red brick. The game was good, the crowd was a little subdued compared to Dodger Stadium, and the Cardinals lost their lead in the 8th and 9th innings, but I liked the park and it was fun to go to a game.
We went to Six Flags St. Louis the next day. The day was a scorcher. The temperature was 98 degrees, but the heat index was 111 degrees (we had to learn that they talk in heat indexes out here, it is temperature plus humidity). It was really hot, but we found ways to survive. They had garden hoses attached to showerheads throughout the park. We just stood under those and that helped. So did the 25 free refills of cold soda. The good news was: everybody else went home and we just walked onto most of the rides.
The next day we finished our time in St. Louis with a bang. We went on a riverboat ride on the Mississippi, then crammed into this tiny pod. It was for 5 people, but they put us all in there. Our knees were touching in the middle. We rode up to the top of the Gateway arch as the pod clunked and swung through the curve. It was a little nerve racking. But we enjoyed the views of the city from atop that famous landmark. From there, we went to our last stop in St. Louis, the City Musueum. Don't let the name fool you into thinking that this is another boring museum that kids are forced to drudge through with their parents. This place was a kids paradise. It was designed with the climbing kid in mind. If you could get there, you were allowed, even encouraged to climb there. There were wire tunnels 3 stories in the air going from airplanes to firetrucks. You could climb under the airplane. Inside there were caves and tunnels, stairs to climb and a 10 story slide to go down. Unfortunately, this place was not made with parents in mind. They asked us to stay with our children, so Jeff went with the big ones and I went with the small ones. After about an hour of trying to squeeze ourselves into places that made fat man's misery feel roomy (see Mammoth Cave) we both gave up and let our kids run wild. It was instantly given the distinction of the best museum on the trip.

Wildflowers

We stayed overnight with Jeff's brother's wife's father, the Bramwells, in Kentucky. He and his wife run a bed and breakfast there. We had the royal treatment. The rooms were gorgeous. They were decorated so exquisitely and with such attention to detail. The kids weren't quite sure what to do. The grounds were beautiful, wildflowers growing everywhere, streams and bridges, a tree lined driveway with the edge of the property lined by forest. There were tree swings to swing on and tadpoles in the stream. But the best part was Bonnie. Bonnie is a wild deer that they feed every morning and evening. Therefore, she is quite accostomed to people. She let us pet her and feed her and hung around the house for about an hour foraging and eating. We were amazed. We felt like we were violating every park rule in the world about don't feed the wild animals, but it was better than a zoo, we were really there with the deer!

Mammoth Cave

We went to Mammoth Cave. We weren't going to be far from it, and I have always wanted to go there. What I didn't realize was that nearly all of Kentucky has a natural basement, it is covered, or resting on a large amount of caves. I always thought caves were in mountains, but not in Kentucky! We loved Mammoth Cave. We went on a special tour of the Frozen Niagara, one of the few places in Mammoth Cave where there are cave formations. This tour allowed us to bring camera equipment and explore the cave at our leisure to take pictures. Jeff was in heaven as he took long exposure shots with the tripod. The next day we took the River Styx tour that took us 350 feet under the surface down to where the water was still flowing through the cave. It was awesome. We went through enormous natural caverns as big as a stadium, then through narrow passes called Tall Man's Agony and Fat Man's Misery until we reached the river hall. This area flooded during last springs heavy rains, so there wasn't any electricity below that level, so we took lanterns down to the very bottom. It was like being an explorer. Jayd picked the tours and I think he did a great job.

Lake Norris

While on the east coast, we really wanted to visit our friends, the Ellis's, in Cinncinnati. They weren't going to be in town when we came through, so they invited us to join them on their vacation at Lake Norris in Northern Tennessee. It was so much fun. We loved Tennessee, it was beautiful. The lake was surrounded by green trees and dense forest. The lake was a beautiful emerald green, and was amazingly warm. It was like jumping into a lukewarm bath. We tried wakeboarding, but I was the only one who was able to get up on the board. The others found plenty of entertainment though, the tube alone was wild and fun. We also spent time jumping off the dock, and the nearby bridge. Yes, my kids friends told them to jump off the bridge, and we said that it was okay! Even Allie and Gabe jumped off the bridge, it was quite a rush.

East Coast Revisited

From Palmyra, we went south. We unknowingly went through Williamsport, the home of little league baseball. When we realized where we were, we made a quick U-turn for a photo op or two. We also saw the nicest little league baseball stadium ever!
We made a planned stop at Hershey, Pennslyvania. It was a quick stop, we were only there for about an hour, but we took the Disneyland style tour (think Haunted Mansion with cows) in the tram about how the chocolate is processed. It takes a really long time to make; I have more respect for that Hershey Bar that I put on my smore's. Our favorite part was picking out a chocolate bar to eat, although I was really mean, I would let them buy the 5 lb bar. (It was good, we hit 100+ degree days a couple of days later. Imagine that mess!)
We finally arrived at our friends, the Eliason's house in Bristow Virginia. Since we visited with them two years ago when we travelled to the east coast, we didn't do any sightseeing here, we just had a much needed down day relaxing with our friends.

Palmyra

Palmyra was one of my favorite stops on this trip. We arrived early on Monday morning. We had made previous arrangements for Maddie and Jayd to do baptisms for the dead with Jeff. I am so jealous. They said the temple was nearly empty, so after they had completed the baptisms, the temple worker showed them a few things in the temple, like the one window without a stained glass forest. This one window looked out over the sacred grove.
We reunited as a family and went to the Joesph Smith Farm. We were able to see a replica of the log cabin where Moroni appeared to Joesph, and the original family farm where he brought the plates and hid them from the ensuing mobs. Then we were able to wander through the sacred grove. It was so beautiful, just like I had imagined it. There were spindly leafy trees with scattered sunshine shining through. The sunlight lit up the leaves making a bright green color. It was quiet, and peaceful. We enjoyed feeling of the sweet spirit during our visit there.
We went up to the Hill Cumorah. We were not there for the pageant, it ended about a week before we arrived, but there was still plenty of evidence that a large gathering had taken place! We enjoyed being atop of the hill. The kids wanted to roll down the face of the hill, a rather steep drop, but we convinced them to walk down the wooded path on the back of the hill.
We also visited the printing shop where the first Book of Mormon was printed. They had a very nice demonstration and display on how books were printed and bound in the early 19th century. We really enjoyed that.
We ended the day with a visit to the restored Peter Whitmer cabin, the site where the church was organized on April 6, 1830. Gabe had a very hard time believing that 30-40 people could fit in such a tiny room. It must have been very squishy.

Niagara Falls

Since we would be driving fairly close, we decided to make a stop at Niagara Falls. We hadn't intended to do any of the tours while we were there, but we arrived just in time to catch the last "Maid of the Mist" boat ride out to see the waterfalls. I am glad that we did. It was really fun to go on the boat and see the waterfalls up close. The American Falls were a very pretty waterfall, the sun was shining just right to create rainbows over the falls. The Horseshoe Falls were quite exciting as the boat pitched back and forth in the turbulent waters and the wind blew and nearly took our ponchos off and the spray coming from the falls stung our faces. It was quite a wild ride. However, the kids favorite part was getting ponchos as souvenirs!