Thanksgiving In New York

For Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take a little trip to Niagra Falls and then down to Palmyra, New York. We left Wednesday and drove through Canada to the falls. It was a little cold, but they were beautiful. Tom had never been there, and I had only seen the falls from the US side. Ainsley was fascinated by the waterfall, but kept telling us that she "didn't want to go swimming."
After viewing the falls, we drove to Buffalo, New York to eat at the Anchor Bar, the birth place of Buffalo Wings. Tom loved them, they were a little spicy for me, but they were delicious. After dinner, we drove to our hotel in Rochester where we spent the next few days.
Thursday morning, we woke up and drove down to Geneva, New York right along the Finger Lakes. We ate Thanksgiving Dinner at Belhurst Castle on Seneca Lake. We had a beautiful view of the lake while we ate Thanksgiving dinner. On the way down, Tom and I counted that this was our fourth Thanksgiving at a restaurant of the eight we spent together. And we've only had three with family, and the last one with all our friends in Indiana. We just like to travel on Thanksgiving week:)
After dinner, we drove back through Palmyra and quickly saw where everything was located that we would be visiting the next day. Then we went back to our hotel to skype with both families and relax.
Friday morning, we drove to Palmyra and visited each of the Church's historical sites. We started at the Hill Cumorah. It was really cold and windy as we walked around the monument. Then we drove down to the Smith Family farm and saw where Joseph Smith and his family lived. The missionaries there gave us a tour of the log cabin home and the Frame home. Then we walked through the Sacred Grove together as a family. It was so peaceful. We wish we could have seen it when it was green, but it was still beautiful. Afterward, we headed into the town of Palmyra to see the Grandin building where the Book of Mormon was published. Then we had some lunch and headed south to the Peter Whitmer Farm where the the Book of Mormon was translated and the Church was organized in 1830. It was special to see all these historical sites and see where our church began. After leaving the farm, Tom dropped me off at the Palmyra Temple to do a session. Then he went to a session the next morning before we left to go home.
We missed spending Thanksgiving with our family, but we had a fun trip just the three of us!