Chieko and I are sitting in the waiting room of the IHC Neurosciences Institute (our back doctor's office)--we coincidentally ended up with adjoining appointments--and I am filling out the paperwork. I ask Chieko the date. She says, "September 27." I suddenly realize we had forgotten our 42nd wedding anniversary yesterday. Oh well. We've been planning to leave on a two-week vacation to New York City, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Niagara Falls, and Palmyra tomorrow. We'll call this our anniversary trip.
Thursday, September 28.
As usual, we leave our house exactly two hours prior to the scheduled flight departure. This gives us plenty of time to park at Diamond, ride the shuttle to the airport, drop off our bags, go through TSA Precheck, and arrive at the gate about 30 minutes before boarding. But, of course, just after TSA I get a message from Delta telling us our flight will be delayed an hour and 10 minutes. So we share a Cafe Rio breakfast burrito and have some reading time.
Gate D12 is at the end of the terminal with a bunch of other gates and is always crowded and noisy.
A few hours later we're in New York, and based on a recommendation by one of Chieko's Instagram friends, we stop at Luke's Lobsters. The price of $17 for the lobster-stuffed roll and $2 for a bag of chips doesn't surprise me, and the food is very good, especially for a food court, but how small the sandwich is for the price is a bit of a disappointment. Chieko supplements her lobster roll with a small $13 bowl of ramen from the stand next door. I decide some nice dessert somewhere will finish off my meal.
The roll is stuffed with a lot of small lobster tails. I wonder if they're langostino (sometimes called lobster but not closely related) or crawfish (these are probably too big for crawfish). Whatever, they are tasty.
Restrooms are down narrow, old stairs in the basement of Luke's Lobsters. The hallway to the restrooms have these cool old-looking lights.
It wouldn't be New York without a visit to Times Square.
There's a new theme store near Times Square called Line Friends. It's Korean, and I can't figure exactly what it is. The store sells expensive stuffed bears. The store has something to do with social media, but I can't tell if there's a related TV show or just a social media movement afoot.
Next to the Broadway theaters is a restaurant called Junior's with two cheesecake carry-out stores attached. Here I get a slice of cherry cheesecake that is out of this world, to-die-for delicious. Yes. I plan to stop here again on Friday after we see Anastasia. For $7.50, the slice is almost more than two of us can finish. None goes to waste, though.
Chieko needs an "I Heart New York" sweatshirt, so we stop in a souvenir shop.
Some guys making New York pizza. When he sees my camera, the pro takes the dough from the junior cook to show off his skills.
Just a couple eating sushi in a sidewalk restaurant.
At night, all the garbage comes out to the sidewalks of most NY streets.
We take the New Jersey Transit train back to the Newark Airport Marriott. This is just another passenger waiting with us in Newark Penn Station.
Here's our train. We got on a northbound train at NY Penn Station but found out it doesn't go to the airport, so we get off at Newark Penn Station and switch to the Trenton train. This takes us to the airport Air Train, which takes us to the P4 stop. There we catch the Newark Airport Marriott shuttle to our hotel. Good night.
Friday, September 29.
In the morning, the New Jersey Transit train arrives to take us to New York Penn Station.
On the train.
And waiting for the subway.
On the New York subway.
It also wouldn't be New York without the street-corner food trailers.
These guys are cooking Halal, which is very popular, as you can see by the line waiting for lunch.
We stop in the Plaza Food Hall for lunch.
Vendors sell everything from sandwiches to desserts.
We opt for an Italian sausage. I get brat with veggies, mustard, ketchup, and sourkraut on an Italian cheese roll. Chieko has a beef sausage.
For dessert I have a blueberry cake of some sort, and Chieko has a strawberry thingy.
More than 100 bronze statues inhabit the 14th Street and 8th Avenue subway station.
The statues are in all sorts of situations, many of them uncomfortable.
Many of the bronze people are carrying money such as pennies or foreign coins.
Except these guys, who are just cutting down this pillar.
Police usually catch people trying to sneak onto the subway platform.
They also awaken several bronze people trying to sleep on various hand rails and in various corners of the station.
There's definitely a Monopoly theme going on here.
If you search Google for the statues, this is probably the one you'll see the most.
People seem to be sneaking around, mostly.
Another couple is getting away with a coin.
These workers are cleaning up some coins that could be Japanese 5-yen pieces.
Celebrating with a drink or two.
There are quiet a few workers.
Working a beam with coin in hand.
Lots of coins.
Another couple running with their foreign currency.
I'm not sure what the elephant and giraffe are doing on the beam. Looks like a standoff.
Wake up, lady.
This kid is reading a book while sitting on a Monopoly banker with a pile of coins.
This lady is getting ahead.
This guy insists I take his picture while I am photographing a statue in the corner.
Back on the subway, this girl is watching something private on her cell phone.
Not realizing that with dark windows behind her, her viewing isn't all that private.
I only put this here because the address is 666 5th Avenue (look at the top of the photo). Ooooh. Scary.
Just watching people walk by while I wait for Chieko to shop at Uniqlo.
And, finally, here she comes.
The ubiquitous and iconic hot dog stand.
We opt to eat at Nippori, a Japanese restaurant we found the last time we were in New York a couple years ago. These are wasabi shumai and fried shishito, little Japanese green peppers.
For our main dish we both choose the black sea bass. Oh, so good.
Then we head over to the Broadhurst Theater to see Anastasia.
While waiting for the doors to open, three policemen on horses hang around the theater making small talk with visitors.
This is a very enjoyable play that we highly recommend if you're in NYC.
Can't take photos during the production, so the preshow screen is all you get.
We bought tickets just last week and end up with the first row of the mezzanine (balcony). These are excellent seats with a perfect view of the stage. I notice during the intermission that a lot of people spend their time on their cell phones.
And after the show, we cannot resist another stop at Junior's for another cherry cheesecake. We stand for a few minutes next to the restaurant with a large crowd waiting to see Bette Middler come out of the stage door for Hello Dolly, but the cheesecake has a much stronger pull on us.
New Yorkers are very obedient. Red lights mean nothing. The "Do Not Sit on Stairs" sign in the train station means: Here's the only place in the station to sit.
Here we wait again for the Air Train to take us from the New Jersey Transit train stop to the airport P4 stop.
Saturday, September 30.
On Saturday morning we are to meet Chieko's Instagram friend, Miki-san, from Sydney, along with her friend and the woman who owns the Airbnb where they're staying in NY. We arrive a little early, so we walk around Union Square Park, which is a farmer's market during this time of year.
I have never considered New York a place to shop for produce.
But there are some nice fruits and vegetables here.
Even Brussels sprouts, which I have only seen sold still on the stock at a farm stand near Castroville, California.
The square also has a group protesting against Saudi Arabia for its treatment of Yemen.
We eat lunch with Chieko's friends at a Mexican restaurant called Dos Caminos, which is really good. Because it's Saturday, they are serving brunch, so I have an egg enchilada.
The restaurant is in the Flatiron District.
We also walk through Eataly, which is a corny name for an amazing store and restaurants. Chieko and I decide to come back here for dinner.
The bakery in Eataly.
A Lego store is also in Flatiron.
Next we go to Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) with Chieko's two Sydney friends. The Airbnb owner goes to her home on 53rd Street.
Lower Manhattan from Top of the Rock.
Central Park.
Lower Manhattan again. Top of the Rock has three levels for viewing the city, and we walk around each of them a few times.
For dinner, we're too far from Flatiron to go back to Eataly, so we look on Yelp for a nearby restaurant with good ratings and find Stone Bridge Pizza and Salad. You should eat here. This is very tasty thin-crust pizza. Mine is meat lovers, and Chieko's is a farmer's choice. The restaurant's owner happens to be sitting next to us, and he tells us he grows most of his own vegetables on a farm in Upstate New York. (We will actually pass the farm on our way to Montreal tomorrow.) What he doesn't grow he sources locally and uses only organic, non-GMO produce. He also lets the crust raise for three days, so the yeast produces its own sweet flavor, unlike "other pizza places that raise the dough for a day and then add sugar." This is his first store, which he just opened a few weeks ago, but he hopes to grow and franchise.
Each morning we ride the Newark Airport Marriott shuttle bus to the Air Train to the New Jersey Transit train to NY Penn Station. Then it's subways and walking around new York. Except with Chieko's friends, when we took a bus from Flatiron to Rockefeller Center. The Airbnb owner also clued us in on getting senior discounts for the subway and bus systems. We have to buy the tickets from an agent, and show our ID to prove age. Thus discounts are not available from the machines. The tickets are $2.25 for two rides, rather than $2.75 per ride. I'm insulted, because the first agent doesn't ask for ID. I thank the next one for requiring it.
Here's Chieko at Times Square.
What?! More cheesecake? Ending up at Times Square by coincidence, because this is the easiest route to Penn Station on our route back to the Marriott, we stop at Junior's. We don't even attempt to resist. We do, however, choose pineapple so as not to get stuck in a rut. Plus, the cherry is sold out.
Sunday October 1.
Sunday is driving day to Montreal. We stop at the first nonchain-looking restaurant in Lake George for lunch. At home we have a painting of Lake George that Chieko bought from the Morningstars when they were selling off their antiques to move away. According to Mrs. Morningstar, the late-1800s painting was given to Brigham Young a few years before he died and had hung in his house in farm house.
I have a French dip sandwich, which comes with a great salad bar. We are very happy with this meal. I'd stop here again, but next time I'd share one meal between two of us.
We are able to listen to the morning session of LDS general conference via the KSL radio website on my phone, which is blue-toothed to the car radio. In the afternoon we're driving through the Adirondacks, which have spotty cell coverage (NYDOT even provides emergency roadside phones every two miles), then over the Canadian border, when we lose cell coverage altogether for quite a while. We are saddened to hear Elder Hales has passed away.
In Montreal we head to Old Montreal after checking into the Embassy Suites. This is the Notre-Dame Basilica, where Celine Dion was married in 1994, and where her husband's funeral was held last year.
Inside the basilica everything is made of wood, from the pillars and pews to the podium, alter and statues. This is a beautiful building.
The pipe organ at the back has 7,000 pipes.
The ceiling is covered with thousands of 23K gold-plate stars.
And all the old buildings Old Montreal house clothing and souvenir stores and small restaurants, bistros, and bars.
This is a pretty fun place to walk around.
I'm not sure if this guy is in costume for some reason or if this is his normal dress.
The buildings are all old stone.
I guess Ben and Jerry's has been around a lot longer than I realized.
This is another church a few blocks away from the basilica.
I think this is the front of the chapel, and the previous picture is the back, or vice versa.
City Hall.
This is new Montreal as seen from Old Montreal.
Monday, October 2.
On Monday we drive to Quebec. We're staying in a boutique hotel, the Hotel du Capitole. It is really cool.
Large parts of Quebec burned down over its history, so now nearly everything is built of stone and metal by building code. Quebec is also the only city in North America that has an active citadel and fort wall built around it.
Quebec is built on a hill that drops quickly to the Saint Lawrence River.
We walk from the citadel along a boardwalk to Le Chateau Frontenac hotel.
This spot originally held housing for railroad workers. The rail company then realized tourism was important and built the hotel.
Inside the hotel is quite intriguing. I think this is Santa Claus. Or just an old guy with a beard and snow shoes.
Chieko behind the amaryllis arrangement.
An old but working mail drop. Notice the mail chute above the deposit box area, where mail falls from upper floors.
For dinner we have mussel paella at, I think, the Restaurant Pub D'Orsay. We very much enjoy it.
All the old buildings here also have little stores and restaurants. This is a great place to hang out, and a lot of tourists do.
Chieko's favorite store is La Boutique de Noel.
And guess what. Walking back to the hotel, we're looking for a little dessert after our paella. One restaurant won't seat us because it has only one table left and doesn't want to waste it on people not ordering a full meal. We should have sat down before telling them we only want dessert. So we head toward our hotel and run into a little place that has--you guessed it--cheesecake. Much creamier cheese than Junior's, but really good.
We walk back to the hotel along the top of the fort wall.
Out hotel is on the left of the wall.
The Hotel du Capitole is not a Marriott with a fitness center, in-room safe and soft beds. But I really like these old buildings. The check-in clerk is not only very helpful in recommending the best ways to see the city, but I also enjoy listening to her French accent. I'm also wishing I'd studied up on a little French before coming here.
I love the bathtub.
Tuesday, October 3.
On Tuesday morning, at the advice of the clerk at the hotel, we buy a two-day hop-on, hop-off bus ticket and head to the pier below Le Chateau Frontenac.
The Crown Princess cruise ship with its 19 decks is parked at the dock.
Le Chateau Frontenac from our river tour.
The tour is narrated by Jacques Cartier (or one of his contemporaries), who was the first French explorer to come up the Saint Lawrence River.
Orleans Island in the Saint Lawrence River is inhabited by families who have lived here for generations and grow a lot of produce. Something to do with the weather makes the soil here ideal for all kinds of vegetables and fruits.
What a beautiful place for a farm.
Behind this bridge is Quebec's Chute Montmorency (waterfall). We plan to go to the falls tomorrow.
Here you can see Quebec on the hill to the right just above the narrow spot in the river.
These elevators load ships taking grain to countries around the world.
The Crown Princess ship has some pretty nice life boats. I wouldn't mind bobbing around in the ocean in one of these, but not with a shipfull of other people.
Chieko posing on our tour boat in front of Le Chateau Frontenac.
For lunch we stop in Cochon Dingue (Crazy Pig). I have a maple-smoked pulled pork sandwich (very good), and Chieko has chicken.
More shops.
Chieko now has a sweatshirt from Montreal and one from Quebec.
And then we stop for a small $6 bag of very fresh maple pecan popcorn. I think this is pricey, but by the time we finish the bag, we decide this is a good deal. The tubs in the picture tumble the maple, chocolate, and caramel onto the popcorn. The maple one on the left is currently turning.
Being a citadel, there are a lot of (nonfunctioning) canons all around.
Back on the tour bus. Notice the artwork on the underpass. This red open-top bus does a 1-1/2-hour narrated (by earphones) route around the city. We don't do the whole tour at once, because we hop on and off, but by the end our two days we see the whole tour.
The top of this church has a gold priest with a dog, who brought food to the priest when he was sick.
This railroad building and the one next to it have copper roofs, as do several buildings around.
I like the architecture of these old homes.
Cartier Avenue has interesting lampshades on its streetlights.
We are looking for a good place to eat, maybe French, since we haven't done French yet, but being almost 9 p.m., this street that was crazy packed with tourists when we rode through on the bus earlier in the day, is almost empty, and most of the restaurants are closed or closing.
So we eat at Pizzadelic. Chieko has portobello pasta, and I have a Thai curry pizza. It sounds weird, but it is surprising very good.
Here's Chieko in front of our hotel.
Our room is on the third floor to the right of these windows, facing a concert hall across the street.
Rainy Wednesday, October 4.
First thing in the morning we eat yogurt and a pastry at the Jac and Gil convenience store, and we watch the first tour bus pull away just as we're heading over there. So we wait a half hour for the next bus and take it to Stop 1. Then we take the Blue Line tour bus to the Montmorency Waterfall, and the Montmorency Manor shown here.
The grounds have this interesting bird sculpted in bushes.
And a bunch of pumpkins of all sorts set out for Halloween.
We ride the tram up and then walk along this boardwalk to the top of the falls.
We also see what we had hoped to see all through Upstate New York: fall leaves. The weatherman says the weather's been too warm for leaves and that leaf watchers will be disappointed this year.
Chieko below the brightest fall leaves.
This is the Montmorency Waterfall as seen from the tram.
From the top, we can see a log jam in the river below.
And the spray from the falls. These waterfalls are about twice as high as Niagara, which we plan to visit for the first time in a couple days, but Niagara is much wider. That's what the boat tour guide told us.
Back in Old Quebec, city workers came in and decorated yesterday evening with hundreds of pumpkins, pirates, and fun ghouls. Pirates are big in Halloween decorations all around here.
We stop in the Lapin Saute (cooked rabbit?) for lunch.
I consider the rabbit leg but can't bring myself to pay $27 for a small piece of a small animal I used to raise and eat for nearly free, so I have French onion soup. Chieko has cream of carrot soup, which tastes pretty much like a bowl of carrots. This sounds like a negative review, but we enjoy our lunch.
Here a cannon ball has grown into the base of this tree.
In the afternoon we take the Green Line tour bus to the Wendake village. This is a recreation of a village built by the Huron Native Americans, who used to inhabit the Quebec area. They built these 30- to 40-foot long bark-covered houses and surrounded them with a tall fortress pole wall.
These buildings housed up to 80 people.
They would live in a house for 10 to 15 years and raise crops, as well as hunt bears, beavers, and other wildlife. When the soil was depleted from overfarming they would pull up roots and move to another location.
The entrance to the compound is a small maze that I assume would slow down enemies or bears.
I love Quebec. There are bicycles everywhere, and bike racks. Even the tour spots far outside the city have bike racks and people riding to the spots in the rain. This sign is hanging in the parking lot of the Wendake village. What catches my attention is that Quebec doesn't just accommodate bikes, it welcomes (bienvenue) them.
Back again in Old Quebec, Chieko poses in front of another pirate Halloween decoration.
This place also has a large picture frame with pumpkins for selfies. The group in front of us was taking pictures from the other side, with just buildings in the background. They apparently realized they were probably on the wrong side when they saw us take this picture.
This is the street our hotel is on. It has a bunch of shops and restaurants, where we decide to eat dinner.
The first restaurant we choose doesn't have a place for us for about an hour and half, so we go to Les Freres de la Cote. The waiter says he can seat us, but they are really busy, and it will take 30 minutes to get our food. That sounds like a good deal. I notice that I keep saying "really good" for our meals. But really, it seems each one is better than the last, and we haven't had a meal yet that was disappointing. Tonight I eat herb-crusted lamb with lentils, very fresh mixed vegetables, and au gratin potatoes that are bathed in butter. Chieko has one of the tastiest salmon steaks we've experienced in a long time. I think it's called "miso salmon," or whatever the French version of that would be.
We start with a cream-of-vegetable (mostly celery) soup, and we end with a yellow key lime pie that is very limey. Each time I travel I promise myself I will eat light and exercise nightly. Each time I break my promise. I did work out in the Marriott and Embassy Suites, but the Hotel du Capitole doesn't do fitness centers. And I've been eating disgustingly good food, gaining at least 5 or 8 pounds by now, I'm sure. Oh well. We're enjoying ourselves. My bike is waiting at home for the coming workouts.
Thursday, October 5.
Today will be mostly a driving day, from Quebec to Ottawa.
First, we have some time to hang out a bit more in Quebec. Next to our hotel is this building being remodeled.
By "remodeled," I mean the entire building except two exterior walls has been demolished. A whole new building will go up behind these two facade walls.
I walk down "our" street to a pastry shop for some breakfast.
I pick a bacon and cheddar chibatta and a cherry Danish.
These canons are just above our hotel.
This is our hotel, looking through one of the ports in the rampart.
We walk along the wall back to the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac hotel looking for the lawn with the hotel and river Chieko has seen in a photo somewhere. And we find it.
Then down the back streets to our hotel. I just think this is a cool-looking door.
Even though this is North America, it certainly feels like an old European city.
The people who live here are either short, or they have to duck to get into their home.
Just around the corner from our hotel is another Mary's Carmel Popcorn shop, where I get my second maple and pecan popcorn, not counting the chocolate popcorn I picked up yesterday.
On the way to Ottawa, we stop to see some fall leaves. I believe the leaves really just started turning last night, and this is the first real foliage we've seen.
In Ottawa, we check into our hotel, the Albert at Bay, which is a converted apartment building. The room has a large living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. After checking in we drive to the Byward Market, a farmer's-type market that takes up a few city blocks and has permanent restaurants as well as vegetable stands that are closed at night. We stop in a seafood restaurant, which we think is pretty good, but too expensive for the food. I have haddock fish and chips. It has the thick doughy batter that isn't my favorite. Chieko has salmon, which is good but not as good as what she had last night in Quebec. We share a bowl of fish stew as an appetizer. If I had it to do again, I'd get the $8 bowl of stew with bread as my dinner, instead of the $23 fish and chips.
Friday, October 6.
Friday starts with, you guessed it, cheesecake, at a place called "Good Eats." It's only a block from our hotel. We saw this place last night and laughed, because based on the name we figured it must be a goofy place. But the hotel clerk recommends it for breakfast. And guess what, it really is good eats. All pastries.
This is downtown Ottawa. One main road through the city is closed off to automobile traffic.
This is Canada's parliament building. Yes, Ottawa is the national capital.
Tour tickets are sold out, but we are told we can visit the House of Commons area.
I'm not sure which prefecture this guy represents, or his party.
The bells in the Peace Tower ring every 15 minutes, and a lady is giving a bell concert at noon.
This is Ottawa as seen from the Peace Tower.
And looking from the other side of the Peace Tower.
I realize this is a depressing poem about death in war, but I like it, especially the second verse.
The Peace Tower has stained glass windows. In the parliament building we go through about four security check points, including two metal detectors, where we have to empty everything, and the rivets on my Levi's still set off the detector. When we visit the House of Commons to watch the debates, we have to give up everything that isn't clothing: Camera, purse, jackets, and so on. In the House of Commons we listen to people, who may be representatives of various provinces, ask questions or make statements about topics that concern them, from Canada's stance on the Rohingya in Myanmar to the state of fisheries to the government's support of the Canadian Coast Guard. What I believe are various department bureaucrats respond to each question. Although most of the interchanges are in English, the only passionate argument we hear is in French, so we don't follow it too well.
An old building reflecting in a new building in downtown Ottawa.
And another.
I hadn't realized we would be crossing the Mississippi River on our way to Niagara Falls. Okay, this one isn't related to the other one, but what the heck.
Niagara Falls at night.
Yes, even with rain jackets, we get soaked just strolling along the Niagara Falls walkway.
Saturday, October 7.
The Embassy Suites, where we are staying, is the tall building on the right. The check-in clerk is not the most welcoming. She reminds me several times that we paid for a city-view room and wonders if we want to upgrade. No, thank you. (I spend very little time in hotel rooms and thus think costly rooms with a view are not a good value.) When I ask how we get to the falls, she says simply, "Walk." I figured that. I have to ask, "Which direction?" But then she gives me the room keys and says, "I upgraded your room." Our room is a weird shape--inside the door is a long narrow hallway to the "suite" part of the room, which is a narrow room where a sofa-bed barely fits. A TV is right in our faces when we sit on the sofa. And there is a decent-size bedroom with a king-size bed. I can't figure what the "upgrade" is, but in the morning we realize we do have a peek-a-boo view of the falls out of our window. And I really am okay with the room. But parking leaves a bad taste. It's valet-only and $73 for our one night. For that price, the car should also have a king-size bed and a TV with a remote, but no, it endures river mist all night in a lonely parking lot a couple blocks away. There are no other parking options.
Horseshoe Falls as seen from near our hotel.
Bridal Veil Falls.
Horseshoe Falls with a tourist boat at the bottom.
There are really two sets of falls. The upper falls are Horseshoe Falls.
The lower falls are Bridal Veil Falls.
We've left the Canadian side, which does have the better view of both sets of falls. Now we're at Goat Island State Park on the U.S. side, which brings us right up to the falls. I suggest that if you go you plan to spend time on both sides. Taking a boat up to the Horseshoe Falls is popular, but we decide we're not that interested in the boat ride.
A boat travels as close as it can get to Horseshoe Falls.
At the brink of Horseshoe Falls.
These boats are pretty crowded. The Misty Something boats (in previous picture) seem to go much closer to the falls than this catamaran boat. That red stuff covering the boat is a carpet of ponchoed tourists.
On Sara and Jared's recommendation, we do take the elvator down to the Cave of the Winds, which doesn't actually exist. The cave became unstable decades ago, and was blown up. But from the bottom of the Cave of the Winds elevator is a walkway that goes right up to the Bridal Veil Falls. If you go back a few pictures, you can see the ridge on the right side of the falls where the Hurricane Platform stairs are built. (They're dismantled each fall, stored and restored over the winter, and reinstalled in the spring.) We watch a short video about the falls and receive water sandals and pretty pink ponchos, because this walk is WET.
I'm not sure how dangerous this snake is, who's making his way along the path. Actually, this snake isn't so big. When I first see him, I'm not sure if it's a snake or a large earthworm.
People are making their way in their attractive pink ponchos along the walkway to the falls. If you come to Niagara Falls, this is a must-see.
It's a pretty short walk, and there are several lookout places with the water roaring directly behind you.
The Bridal Veil Falls are separated by a large rock section with tourists hanging around the ledge.
The power of this water is awe-inspiring.
The highlight of the walk is at the top of the boardwalk, where you can stand under falling water.
They call this "Hurricane Platform" for good reason. The water hits hard, and there is a strong wind.
Then we drive to the Best Western Plus in Victor, which is about 20 miles from Palmyra.
Sunday, October 8.
Today we visit LDS Church early-history sites in the Palmyra and Fayette areas of New York state.
Fall in Palmyra.
This is a recreation of the Jospeh Smith Senior farmhouse where Joseph Smith Junior lived when he had his First Vision.
These logs fit nicely, especially for being built with hand tools.
From the back. A nice little garden has green peppers and other vegetables and flowers.
In the Sacred Grove, where Joseph had his Vision.
This grove is a remnant of an ancient forest, and some of these trees must be at least a couple hundred years old, so they would have been here when Joseph Smith came here.
Another really old tree.
This is a cloudy day, but the sun does peak out here and there.
We had a lot of rain during the night on Saturday night, mostly while we were sleeping. Apparently there was also a strong wind, which split this tree in front of the Hill Cumorah visitor center. We also see another much bigger tree being cut up in someone's front yard after it had also been split in a similar way.
The Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith received the Gold Plates.
The Hill Cumorah monument.
This is the Palmyra LDS temple.
E.B. Grandin did the first printing of 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon. He charged the church $3,000, for which Martin Harris mortgaged his farm to pay. This transaction became the end of his marriage, and he ended up selling a large part of his farm to pay off the debt. Setting the type and printing the first 5,000 copies took seven months. Binding the books took an additional 17 months.
This is the store part of the Grandin print shop.
The Book of Mormon is now available in more than 110 languages.
The LDS Church started in the small Peter Whitmer farm house in Fayette, about 30 miles from Palmyra, with six official members. There were actually about 50 or 60 people who attended the restoration of the church here. The original Whitmer home, where this took place, no longer exists. This house is the same age and was moved here to the approximate location of the original home from elsewhere on the Whitmer farm.
Sunset over a just-harvested soy bean field in Fayette.
Hurricane/Tropical Depression Nate Monday, October 9.
On Monday we head back to Newark, New Jersey. This visitor center commemorates the old Erie Canal. This model of some Erie locks was used in a World's Fair, I think the 1893 New York City World's Fair, and was just recently found under a tarp in someone's barn near here.
These are the actual locks. This old waterway had two steps or two locks. Next to it is another one with one lock. The canal has since been moved nearby to what the lady in the visitor center calls the "Barge Canal."
After we check into our Springhill Suites hotel near the Newark airport, we hop a train back to New York City and head to Chelsea Market.
Artwork of sorts on a wall in the market.
More industrial stuff mounted to a wall.
This is the fish market in Chelsea Market.
Where a single fresh scallop in its 10-inch shell costs $10.95.
Chieko is eating sushi for dinner.
I'm having a lobster roll. It costs about the same as the lobster roll I had on our first night in New York, $17, and it is about the same size overall, but it's stuffed with a lot more lobster and I think is more tasty. I also have lobster bisque, which is good. I think Zupas lobster bisque is better, though.
Chieko collected a T-shirt, a couple of sweatshirts, and a refrigerator magnet on this trip. These two bottles of pepper sauce from Chelsea Market are my souvenirs.
Okay. This is our fourth and last Junior's cheesecake, likely until the next time we're in New York.
Manhatten and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Going-Home Tuesday, October 10.
Twenty-six Russians died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and Russia donated this monument to the U.S. I've read different articles on why the monument is way over in Jersey City in a very industrial shipping area. One report says the artist, Zurab Tseretelli, wanted it here with the New York skyline in the background. Another report said it was so ugly that no one wanted it in its first intended location, so it ended up here.
I think the monument looks nice. Here it is with a piece of beam from of one of the World Trade Center buildings.
If you look really closely, you can see the Russian monument just above the white roof on the far left, in front of the big warehouse building. This is looking from Liberty State Park. I included this picture to show how out of the way this monument really is.
This is what surrounds the Russian monument. There are also a bunch of cranes moving these containers back and forth and semi trucks hauling them in and out nearby.
At Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
Lower Manhattan. The new 1 World Trade Center is the tall building on the left.
Liberty State Park has 13 U.S. flags. Other than possibly the 13 colonies, I couldn't find anything that explained the significance of their number.
And there is just enough wind to present the flags.
We were looking for a restaurant in the Ironbound District, which is a four-square-mile working-class neighborhood with restaurants and shops and mostly crowded old houses like you'd see in a movie. I'm not sure whether this Portuguese restaurant is in the district, but this is where we eat lunch.
Chieko starts with a vegetable soup, and I start with a seafood soup that I think will be a small bowl of "pureed shellfish." It is actually a large bowl of soup with two large crab claws that are really messy to eat but good, a clam and a bunch of shrimp. With the yummy rolls, this should have been my entire meal.
But we also both order the same seafood "dry soup" as our main dish, which is a lot of seafood in a thick sauce topped with a poached egg that our server, Louis, mixes into the soup at our table. He tells us in his heavy Portuguese accent that this is a very Portuguese meal. It is very good, but we each eat less than half of our meal. We box up the rest and try to give it to the gas station attendant (in New Jersey you can't pump your own gas; like Oregon, an attendant has to do it), but he says he can't eat seafood. So we give it to a young panhandler in the middle of the street on the way to the airport.
And with a five-hour flight home, that's it.
