The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down

After my interview at Lehigh University, we took the bus into NYC for the weekend. We have been wanting to go back to NYC for awhile because there were some things we missed before (like the Rockefeller Plaza tour). During our last visit, we spent a lot of time sightseeing, but Josh knew I would be worn out from a week of travelling, so this time we focused more on shopping and shows.

Josh has been dying to see Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark basically since it was announced.

He even made up words to one of the songs, some sample lyrics include:

I am not a wolf

I am not a shark

I'm just Spiderman

Here to turn off the dark

There's no need to fear

It'll turn out alright

Because to "turn off the dark"

Means I'll turn on the lights

We also saw:

A play about a writing seminar, starring:

He really does

And also went to:

A play about racial tension and family relationships, starring:

Apparently I just barely missed Psych night. Sad face.

We wanted to spend some time here:

The Natural History Museum

Where we saw a lot of bones:

Dino bones in the entry

Elephant bones in the Asian exhibit

And Triceratops bones in the dino exhibit 

We also saw:

The tiny exhibit featuring things from the area in which Josh served his mission (Ecuador)

Animal pelts

And bison (I was trying to get a feel for what my internship would be like if I ended up in North Dakota)

Then we walked through Central Park, which is just across the street from the Natural History Museum, and saw:

Strawberry Fields

Beautiful skylines

The ice skating rink

And one very fat and very angry raccoon

Josh wanted to make an effort to eat only stereotypical NYC-style food, which included:

The Carnegie Deli

Where Josh ordered this monstrosity:

Pastrami on rye, which was more like a whole pig between two pieces of bread

And also:

Pizza folded in the traditional east coast way (having been born in Wisconsin, I had to opt out because, as well all know, pizza is meant to be sturdy and deep dish, not flimsy and folded)

And my personal favorite:

We did other things too, like:

Fulfill Josh's geek quotient

Wait for the subway

Breathe through our mouths in subway cars that smell like pee

Take our friend Pam out to dinner at Pam Real Thai Food

Drink an absurd amount of Sprite

And take pictures from The Top of the Rock

It was here that we took this picture, with the aid of the glare from the plastic wind screen:

We also went to the Charging Bull, where there was a ridiculous line to stand in if you wanted to take a close up picture. We stood in it, of course, but couldn't get a picture together. So instead we did the smarter thing and just took a picture from across the street:

Finally, we spent our last morning at the 9/11 Memorial:

The South Tower

The North Tower

The museum, still under construction

Josh also went on his own adventures, which included:

Running across the Brooklyn Bridge in the cold

Finding the firehouse from Ghostbusters

Finding the exterior of the "Friends" apartment

And visiting Washington Square Park

This will be our last trip for awhile. We had talked about doing a temple tour of the southern states, but it's looking unlikely that I will be able to get time off. Responsible face.

Oh How Lovely Was the Morning

For Spring Break, Josh and I took a Church History Tour, starting in Palmyra and ending in St. Louis. We took the red-eye from Portland and ended in Rochester, then immediately(!) drove to Peter Whitmer's farm in Fayette, NY.

For those who don't know, my religion was officially organized on this spot in 1830. The real building is no longer standing, but this recreated cabin is on the spot of the original foundation. The first church meeting took place in front of this fireplace:

They now have a meeting house on the farm grounds. Can you imagine your ward meeting on the site where the church was organized? Craziness!

The visiting center and chapel

We got a little shock driving through town when someone was driving ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! Apparently that's the way they do it in upstate NY. 

We then went to the Hill Cumorah, where we saw this christus in the visitor's center:

And we hiked to the top of the hill:

The cool thing about being there was seeing that this hill is super narrow and a great vantage point. Josh said he could imagine watching a battle because you can see forever on both sides.

There was also a statue of what is supposed to be Moroni:

(Even though he has a beard)

Also, the Hill Cumorah is A LOT steeper than you would think. 

Then we went to the E.B. Grandin printing shop, where the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon were published:

I have to say that there were some really lovely sister missionaries at all of these sites, but the girl at the the E.B. Grandin store was pretty awesome. She even lifted up the cloth on the fake plates so Josh could take a picture:

She was my favorite, and I especially loved her owl earrings

Then we went to the site of the Smith family farm, where there is the reconstructed log cabin:

And the reconstructed room where Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith (again):

The Palmyra temple overlooks the farm:

We also went to the Sacred Grove:

Where Josh took these creepy, stalkery pictures:

We then did a session at the Palmyra temple (#38!). It's a smaller temple, similar to Reno, Medford, Kona, etc., so I didn't get lost. The session was ridiculously full and they had to bring in folding chairs for pretty much every possible space.

The major defining feature of this temple is the stained glass of the grove:

It also has a window in the lobby where you can look out onto the grove:

from the outside (we do NOT take pictures inside the temple)

We were pretty severely jet-lagged so, despite wanting to be awake and attentive, Josh and I both fell asleep during the session. It was pretty embarrassing when the woman next to me had to shake me awake. 

After the session, we drove to Niagara Falls, where we stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking the falls. We're definitely going back there again.