(Thank you to Jonathan for writing this post. Zrakoplov!)
One of the best things about being in a Bed House™, is that many of them have breakfast! We were especially taken by the automatic pancake-making machine. We may need one some day.
Today we headed first to the Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove. We stopped in at the visitor center to get our tour arranged, and by pure coincidence, the same sister missionaries from the Grandin Building (Book of Mormon Publication site) the day before were our tour guides today, which was pretty neat.
We walked through the Smith log cabin and learned a bit about how the family lived back in the early 1800s. It’s really interesting having gone to so many historic sites to put all these dates on the same timeline. Joseph Smith lived in Palmyra in 1820, the Boot Cotton Mill was built in 1835, and Joseph Smith died in 1844. Wild.
Trying to picture all 11 of the Smiths living in the log cabin made us feel very grateful for modern houses.
We then walked down to the Frame House, where the Smiths lived for a while after they moved out of their log cabin. And this is where Joseph brought the Gold Plates initially.
One of the trees outside is believed to be the tree planted when Joseph’s oldest brother Alvin died. And we love trees 🙂
The twins started to get antsy (which should totally be the alternate title of this blog), so we went outside and counted pumpkins.
There were a couple of small outbuildings as well that we saw. But ultimately this is where the main part of the tour ended. At that point, the sisters pointed us in the right direction and we got to walk through the Sacred Grove itself.
It was nice that we were able to do this at our own speed, rather than doing it with our tour group. The woods are absolutely beautiful with the leaves beginning to turn and the crisp autumn breeze blowing through. The kids enjoyed running and collecting leaves. Were there tantrums? Yes. Are we going to focus on them? No.
It was getting to be late lunch time, so we drove back into town. One of the interesting things in Palmyra is that there is one particular intersection that has one church on each corner, each of a different Christian denomination. And there are two other churches within sight of these four. Pretty crazy when you consider what a small town Palmyra is.
We ate lunch at the Chill and Grill. It was a highly successful meal. The kids especially enjoyed the mixed slushies that the person behind the counter prepared for them (“We can have a MIX of both BLUE and RED slushies?!?!” *Minds blown*).
I got a “kiddie” sundae. It was enormous.
After lunch, we drove over to the Hill Cumorah. We went on the little tour of the visitors center, watched the movie and played with the interactive exhibits. It was especially fun to see all the translations of the Book of Mormon on display. Jill found one in Croatian and I found one in Korean and we felt like missionaries again for a moment 🙂
We then walked to the top of Cumorah to see the monument.
Along the way, we saw a sign talking about how they’re replanting a section of the hill where they used to do the Hill Cumorah Pageant. From 1937 to 2019, the Church put on a HUGE pageant on the hillside of Cumorah. Special effects, lighting, a huge cast, the whole nine yards. But apparently, when Covid hit, they decided that it was time to bid goodbye to the tradition.
My family and I got to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant back in 2007 and I have to say, it was spectacular. But honestly, I like the idea of a re-forested hill. It definitely makes it feel less like Disneyland 🙂
And besides, the huge field where the audience used to sit is now COVERED in wildflowers. It’s obvious that it’s intentional, but man, it looks wild and beautiful up close. Jill took many pictures of the flowers 🙂
We then headed back to the Bed House™, and chilled out for a couple of hours. The kids watched movies; Jill worked on the blog; I alternated napping and working on the blog.
In the evening, we all piled in the car again and drove to the temple to see the sunset.
Since it worked so well last night, we repeated our trip to Walgreens and feasted in the hotel room.
Then we chucked the kids in bed and called it a day.
