Road Trips

One of the things Josh and I planned to do when we moved to Chicago is explore this part of the country. It's so different from the southwest! So many trees! So far I've been to a few places around central Illinois, St. Louis, Wisconsin, northwestern Indiana, and a few weeks ago I took a trip over to Indianapolis with some girls in the ward for the "Time Out For Women" conference hosted by Deseret Book. It was great and uplifting, and the host Hilary Weeks provided wonderful vocal music as well. Indianapolis was a nice city, much much smaller than I had pictured. People seemed friendly, and they sure do love their football team! Josh might apply to a residency program in Indianapolis, so who knows, I might end up living there. These are the 8 girls who went on the road trip.

Then, last week Josh had a break from school so we took a nice road trip to Niagara Falls! We heard from someone it was a must-do, and that we should drive there through Canada and back through the U.S. so that's exactly what we did Sept. 14-19. I'm going to give a day-by-day run down, so prepare for a long post and lots of pictures!

Friday: Josh took his first shelf exam in the morning (the tests they have to take after each hospital rotation) then off we went! We decided to split the drive in two different days, so we drove through Indiana up to Michigan where we camped at Waterloo State Recreation Area. Josh had been itching to go camping all summer, and this was the perfect place! It was beautiful, not too crowded, and we were right by a lake. It was even kinda cold out. We set up camp then had plenty of time to check stuff out, hiked around a little, made some tasty foil dinners, then watched a movie on the laptop in our tent.

Saturday: In the morning the "camp host" had hot chocolate and donuts for everyone, perfect for the cold morning, then we went on a longer hike. Josh saw a couple deer, but they were too fast and I missed them. When we got back we packed up and made our way through Detroit to Canada. It was both mine and Josh's first time to canada.

We drove for 4 hours to Niagara Falls, and shortly before we got there my odometer read this:

123456!! (I know you can't really see the 4.)

Ok, I know I'm a nerd for posting this, but I thought it was so cool that I noticed it and just had to take a picture. Lots of miles on our little corolla, but it's still running great! We finally got to Niagara Falls and stayed in a brand new hotel with a jacuzzi tub! It was awesome.

For dinner we went to Planet Hollywood, then walked around. We were quite surprised how touristy Niagara Falls was, it was almost like a mini Las Vegas! Not really our style, but fun to walk around, for a short time.

Sunday: For Sunday we hopped back over to to the U.S. and visited Palmyra, NY, less than 2 hours from Niagara. It was so neat to visit there and to sit in the Sacred Grove and feel the spirit that abides there. We also saw the restored homes Joseph Smith and his families lived in, the bedroom where the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph, the Hill Cummorah, and the temple. The Smith farm sat on 100 acres, and the temple was built on the Smith farm property. It looks out onto the Sacred Grove. It was the perfect way to spend our Sunday.

Sunday Evening, back in Niagara Falls, we walked along the falls at sunset. It was beautiful. There are two waterfalls: American Falls (the straight one) and Horseshoe falls (the curved one) also known as the Canadian Falls.

Monday: In the morning we went on the Maid of the Mist for an up-front close and personal encounter with the falls! This boat tour takes you up as close as it can safely get to horseshoe falls. It is awesome because you get soaked by all the mist and it's SO loud from the thundering water. There's also always a rainbow. We all were even given classy blue ponchos to help protect us from the water, but I think everyone still manages to get wet.

In the afternoon we found an AWESOME place to hike around, it was right along the Niagara River just downstream from the falls. It was so beautiful, lots of trees and rocks, and huge boulders that had fallen from the cliffs, perfect condition for hiking. (We're kinda tired of the flatlands of the midwest and love to see rocks and boulders on occassion.) We hiked along to a spot on the river called the "whirlpool" because it's right at a sharp turn in the river so all the water there churns around like a whirlpool. The weather was incredibly PERFECT this day too, I couldn't help but be so happy the whole time because it was the perfect way to spend the day!

Tuesday: Tuesday we said goodbye to Niagara Falls and Canada, and started to make our way back home. Again we wanted to split the driving into two days and we first drove to Kirtland, OH to see more church history sites. We went on a tour of Historic Kirtland and of the Kirtland Temple. It was all so beautiful, and again it was such a neat experience to stand in places were so many sacred and spiritual events took place.

Wednesday: After staying the night in some tiny trucker town somewhere in Ohio, we drove the rest of the way back to Chicago. But before we made it to Chicago we visited the Amish Country of northern Indiana, we were in the town of Shipshewana. It was so fun to see the Amish riding in their carriages along the roads and to see their clothes drying out on clotheslines. It was very surprising to me though to see them living in a town right alongside the non-Amish people. I always thought they lived in their own separate communities. Goes to show how little I know. All the Amish people we saw were all so very nice and friendly. Josh likes their throat beards. We went to a huge flea market there so there were lots of Amish around. We bought a homemade pumpkin pie from them that was so so yummy! I would have loved to buy one of their handmade quilts, but they're quite pricey.

There aren't too many places where you'll see this sign!

So after six days of fun, 20 hours of driving, 304 pictures, endless Canadian jokes (sorry Canadians, we do love Canada), lasting memories, and priceless moments together, we finally made it home. It was such a fun trip, and we can't wait until our next road trip!!