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Philadelphia has a special place in Bens heart. He lived there for about 3 years and really grew to love it. I also have an old roommate living here right across the street from the art museum so we totally got hooked up on where to stay. Thanks Candace!

We were only there a few days but biked around the city and saw some fun sites. One thing we HAD to go do was eat a cheese stake at Jims! There are a few tourist places to go that aren’t that great. Luckly, Ben knew where to go. A tip for those eating at Jims, get it “Wit Wiz” which means with wiz cheese, onions, and if you like some spices, pepper. I love this place.

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Because both Ben and I had been to Philly before, and Candace lives there, we decided to do something different for the Halloween season. Introducing, the Glow Festival

The Glow Festival

It’s like Christmas lights, but all made out of pumpkins. We road the city bikes for a few miles outside of the city and walked about 2 miles through a maze of pumpkins! Some were real, but I am assuming most were fake but still, it was really fun!

Just tons of Pumpkins everywhere. It’s a dream for those who love Halloween!

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We were also able to meet with some of Bens old co-workers and visit some of our favorite places to eat.

We had something interesting happen as we left Scotrun park. Our RV wouldn’t start! YIKES! It was sitting for 2 weeks and super cold. Ben read some online tips and we got it started. That was pretty stressful! On to DC!

We couldn’t tour the east coast without going to NYC! Again, this was about an hour away from our RV site but doing the hour drive wasn’t that bad. NYC is funny. It was a Wednesday in early October and this place was still packed. I enjoy visiting NY but don’t ever see myself living there.

Driving in big cities gets me really stressed out. Ben does a better job so usually drives into the city. We parked and had to pay like $50 but… what do you do? It’s NYC. We had lunch with our friend Coco and stopped by the 911 memorial. It’s really humbling to be there. It’s a beautiful memorial.

Lauren And The Sea Glass Carousel

After walking through the city, we made our way to Battery Park and met up with Lauren from the Mermaid Podcast. This spunky lady is rocking things in NYC with multiple businesses, a cookbook, and a mermaid podcast.

We road the sea glass carousel and walked along the bay where Splash was filled. I love this little lady. It was fun to connect with someone and geek out about the same thing.

Wicked

This was Bens first time seeing Wicked and it didn’t disappoint! I love this play and was really happy we could go together as a married couple. Just in front of us were some older folk, and one was wearing a BYU hat. That usually means they are Latter-day Saints. We struck up a conversation which was nice. Being on the road can be a little secluding so chatting with new people helps!

Ben loved the show, and so did I! Do you like that photographer unintentionally photobombing our picture? Good times.

Fall is starting and it’s fun to see the leaves start to change. This is my favorite time of year and we are in a great part of the country to see it all. I actually look forward to the driving days. It’s stressful but once you are on the road, the views are amazing. We listen to audio books and talk. It’s nice 🙂

Our Thousand Trails membership allows us to stay up to 2 weeks at certain RV parks which is awesome, but… these parks are usually an hour or more from the major cities. We were about an hour and a half away from Boston but headed out to make a day trip out of it.

Our first stop was lunch with an SEO friend. It was fun to meet locals and get some ideas of fun stuff to do in town.

Harvard college was just a few miles a ways so we went and walked around on campus. It was a really fun vibe! How cool would it be to go to college here!

We messaged a couple from the ward that went to Harvard and they told us to go to Burdick’s for drinking chocolate, which is a lot different than hot chocolate. It didn’t disappoint!

USS Consitution

We then made our way downtown to the USS Constitution. This is an old renovated ship from the late 1700s actually named by George Washington himself. Crazy how big it is. People would spend months on board and sleep in really uncomfortable hammocks.

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Since we didn’t get enough sweets at Burdick’s, we went to Mikes Pastries which both Ben and I have been to before but it’s SO GOOD!

This place is amazing and a must see when in Boston. It has some of the best pastries you will have in your life (no joke) The lines are usually out the door, and I can’t help but love the string they tie the boxes in.

We knew we wanted a Canoli, brownie, lobster tail, and something else. The lady helping us referred some really great choices. We asked which one she liked the best and she said this raspberry mocha cake thing. We wanted to be polite since she had helped us so much so we said ok. I was skeptical because I usually don’t get anything like it but Holy Moly it was good!  If I find myself at Mikes Pastries ever again I will for sure get the same thing again.

Quick tip, if you are in line and know what you want to get, just head to the left side of the store close to the counter. They will ring you up there. A local gave us that time and it saved a bunch of time.

Honk Festival

Since we loved Boston so much, we decided to go again the next weekend! Ben had a meeting and I ran errands but we went to something called The Honk Festival.

We both went to one back in Austin but it wasn’t like this one! It’s pretty much a festival of random marching band members that graduated college, but who still love to play. They deck themselves out in random colors and have funny band names. It’s a fun atmosphere and we recommend going if one is coming to your town.

Palmyra New York has a special place in our hearts. Being members of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints, we hold high respect for this area as it holds some historicly important events.

In 1820 a boy named Joseph Smith was instructed my heavenly messengers and directed throughout the years to restore the church of Jesus Christ. Palmyra is were Joseph grew up, where the gold plates were located, and now where a temple stands.

Learn more about The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints

Bens has visited this place many times but it was the first for me. We started out by taking the tour of the Smith farmhouse which was reconstructed from letters and old foundation. They even recreated the room where Joseph was visited by the angel Moroni!

Next we had some time to walk through the sacred grove where Joseph was first visited. No one was there and it was a beautiful time of year. The spirit was strong as we walked. I love the gospel.

Next we went and visited the Temple grounds where work for the dead is performed. Some of the nicest Elder missionaries were there.

After spending some time in the visitor center, we made our way to the Hill Comorah. This place is special as this is where the angle directed Joseph to find a hidden ancient manuscript made out of gold and metal plates.

Not knowing exactly where the plates were buried, they have monument that explians how the church was restored. As we looked closer, it said Sept 21st was the day that Joseph was able to take the plates. It was Sept 21st, 2018! The exact same date! How cool is that?

Learn more about The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints

The fun didn’t stop there! We actually went into the town of Palmyra and visited the building where the Book Of Mormon was printed.

Both Ben and I served missions for the church, this book is very special to us. I served in West Virginia, and he served in the Philippines.

I may have geeked out a little bit while I was there. The visitor center missionaries went through all the hardships and trials it took to actually print the book. But the Lord’s work went on!

So happy that Ben and I could share this experience together. We appreciate and respect what the early saints went through and hope that we can build the kingdom as much as they did.

Learn more about The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints

After Niagara Falls, we settled in a fun campground called Ta-Ga-Soke which is just east of the Oneida lake.  Ben and I couldn’t believe how much this place felt like a beach town! Crazy to think this will all be covered in snow in a few months.

We moved in Monday and noticed there were a bunch of RVs and trailers but… we never saw anyone walking around! Turns out, it’s more of a weekend getaway and on Friday a flood of people came in.

That Friday night we wanted to get some food in the closest town and as we drove out of the park, our transmission started acting up. It wasn’t connecting or going into gear. We were able to get it back to the RV park fine but ended up calling a tow truck to haul to the nearest Hyundai Dealer. It wasn’t hard for them to figure out we needed a totally new transmission. YIKES! That is an expensive mistake! Turns out the way we were towing it across the country is awful for the transmission and this 2015 Hyundai needed a totally new one. We prayed really hard that the warranty would cover it and guess what? It did

 phew…

Because our car was out of order, we decided to walk 3 miles to the beach. The weather was super nice, and we ate at a local restaurant and I had the best-shredded pork sandwich of my life!

Because we needed stay an extra 2 weeks, that gave us plenty of time to check out upstate NY!

First off, we stayed in a fishing town and every day, people would be fishing for these huge salmon fish and they looked about 2 feet long! There seemed to a “fisherman etiquette” that everyone would follow because fish lines were being crossed all the time.

We went to a restaurant, close to where this picture was taken and wanted to get some fresh salmon but guess what? They didn’t serve salmon! They said that most people in the town were sick of it, and the restaurant would have to buy FDA approved fish which wouldn’t be from the river. Kinda funny, a salmon fishing town that doesn’t serve salmon.

Local Hiking

We decided to ask a few locals what was a good hike to go on and they recommended one a few miles from town. It was a gorgeous night and couldn’t have picked a better view.

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We even went to a harvest Festival in a near by town! It was small but still a fun little local giveaway.

One huge benefit of us staying another few weeks is we get to see some church sites! Stay tuned!

Niagara Falls in an interesting town…

It felt like an old run down and outdated Las Vegas. Sorry if you live there but we were really shocked how expensive everything was, but also old.

We got to Niagara Falls and stayed for just one day. Long enough to check out the town and experience the falls. We started off with the tower which had some amazing views of both the American side, as well as the Canadian side. If you have a choice between the two, see the Canadian side.

Then headed to the instructional movie. I think that’s where things turned weird. The movie was from the 70s and really shaky. There were times both Ben and I had to turn away. It mentioned the Indian bride who ran away from her arranged marriage and decided to kayak over the cliffs. Now she is a protector of the waves and decides who to keep alive and who should fall victim to the falls.

But this video just talked about people over time who went over the falls. Some lived some died. It made me angry that people would even toy with something like this!

Dare Devil Museam

Right next to the movie theatre was a Dare Devil Museum. We thought it would be like “daredevils though-out time” and talk about people like Evel Knievel but nope… just more gumballs that pushed their luck going over the falls. It seemed about 60% of anyone who tried died.

Some guy tied an anvil to his feet so the bottom of the “barrel” would be heavy and keep him upright. His plan didn’t work out so well as the only thing left of him when they opened it up was his arm. 

Oh! And if you decide to take on the falls, know that you will be fined 25K on the American side and 10K on the Canadian. Just so you know. 

To the Falls!

We walked alongside these beautiful falls and really couldn’t believe the amount of water falling down. The closer we got, the more weirded out I became. Seeing the fast water going over the cliff with just a small wire fence keeping people from their mortal peril, was enough to freak me out. We were going to do the boat tour the next morning but to be honest, I wasn’t excited about going. I mentioned my feeling to Ben and since it was $25 a person, and he had already been, he didn’t object.

So for dinner we went to outback stake out and ordered a way too expensive bloom-in onion. You win some and you loose some.

Crossing the Boarder

Crossing the border back into the USA was definitely harder than getting into Canada. Which I can appreciate. It was around 9-11, and we were young people driving an RV. We had a border patrol search our RV, and as he opened up our closet, some of my “unmentionables” fell out. I was slightly embarrassed but also thought it was a good story. He didn’t try to pick them up (hehe)

We were asked to wait as they search our lower compartments and we were out of there within an hour and a half. Not too shabby.