3,200 mile drive: niagara falls to palmyra and beyond

friday was a busy day. we woke and ate our not-so-great continental breakfast {while dreaming of what might have been...} and crossed the border to canada. earlier that morning i decided i was tired of putting my hair in a ponytail - the hairstyle of choice by the end of the day for the previous four days. so i decided to take some time and curl it. i failed to realize that the canadian side of niagara falls isn't very dry. 

we. were. soaked. so much for nice hair. 

at least i thought to put my camera and phone in a waterproof bag. phew. 

the view from canada is magnificent, though. and it was great to see the falls at nighttime and in the daylight. 

we even found ourselves a mounty.

 after we were thoroughly soaked through, we piled in the car and headed a few hours east to palmyra, new york where our first stop was hill cumorah. we cooled off in the air conditioned visitor's center while the missionaries swooned over leah. then we hiked up the hill to the monument and got an incredible view of the landscape.

 our second stop was the latter-day saint temple. we walked around the grounds looking completely homeless {we were sweating profusely, my wet hair was now dry, but matted in a used-to-be-curled-but-not-anymore mess}, leah's headband was not staying on and i ended up breaking one of her elastics and couldn't find a spare without completely unloading the car...}. but the grounds and temple were beautiful. 

we then drove a bit down the road to the smith family farm where we toured the smith's log and frame homes and their barn before heading to the sacred grove.

leah had hit her being-in-the-car limit sometime around thursday evening, so friday was a treat. every time we came back to the car after sight seeing or eating, we got blood curdling screams. i'm impressed she waited four days to lose it. those tears made me ever so sad.

but i have to admit, i kind of liked the pout.

we finished the day driving a few more hours east to the most darling town where some friends from college now live with their delicious three little boys. a, the oldest, was the only one willing to pose for a picture with miss leah, but rest assured they are all just as charming. 

we had a delicious homemade pizza and fresh blueberry pie for dinner and a nice, long chat with old friends. it was a great end to a great day...and to top it all off, we knew we were almost home!