DAY 19 – July 17, 2012 – Niagara Falls and Mendon, NY

Niagara Falls, NY

Every time I think that a day couldn’t get any better than the last, a day comes that is so surprising.  Today was one of those days.

Today was our day to do Niagara Falls.  Mr. S visited with our neighbors we camped next to last night.  They were from Whittier, California (our old home).  They are teachers traveling the United States this summer.  Only they are not members, so just the U.S. history parts, and they are doing it backwards from us, so all the things we are heading to they just left.  So Mr. S visited with them all morning while we made breakfast and got ready, and came back with all kinds of information that is going to help us on this trip.  They were very helpful and friendly.  They also gave us their suggestions on Niagara Falls so we took their suggestions and headed that way.

I don’t need to explain to anybody the significance of Niagara Falls.  It is one of the most beautiful natural wonders in North America.  As a child growing up in New York, I remember many trips to the falls, and I was excited to come back.

When we drove into the parking lot, we could see mists rising up in front of us.  It made me so excited, I wondered if it was as big as I remembered it, but all that mist reassured me it was everything that I recalled.  We started on Goat island, which has multiple views of the falls.  We took pictures, but you could tell the kids were not as excited about it.  It’s really too bad all the high tech things we have, I think sometimes kids just assume anything can be built or made, so natural wonders just don’t seem as wonderous as they used to in the “olden days”.

We walked into the gift shop, and in there they were playing a movie on one wall talking about all the daredevils that have tried things at Niagara Falls.  The kids watched that for a little bit.  Then after I had gotten some information from the clerks we headed out.

So the two big things you hear about that people do at Niagara Falls are the Maid of Mists boats and the Cave of Winds.  The Maid of Mists boats are the boats that ride right up to the bottom of the falls.  People can get quite wet and see the falls up close.

BEFORE photo: heading to the “Cave of Winds”

The Cave of Winds is a place where you can hike down some stairs near a section of the falls, and they let you get so close, the winds just push you around and you can get soaking wet from the falls.  For a large family all of that can be spendy, so I asked the clerks what they recommended.  Both young male clerks said, definetly the Cave of Winds.  The Maid of Mists they said was a leisurely calm boat ride, but the Cave of Winds had the action.  So knowing their recommendation would probably be the most accurate of what my crew would like we decided the Cave of Winds would be

Cave of Winds, kids playing

what we did at Niagara Falls.

They give you ponchos and sandals to wear, and you just walk down these stairs, that can I say, hardly look like they can hold us.  It looks very precarious, but it must work.  I trust the legal systems sue happy society would never let anything like this exist in a dangerous manner, so I knew I was safe, even though it did look quite rickety.

AFTER photo at the Cave of Winds

We walked down the stairs and it was so beautiful!  No pictures could do what we saw any justice.  Then we started walking back up.  The closer you get to the falls the thicker the mists get.  You can control how close you get, so Mr. S who really doesn’t like to get wet, had slightly damp hair.  The rest of us water lovers, well we were drenched every inch, we had nothing  dry when we were done.  It was very fun.  The little kids were dancing and jumping as the rebounding falls were blowing and spewing all over them.  They just loved it.  And the teenage boys loved it to, standing against the strongest winds and water with big grins on their faces.  We stayed a lot longer than most, but I figure everyone was having fun so we were on that deck for probably 20 or 30 minutes.  It seems like most people were there for 5 minutes and left.  But we like to get all the fun we can out of everything, so we stayed as long as everyone wanted, and they all left with smiles.

Another thing they have that is very nice, is a trolley that will drive you all over the American side of the falls.  It drives you to all the sites, parking lots, and viewing points.  It was very inexpensive, and well worth paying for.  It got us around to all the corners of the park to take photos.

I’ve heard the Maid of Mist if very fun also, and they do have package deals.  But for us, Cave of Winds was enough, and made everyone feel like the trip to Niagara Falls was well worth it.

SIDE NOTE:  To get to the Canadian side these days you have to have a passport.  I think kids might be able to get across with birth certificates, but I was told that for sure adults have to have passports, which neither Mike or I have.  If you have the chance to come to Niagara Falls, and you have the money and the time to get passports…I would definitely do it.  I didn’t mention it to my family because I didn’t want to sound like the part of Niagara Falls we did wasn’t great, because if that’s all you can see (which it was for us) than it is well worth it.  But if you can get to the Canadian side.  I think it is much better!  All the best photos I saw in the gift shop were from the Canadian side.  And I remember even though I was a child, what the Canadian side looked like.  And they do have the better view.  And I even though it’s very commercial, I think they have made the Canadian side very fun!  I missed not being able to do it.  But, having said that…what we did was very fun, and even if it’s all we could do, it was well worth our time and money.  The kids loved it!
SOMETHING WE MISSED:  Niagara Falls turns on colored lights on the falls at night between 9pm and midnight.  I guess it’s very beautiful.  We showed up at midnight the first night (and we weren’t aware of it anyways) and then left in the afternoon.  So if you are planning a trip, planning around working around being there at 9pm will give you two views of the falls at night and in the day.

Post NOTE:  On the 18th we were doing a tour with another group who told us, they just asked, and they were able to get across.  They only had one passport, and the rest had their drivers licenses.  So maybe it’s worth a try?

Liberty Building, Buffalo, NY

After Niagara Falls we asked the kids what they wanted to do, and they said that they wanted to walk around Buffalo.  So we drove back to Buffalo and walked around.  That was very disappointing.  We went to downtown Buffalo, because from the views off the road the buildings downtown were beautiful.  We got down there and walked around.  The buildings were very beautiful and old.  It seemed like it should have been an amazing city, but it felt dead.  There was hardly anybody on the streets.  When you compared it to Chicago that was jam packed wall to wall, Buffalo looked anorexic.

Buffalo is the city in front of Niagara Falls, how could it look so dead.  If I had to guess, by what we saw, I’d say almost 40% of the buildings were empty.  It was unbelievable, and scary.  We have seen a lot of signs on this trip of hard times.  It worries me where we are going, and I don’t think people have any idea what is going to hit us.  Between the droughts and the dead crops we’ve seen since Ohio…to Buffalo looking abandoned, it really is alarming…Anyways, after walking around and looking at the beautiful architecture, there was really nothing to do there, so we left.

I did insist that we couldn’t leave Buffalo without eating Buffalo Chicken Wings.  We are huge fans in our home.  My parents raised us on Buffalo Chicken Wings…the hotter the better.  I can’t stand it when we buy things at stores that claim to be Buffalo Chicken Wings.  They are nothing like what they should taste like, so we make them at home the right way.  Well I was excited to find out at the restaurant, we do make them the real Buffalo way.  We felt right at home.

Please don’t mention to the teenagers that I posted this picture…but it was good enough messy faces were overlooked…

We asked a couple of locals what they recommended.  Multiple people told us that Anchor Bar was the original place that came up with Buffalo Chicken Wings, so we were heading there.  But the last local we asked when we were lost getting there said, we could go there if wanted.  They are known just because they started it, but they weren’t the best, and they were overpriced.  So if we wanted great Buffalo Chicken Wings we should go to Duff’s on Sheridan Drive.

Well, I have no comparison, as I haven’t eaten at Anchor’s, but Duff’s was fabulous.  A couple of the kids said it ranked as one of their favorite things they had done that day.  And between the “Cave of Winds” and Duff’s Buffalo was one of their favorite stops so far.  We tried their Mild, Medium and Hot.  The restaurant says that Medium was very hot, and it got hotter from there.  I am proud to say that I have raised my family to be true to my childhood home.  We all loved the Hot!  And even when we ordered fries, the boys were dipping their fries in the leftover sauce.  It was great!  Spitz decided he liked it so much he bought a shirt, so he could advertise for one of his new favorite places to eat.

7864 North Main, in Fishers, NY (home was built by Brigham Young)

After Buffalo, NY we had on our itinerary to go to Mendon, NY.  I will admit, I wasn’t sure about this stop.  Brigham Young’s family and Heber C Kimball come from Mendon.  This is the town they lived in, this is the town that they were introduced to the church and later baptized in.  I had a book that listed some addresses we could drive by and look at, but that was about all.  I didn’t know if it was worth it, but being this close, I figured why not.  It turned out to be so amazing!

First we drove by 7864 North Main, in Fishers, NY. It is said that this home was

7868 North Main is a home that is it believed that Brigham cut and glazed the windows on the east side of this 1811 two story home. It is believed that early missionaries held meetings in this home.

built by Brigham Young.  Here is a photo of the home.

The house next door, 7868 North Main is a home that is it believed that Brigham cut and glazed the windows on the east side of this 1811 two story home.  It is believed that early missionaries held meetings in this home.  Both homes are privately owned and not available for tours.  But I do have photos : )

Phineas Young’s home 8026 North Main Street

The next home we went by was supposed to have been Phineas Young’s home for a short time.  It was at 8026 North Main Street.   Phineas was the first to receive the Book of Mormon, read it and then share it with his family.  I will talk more about it later.  This home is privately owned and not available for tours.

Next we were trying to get to Mendon to look at John Young’s home (Brigham Young’s father).  It’s funny how the things that turn out to be the coolest usually start out being so stressful, you almost want to quit.  It’s amazing how the adversary works.

We couldn’t find the house, we got stuck in construction.  I thought it was just on the other side of the road construction.  We were turning around to try to figure out how to get there, when a woman drove up and asked if she could help us.  She circled us around an area and got us onto the street I thought we were supposed to be.  We went back to the site I thought it was on, at this point Mr. S was hot and tired and kind of looking at me like he seriously didn’t think this photo op was worth all this work.  We got out of the motorhome, everyone tense, to walk down the street to find the home and realized we were on the right street but very far away from the correct address.  So we got back in the motorhome and started driving again.  I think at this point everyone was getting angry with me, and I was feeling quite discouraged.  We were looking for a house with no address just cross streets that our GPS told us didn’t exist.

Tom Tomlinson Inn

Right about the time I was going to say forget it, we drove right by the house.  I yelled for Mr. S to stop the motorhome and jumped out on the highway running down the road to get my photo taken.  As I’m across the street taking pictures of the house, I see a woman in a missionary badge come out.  I remembered that the book I had said that the church owned this home.  So I asked her if she lived there.  She told me she did, and that her husband was just giving tours if we wanted one.  He wasn’t at her home (which was John Young ‘s home, but he was down the street at the Tomlinson Inn (which was the next place on our list).  She called him, and let him know we were coming, and told us he would give us a personal tour of the Tomlinson Inn.  How cool is that!

This Senior missionary knew so much about the history of these homes, and was so great at retelling what happened.  I am going to tell the story he told, because I have not heard it before.  So here is what he said…

He took us in the original dining or gathering area at the old inn.  He said that in the room Samuel Smith (Joseph Smith’s brother) was

The dining room where Samuel Smith gave the Book of Mormon to Phineus Young. The senior missionary had the kids acting out the part.

sent from Palmyra (only about 18 miles away) to go through the countryside and do missionary work, and give out the copies of the first edition of the Book of Mormon that they had printed.  So Samuel came to that Inn and asked Phineas Young if he would like to purchase a Book of Mormon.  Well he was selling the Book of Mormon for $1.75 per copy, which in those days was two days wages.  You do the math using your wages…I can’t believe he bought it.  I’d have to think long and hard about buying a book that I didn’t know much about for that price!  But Phineas was also a part time traveling minister, and he thought that it probably wasn’t true, but he should purchase one to prove it.

Barn that Samuel Smith slept in

So Phineas purchased a Book of Mormon.  That night he slept in the barn at the Inn (which is still there and so cool … we got a tour of it, with bats flying around the top and all.  The barn could hold 10 wagons at one time, it was amazing to see…but I digress).  So after spending the night, he went home and told his wife he needed to sit down and read this book to prove that it wasn’t true.  So she needed to give him a week to spend studying it.

So after a week studying it, he realized he couldn’t believe how it matched up so well with his studies of the Bible.  So he told his wife he needed another week to study this because surely this couldn’t be true.  So for another week he studied the Book of Mormon.  At the end of the week, he couldn’t believe what he had learned.  So on Sunday he preached a sermon using the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and the congregation told him it was the best sermon he had ever preached.  Later on over half his congregation was baptized.

Then Phineas’s father John asked for it, and that one Book of Mormon got passed to his sister, then Brigham Young, then it was passed through the family, and then to Heber C. Kimball.  And yet no one was baptized.  I guess Samuel Smith went back to Palmyra, and because of persecution and other things going on, no more missionaries were sent.

But it turns out that Joseph Smith had sent missionaries earlier to Pennsylvania, and they had baptized a handful in Pennsylvania.  That congregation was so excited about the gospel they had decided to send out their own missionaries.  So even though Mendon is about 18 miles from Palmyra, it was missionaries from Pennsylvania over 120 miles away that came to teach in the town.  But for some reason no one was baptized.  A year later, those same missionaries from Pennsylvania came back again, but no one was baptized again.  But by the third year, the Young’s decided this was ridiculous, and I think it was Phineas and John Young that went back to Pennsylvania (not Palmyra) to find those missionaries so they could be baptized.  They brought the missionaries back and that year all these people in Mendon started getting baptized, including Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball.

After letting us tour the Inn, and showing us all the original parts of it (including the part of the inn that ended up being used for service meetings), he invited us back to his home – John Young’s home.  In his home he showed us a notebook he was keeping with important stories.  One was an article written by someone who had lived in the Tomlinson Inn, “Living in a Chapter of History” written by Marjorie Rice in the Ensign Oct. 2007.

This is half of Joseph Young’s Home. His home was in middle of where they wanted to put a road, so later residences took part of the home and placed it across the street. So there is 1/2 of his home on each side of the street.

He also showed us an account written by Heber C Kimball of a vision he had seen in the skies in Mendon.  He told me I could have a copy of it, and I forgot to get it, I hope to get it tomorrow.  Then he showed us a guest book the previous owner had kept when she had let people tour her home.  She had some prominent visitors including President Kimball tour her home.   How cool it is when people recognize the value of what they have and preserve it for us.

It was getting dark at that point and they asked us if we had a place to stay, which we hadn’t found one yet.  So they gave us permission to park on their property.  So tonight we are sleeping on the land that was Brigham Young’s fathers.  How cool is that!  He said that he was giving another tour in the morning at 8:30am, and we were invited to come with them so we could get better photos in the daylight.

I can’t believe how blessed we have been on this trip.  Things that we would never expected have been happening.  We are learning so much.  But my favorite thing is to see how good people are.  There are so many good people we have met, that have made our trip so amazing.  It’s really been one of God’s tender mercies on this trip.  What an amazing day this turned out to be!

Summary of Day 19
Drove:  138 miles

Places we visited or saw: Niagara Falls, “Cave of Winds”, Duff’s ,Buffalo NY, 7864 North Main, in Fishers, NY (home was built by Brigham Young), 7868 North Main (believed that early missionaries held meetings in this home), Phineas Young’s 8026 North Main Street, John Young’s Home, Tom Tomlinson Inn, across the street Heber C Kimball home site, Camped at John Young’s home.

Favorite thing we did today:
Spitz and Jawbreaker: Duff’s and Cave of the Winds
Bazooka: Duff’s the vats in Tomlinson Inn Barn, and Cave of the Winds
Warhead: Cave of the Winds
Starburst: Seeing the bats, Duffs, and Mendon
Fireball:  Bats in Tomlinson Inn Barn and Duffs
Mr. S: Cave of the Winds and Duffs
Mrs. S:  Getting a personal tour of Mendon, NY