Last Friday was Corey's birthday! Woo hoo! Happy 28th!
So we took some time out for a good trip north. We headed to Palmyra, New York for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. And later that night we went to Seneca Falls to see the spot where the first big event for women's rights was held.
We learned that coincidentally, The Declaration of Sentiments was written on the 19th-20th of July, 1848... so we were there exactly 159 years after it happened! Cool, huh?
We hit the road and headed north. My first time in Canada. Weird, eh?
Check this out! This is Corey's pic of Niagara Falls. Looks like a postcard!
Then we headed to Toronto. We made it to the base of the CN building but decided not to waste two hours getting to the top. Corey was snapping lots of pics of the building and I decided to take some of him.
I mostly hang out with him because I think he's hot.
We then headed to a small town called Picton where we watched the sunset and ran onto some huge sand dunes. Um... no pictures of those! Ack!
Later that night we crossed the border back into the states. We were heading to a place called Alexandria Bay, New York. Corey and I had both seen a picture of it in a rest stop on our way to Palmyra. Basically, it's in the 1,000 Islands area. There's this one little island with a castle on it and a beautiful story to go along with it.
Back in the turn of the 20th century, a man named George C. Boldt bought the island for his wife. (Boldt had made his fortune through managing big hotels such as the famous Waldorf-Astoria here in the city and the Clover Club in Philly.) He called the island "Heart Island" and invested millions to create a castle similar to those in his home in the Rhineland. So the tale goes, the castle was to be a summer home for the family and a gift of his love for his wife. A year before completion, his wife, Louise, died of heart complications.
His heart was broken and he called off the building of the home, leaving it to the elements for several decades.
In the 70s, the island was locally purchased and the castle was finished. It's still undergoing lots of work, but is SO pretty!
After our visit to Boldt Castle, we hit the road and headed to Vermont. It's one of my new favorite states. I'd never been there before! And it's SOOOO green! We found a great campsite at a state park. Can you believe we couldn't find my tent poles? Sad! So we improvised. I don't think I took a picture of that! Man!
For the record, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE camping. I'd been bugging Corey about wanting to go camping ever since it started warming up. So finally, we went camping! And I think we'll have to go again. Soon. This time with tent poles.
In the morning we headed back home. And along the way we stopped at a rest area and learned that we had stopped in Sharon, Vermont -- birthplace of Joseph Smith. So we made a jaunt to the memorial of the prophet. What a cool place! We met a really great missionary couple, watched the movie in the Visitors Center, and checked out the memorial.
The house where he was born is no longer there. Instead, they have this small little bird house replica.
It started raining just as we started to leave.
What a perfect trip! I can't wait 'til the next one!
