Dallas, TX

We spent a week exploring the Dallas area. The city itself seemed more like a large office complex but our side trips made this part of the journey fun. We camped at Dinosaur Valley State Park, visited the National Boy Scout HQ & Museum, and took a walk through the Ft. Worth Stockyards.

Memphis, TN

Next stop was Memphis and something we had wanted to do from day 1....to tour Graceland..

Vincennes, IN

It was a long drive down through to Indiana where we spent a week visiting relatives. I used to come out there on family roadtrips from Idaho when I was a kid.

Chicago, IL

Chicago was amazing! It was our first time there and we were stunned by the awesome arquetecture and fun museums. We walked around inside The Loop, ate deep dish pizza, and did our urban exploring for a week here.

Kirtland, OH

Kirtland is just 'OK' after visiting Palmyra. It would have been faster to go through Canada but we wanted to see it just the same. The sites are mostly reproductions and the tour is so-so. To see inside the Kirtland Temple costs $2/person since it's owned by the Church of Christ. Noel was getting into the videos in the visitors center but they made us leave because a bus tour was coming through.

Niagara Falls, NY & Canada

We watched conference at the building here and afterwards I met Mike Granata outside practicing his golf swing on the lawn. We struck up a conversation and he generously offered to get us free tickets for the Maid of the Mist (his wife Rosanna works there). This is the boat that takes you to the bottom of the Horseshoe falls at Niagara. It was amazing to be standing still on the churning waters with the falls all around while the big diesel engines of the boat pounding against the currents. The water almost looked like it was boiling down there. We spent the rest of the day exploring the Canadian side.

Palmyra, NY

It was pretty cool for us to see and experience as a family many of the places and events we refer to so often in the church. There are so many trails running throughout the Sacred Grove that we somehow got split up and spent 45 min trying to find each other and round up the boys. I took a few minutes alone with each to explain the significant events that happened here.

Adirondack Mtns - NY

Driving through here was disquietingly uneventful. We didn't see any stores and very few houses for almost 2 days of driving. We did spend the night at a beautiful mountain waterside campground at Lake Eaton. It has been a lot of fun camping out with Matthew and Michelle even though 8 people is probably too many to be inside the trailer at once.

Montreal, Canada

This is a huge city but we only had a couple days to tackle it. The problem with Canada is that everything is expensive...food, gas, etc. The stake center served us again as the base of operations as we explored Mont Royal Park, St. Denis and old town Montreal. For the last week everything has been in French so it put everyone a little on edge and ready to get back to the USA.