Church and States

"A road trip with your in-laws?" This was the response I got from co-workers and friends when I told them about my plans after finals week. “You don’t know my in-laws. I’m going to have to give them a curfew.” Jenny's parents came to visit for a little over a week at the beginning of June. We drove through six states and Canada, visiting family, LDS Church history sites and the best of the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes regions. Photos of some highlights are below.

Our first stop was Ann Arbor. We spent the night outside of town, and, the next morning, we drove and walked around the main campus and the law school quad. The Taste of Ann Arbor was taking place on Main Street, and we dined well: crab cakes, “navratan korma” (vegetarian yogurt curry?), and peach-watermelon-hibiscus agua fresca. The Taste of Ann Arbor was a welcomed peek at what the Taste of Chicago probably was in the 1980s, before it became overrun and overpriced.

We drove out of town past the “Big House” (the University of Michigan’s football stadium), and headed for Novi, a Detroit suburb where Jenny’s sister Tess is living for the summer. We played games, had a couple meals, and watched the NBA finals with Tess, Sheldon, and Tanner.

From Novi, we headed for the border. Jenny and I had forgotten our passports, but we talked to the Canadian border patrolmen, and they let us in anyway. We enjoyed driving through the Canadian countryside on our way to Toronto, where we meandered through “charming” residential neighborhoods and ate lunch at a “Firkin Freehouse.” It had been a while since I’d been to Canada, and everything felt about 90% similar to home. Store names were different. The accent was different. The landscaping was different (piles of white rocks along the freeway spelled out advertisements for products). Other than that, everything was pretty much the same. We loved our short stay in Toronto, and agreed to come back on a long weekend.

Niagara Falls was our next stop. We stopped on the (superior) Canadian side, walking along the falls and ascending a 200 foot tower to get a better view.

Once we had checked into our state-side hotel, we drove into Buffalo for dinner. Buffalo was a pleasant surprise, and we admired the Victorian homes and the trendy boutiques and restaurants on and around Elmwood Ave. We ate Japanese food and fried cheesecake, before returning to Niagara Falls for a midnight walk along the water.

We spent the next two days in and around Palmyra, and we had the place mostly to ourselves, except for one family that was 20 minutes behind us at literally every site. Our first stop was the Hill Cumorah, where we walked up and around the monument.

Next, we went to the Joseph Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove. While the tour of the home was decent (the elderly missionary was new on the job), our favorite part was walking around the Sacred Grove. Dave had memorized the First Vision from the old missionary discussions, and we listened to him repeat it as we sat in the Grove. It was a memorable experience.

After a lazy hour or so in the Grove, we drove to a pizza shop in Palmyra, and finished off the afternoon at the Grandin Bookstore, where the Book of Mormon was published. In the evening, we went to the Palmyra Temple, which overlooks the Sacred Grove, and apparently has the most stained glass windows of all the newer temples.

The next morning, we finished our Palmyra-era stop off with a visit to the Peter Whitmer Farm, where the Church was organized in 1830.

Once we had left the Peter Whitmer Farm, we had a couple of days worth of worldly pursuits. Nothing too crazy: a visit to the site of the first women’s rights convention; a drive through Ithaca and the campus of Cornell University; a hike through Watkins Glen State Park; and an evening in Corning, New York.

In my American Legal History class, we discussed the Seneca Falls Convention, which was a significant moment in the women’s rights movement of the 19^th century. I hadn’t realized it, but Seneca Falls is about a 10 minute drive from the Peter Whitmer Farm. It was an obvious detour, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the convention site was a National Historical Park with a visitors center and museum.

The museum had interesting exhibits and posters. This was one of my favorites.
We had lunch at Ithaca Bakery and drove around the town, the campus, and the surrounding area. Early June must be the best time to drive through the Finger Lakes region. Rolling hills, water, and trees are the dominant characteristics of the scenery. We drove from Ithaca to Watkins Glen State Park, located at the base of the next lake. The hike up the main gorge was spectacular. It reminded me of a grey and green version of the River Walk in Zion National Park.

From Watkins Glen, we raced to Corning, New York, to visit the Corning Museum of Glass. We marveled at one of, if not the, most spectacular collections of glass in the world. Chinese glass from 4000 b.c. Roman glass from the time of Christ. Royal crystal from the 1700s. Tiffany glass from the 1900s. Glass sculptures, glass instruments (of both the musical and medical varieties), glass tires, etc. Jenny and I even made our own glass.

The end product.

After the glass museum, we ate dinner at Sonora’s, a Mexican restaurant in Corning’s Gaffer District – the main drag of the town. Unfortunately, the restaurant was out of the one food item that we were all craving – tortilla chips (with salsa). We were able to negotiate a discount due to the lack of chips, and our meal was satisfying. Chip shortage aside, I would highly recommend that anyone passing through the area make a stop in Corning. We didn’t have time to visit the Rockwell Museum of American Art, but we will be back.

From Corning, we drove to our hotel in Hornell, New York. We had ice cream and chatted at a Friendly’s in Hornell before calling it a night.

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn, driving the 250 miles from Hornell to Kirtland. Once in Kirtland, we visited the Kirtland Temple, and the recently re-done (and impressive) Historic Kirtland. Sister missionaries took us through the Newell K. Whitney store and home, the saw mill, and the ashery, where ashes were turned into lucrative lye. We ate Chipotle for dinner and had a relaxing evening watching a movie and another NBA finals game.

In the morning, we drove to the Johnson farm, where Joseph Smith took refuge during the tense moments in Kirtland. We saw the steps he preached from, the room he slept in, and the office he worked in.

From the Johnson farm we went to the campus of Case Western Reserve, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, which was spectacular. O’Keefe, Hopper, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Rousseau, Bierstadt, Rodin, etc. Many of the biggest names were there. Below are some of our favorites from the museum.

Unfortunately, Rodin’s thinker had his leg blown off by a pipe bomb.

We crossed the street from the art museum to the Cleveland Botanic Gardens. Objectively speaking, the gardens were not worth the money (especially coming from Chicago).

There was a greenhouse with literally thousands of butterflies. That was actually pretty impressive, and we enjoyed getting up close and personal with a few of them. One butterfly would keep her wings closed until a (presumably) male butterfly came close. She would then open her wings and show herself to the world. Many other butterflies would fly in before she closed her wings again. I felt a little voyeuristic, but we’re only talking about butterflies.

Our last stop in Cleveland was the West Side Market. Objectively speaking, this is the best public market in the U.S. (sorry Seattle). Housing everything from produce to falafel to red velvet cake to every kind of sausage or pasta, the West Side Market won our hearts over. We ate lunch (falafel sandwiches, bratwurst, smoothies, napoleon cream pie and banana cream cheesecake) on a balcony overlooking the market. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

From Cleveland we drove to a B&B near Elkhart, Indiana – the heart of Amish country. I was a little surprised by our B&B hostess, who had 14 earrings in one ear and a Bluetooth in the other. “That’s not very Amish,” said Jenny. Still, we had an amazing two-day stay at our B&B, which was located on acres of farm land. We played games and ate pie in the evening (the Leathams continue to convert me to card games like Five Crowns and Wizard), and we fell asleep to movies from the B&B’s 300+ collection. On our last full day, we took an audio guided tour of the area, driving through all of the back roads and towns, past Amish homes and stores.

We stopped for some amazing cheese at the Deutsch Kase Haus...
and we visited the Amish-Mennonite visitors center for a fascinating look at life in these communities. While there, we also learned that Mormons are not Amish (surprise!).

Along the drive, we ran into a Hudson car show, and we could pass on the opportunity to pose with 1920-1950 era cars, one of which had been in a bank robbery during the depression.

That evening we had a barbeque with our B&B hosts, and ate one more piece of pie as we played a late-night game of cards. We drove back to Chicago the next morning.