Sightseeing in New York

After spending time in Virginia with Jonathan's sister and family for Heidi's wedding, we drove up to Pittsford, New York (near Rochester) to "crash" at our friends (the Wise's) house.  After this week, I'm sure they will be happy to have their house to themselves, but they have shared their home with us - thank you guys!
Our first day in New York was spent seeing a random collection of sites.  First, we visited the Peter Whitmer home in Fayette.

 The home is a recreation, but a near match, so it's still interesting.  Julia couldn't get over the musty smell in the house. 

 It was hard to imagine 50 people in this room as the church was organized in April of 1830, but it seemed doable, although really crowded.

 Julia liked seeing this candle mold.  I think she would rather like to make her own candles.

A table like this would likely be how the Book of Mormon would have been translated in this upstairs bedroom at the Whitmer farm house.

Next, we drove to Auburn to see Harriet Tubman's property.  This house was used as a sort of "senior center" where she cared for those who were poor and elderly.  Not only did Harriet serve as a successful conductor on the underground railroad, personally bringing over 300 people out of slavery (never losing one person); but she also led a band of soldiers during the civil war on successful spy missions (also, never losing one soldier).  She was an amazing person.

This is Harriet Tubman's personal residence.  She lived here until her death.  The home is currently being restored so that tours can see the inside of the home.

We took a scenic drive along Cayuga lake to come to a park on Lake Ontario called Chimney Bluffs.  If you are a reader of "Wise and Otherwise" you will recognize this place.  It was quite a trek through the forest to get to the overlook of these unique formations on the lake shore.

At least the temperature was a full 20 degrees cooler today than the past few days, which made the hike more pleasant.  However.....

The trail was really muddy.  We learned from our trip to Hawaii to just remove all shoes and socks before a hike (on unpaved trails) and just wear our sandals with covered toes.  Here is what Julia's sandals looked like part-way through the trip.

Here is Julia trying to negotiate a mud pit by walking across a fallen tree....she didn't make it all the way across.  If you look closely, you will see mud on her legs too.  Like we say, it's not a real hike unless someone gets muddy.  In this case, it was a fantastic hike because we ALL got muddy.  It took us about 20 minutes to wash off our feet and legs (and shoes) in a fountain (after unsuccessfully trying to use Lake Ontario to wash our feet). 

**Special note for Uncle Brad:  Don't panic, we made sure we were clean thoroughly before we got into your car (or Maile's in this case).....we know that mud in the truck would be upsetting.  Thanks again for loaning us your vehicle.  (Funny story about being in someone elses' car when crossing the boarder....)

And if the mud wasn't enough excitement on this hike....how about having to cross over this precarious root ball over-hanging a cliff.  What is not really clear in this picture is the 100 foot drop to the rocky shore of Lake Ontario below the kids.  

This last shot I found particularly informative.....it's a good thing they warned us about this because I always carry a hunting rifle on hikes...just in case....I mean, you never know when you may want to take down a wild animal!