Sleepy Hollow

This past weekend we went down to Sleepy Hollow, NY (yes, it's a real city). We went last year and it was one of our favorite trips, so we decided to go again this year. We met up with Em & Brett, who drove up from D.C. The weather wasn't quite so nice (it was a bit cold), but we still all had a really good time.

On our way down, Cory and I stopped at Taughonnock Falls, about 30 miles south of our house. We wanted to take some pictures of the waterfall, surrounded by the fall leaves. We got more than we bargained for ...

SNOW!

Philipsburg Manor. This is a working farm established in the 1700's. You can take tours of the buildings, the mill, and walk around the grounds.

My favorite... Abby's expression. Priceless.



The Blaze. This is the main reason we went down again. They carve thousands of pumpkins and arrange them in scenes. You walk along a path and marvel at the talent on display. This picture is the Manor House.

Different lighting of the Manor House

Pirate ship

Captain Jack Sparrow

Marine life

Sunflowers

Graveyard

Washington Irving's house (author who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
Love this picture of the 2 of us

Like I said, we had a great time!

One good weekend

Cory's sister Danielle and her boyfriend Trevor came to visit us last weekend. I took some time off from work and gave myself a 5-day weekend (nice!) It was so much fun having them here, and getting to show off New York.

First, we went to see all the church historical sites (that's what we do for everyone who visits). This is the frame home the Smiths built (I love fall!)


The temple, framed by fall leaves.

The original rock wall the Smiths built to mark their property line -- it's up on the temple grounds.

The next day, we drove 2.5 hours north to a place called 'The Thousand Islands.' When Cory and I moved out here, we made a list of all the places we wanted to visit while living on the east coast -- and this was the only place left on our list. So now we've seen everything :) The Thousand Islands is actually a group of more than 1800 islands, stretching from northern New York into Canada. Many of the islands are privately owned -- people buy the island then erect these gorgeous houses.


The only way to see the islands is by boat, so we took a 2 hour boat tour around the islands. This is us on the boat.

Haha, this is where Trevor is going to some day live...

This is the smallest of all the islands. All you need to be counted as one of the islands is a tree and some other form of vegetation. Wa-la!

They call this the world's shortest international bridge, cause it passes right over the American/Canadian border. Our tour guide says the guy who owns the islands used to banish his grand kids to another country when they were being bad.

This is Boldt Castle, as seen from the water.

The Boldt Castle pump house.

For a few extra dollars, you can take a tour of the castle, which is exactly what we did. The grounds were gorgeous. And the castle was so cool-looking.



Haha, I was trying so hard to keep a straight face... and failing miserably...

I love this picture of the 4 of us, on the terrace of the castle.

This is a state park called Watkins Glen. It's so pretty, carved out over centuries of time by water. Cory took Danielle & Trevor down to visit (I stayed home, by this time, I was feeling rather sick... too much playing, I'm afraid)

This is a good picture showing how narrow it is.

We'll sure miss all the cool stuff that's in or nearby New York when we move. We've seen some really cool places and it's so fun to show them off. It was nice having visitors, even though I felt crappy for lots of the time. Thanks for coming and seeing us, guys!

I love visitors

Our friends Kelley and Neil flew out from Utah to visit us over the weekend, and we had a blast! Of course, what do you do when you come to western New York?

Niagara Falls, of course!

Looking snazzy in our Maid of the Mist ponchos

Taughannocks Falls - 215 feet tall

Buttermilk Falls, down in Ithaca

Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls

Buttermilk Falls

Of course, you have to go to Palmyra and see the church historical sites. First, we did a session in the temple.

Looking down the Hill Cumorah, with the stage set for the pageant.

It had just started raining by the time we were touring the Joseph Smith Farm. We thought we'd walk quickly through the Sacred Grove and be ok. Boy were we wrong! The paths in the Sacred Grove had turned into rivers (I kid you not) and the water was over my ankles! I wish I had gotten a picture of it, but I didn't want to ruin my camera. However, in this video you can see how hard it was raining! We had umbrellas, but they were just no match for the storm.

And the aftermath of the storm... we were soaked. I could have gone swimming in my clothes and been just as wet. If you look closely in the picture, you can see I'm wringing out my skirt.

Yes, it was quite the adventure. The sun came out in the afternoon, and it dried us off a bit, so we stayed to see a few more sites (and all the good pictures are on Kelley's camera). It was a fabulous time and so good to see Kelley and Neil! Thanks for coming to visit guys :)