Palmyra Trip

This past weekend my ward took a trip to upstate New York to visit some of the LDS historical sites and to see the Hill Cumorah pageant. After an 8 hour drive, our first stop was Niagara Falls. When I did a study abroad to Nauvoo 6 years ago we took a trip to NY and saw these same sites. What I found on this trip was how amazing it is that you can still have a brand new experience in the exact same places you've been before.

As far as natural beauty goes, it's hard to beat Niagara Falls. The falls seem to come out of nowhere. You walk down this path, looking across the river to the Canadian border, and suddenly these two huge waterfalls are right in front of you! It's quite peaceful and then BAM! you get this view (pictured below) and a deafening roar. This pic barely hints at the beauty that is there, but personally I think it's postcard worthy (new career in photography maybe? Kidding, kidding.)

New York to the left. Canada to the right. 

As we were standing from this vantage point, a lady that worked there pointed out that across the river there was a man tight-rope walking between two buildings! Get this. He's 68 years old and is trying to break a record for how many days in a row he can keep this up. He's done it now for 81 days (I forget how long the record is that he has to break), but he does it without any safety harnesses! Insane. So we put quarters into one of those lookout machines and got a close up of him, he's definitely not strapped into anything. What an awesome man. I hope he breaks the record.

Good thing they provide ponchos! 

We also rode the Maid of the Mist, which is the boat that takes you as close as you can get to the falls without capsizing. It's a tad misty down there...

My awesome roommate Becky

Becky and I were roommates for the dorms that were our home for the weekend at Keuka College (you  might recognize her from my previous blog post about NYC). It was pretty much exactly what you would expect for a small-town college dorm room: 4 girls sharing a bathroom, short beds that do not accommodate my long legs, and an awesome breakfast buffet (their one redeeming quality). Makes for some good bonding experiences.




The next day was filled with Church History sites, beginning with the Smith family farmhouse. I think that the best part of these sites is actually talking to the senior missionary couples serving out there. They all have interesting stories and love to share. A lot of them have come from all over the U.S. and volunteer their time specifically during the pageant weeks and then go home after. What a neat experience to serve in these special places for a couple weeks. We also visited the Sacred Grove. This is the exception to the rule that I mentioned above about having a new experience each time. The Sacred Grove was exactly as I had remembered it to be. The spirit that resides in that wooded area is indescribable. I won't cheapen it by trying to put it into words. Everyone should have that experience at least once in their lives.

After a satisfying day of sight-seeing it was time for the pageant! I've been to the Manti pageant and was expecting a similar performance, but was pleasantly surprised. They had impressive staging and lighting and I thought it was very well-done. Not to take anything away from the Manti pageant. It's good too, just not quite up to the level as the Hill Cumorah one. As always, protesters stood their ground outside of the pageant area. I'm not going to rant about them, but I have to say - why do they care? We gather on land that we (the Church) own to have a pageant that celebrates our beliefs. Then we all gather our things and drive away in an orderly fashion. No one gets drunk or high or presents themselves as a danger to society in any way. How is that a reason for protest? It just boggles my mind that some people can be filled with such malice towards a group of people that they know so little about and who say nothing in return to their attacks. O.k. done with my thoughts on that.

Angel Moroni at the top of the Hill Cumorah

The next day we went to church in Palmyra and then drove home. The church was packed with a ton of visitors and we happened to sit next to a young family that had a little boy who was probably 3 or 4. He was shy at first, but after I smiled at him once he became a bit bolder. By the end of the meeting he was climbing all over me while his parents tried to get him to sit still. I didn't mind at all, I actually found him to be quite hilarious. I asked him his name and he said, "Two." I said, "Two?" He just nodded. Then I asked his mom. His name is Alan. Ha! Then I asked him how old he was and couldn't get a straight answer from him. Then he made me play with his stuffed animal turtle for a little bit and made farting noises at me for a few minutes. Then out of nowhere he was standing by my knees and pushed my skirt way up my legs. His mom was mortified, but I just laughed and said, "Excuse me! I just met you!" The guy next to me was laughing so hard and we joked about the kid being a "fast mover." Oh man. Definitely an entertaining church meeting.

Overall, great trip! What's next you ask? BELIZE!!! I'm off for a week of snorkeling, cave repelling, jet skiing, eating and reading on the beach. Til next time. 

Start Spreading the News, I'm Leavin Today

Ya know, DC is no small time town, but it sure felt like it when I got back from New York this weekend. I have now visited the Big Apple three times and each time I am astounded at the sheer size of it. The main purpose of this trip was to satisfy my need to see Newsies on Broadway. And let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint! I'm a big fan of the movie and I had my doubts that anyone could beat Christian Bale's portrayal of Jack Kelly, but Jeremy Jordan - well done, sir, well done. Seriously so good. Incredible dancing! Alex Wong from SYTYCD was part of the cast, which may or may not have made my night. If you don't know who he is, look up the dance he did with Twitch called "Outta Ya Mind." He's incredible! I could talk about this show all day, so in short - awesome dancing, lovable cast, great songs, I'd go see it every day if I could. In true nerd fashion, I made the girls I was with stay after the show so we could see all the Newsies come out and have them sign our playbills. Totally worth it! Got a picture with Jeremy Jordan. I wish I'd gotten one with Alex too, but those are the breaks. There were so many people waiting that we made friends with the group standing right in front of us and just snapped the picture with them to save time, thus the random people in our picture.

Oh yeah, I'm a fan!

Besides Newsies, we had a jam-packed weekend that included: a trip to Max Brenner's Chocolate Cafe, biking through Central Park, market shopping, Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center, Stardust Diner, Comedy Club, 9/11 Memorial, Sacrament Meeting at the LDS chapel in Manhattan (connected to the temple), Magnolia's (phenomenal bakery), and two 4-hour bus rides to seal the deal. 

I have to dedicate a paragraph to the Stardust Diner because it is my favorite place in New York City. The waiters/waitresses who work there are aspiring Broadway stars that just haven't caught their big break yet. In other words, they are FANTASTIC singers and know pretty much any Broadway tune you can think of. The first song performed as we sat down on Saturday night was "Good Morning Baltimore" from Hairspray. I was in heaven. Who cares about the food? I just wanted to sit there all night listening! They wander throughout the restaurant, weaving in and out of the tables, sometimes even giving a little personal performance if you bat your eyes a bit at the right waiter. This time around our waitress gave a nice rendition of "Popular" from Wicked. 

Her name was Stella - how perfect is that? Steeeellllllaaaaa!

On my last visit to NY, we spent some time in Central Park, but we walked through most of it. This time we opted for bikes, which was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made. Central Park is much more enjoyable when seen while moving smoothly over paths with the wind blowing through your hair (especially when it's a muggy day in July). 

The 9/11 Memorial was also definitely worth seeing. I knew that they were building a memorial, but had never seen any pictures of what was being built, so I walked into it not knowing what I was about to see. What they've done is built two square waterfalls in the ground over the places where the two towers previously sat. I took some pictures, but they really don't do it justice. They are massive and awesome to behold. What I really enjoyed about the memorial was how they organized the names of those who died in the tragedy. They grouped names together by who they would have worked near in the building. Requests were also taken from family members, if they knew of co-workers that were close, then they grouped them together as well. The same was done for police and fire dept units. They were grouped with their "Ladder." I thought that added a special touch to the memorial, rather than just doing an alphabetical list of everyone who died. 

Well I could go on and on, but I'll end with Rockefeller Center and the NBC store. Almost all of the shows I love (Community, Parks and Rec, The Office, Chuck, SNL) are on NBC and if I had tons of money I would have bought loads of merchandise from this store. My favorites were: a Seinfeld mug with the Soup Nazi saying "No Soup For You!," a t-shirt with the Ron Swanson pyramid on it, and a sweatshirt with "Paintball 2010" on it from Community. Good old NBC. Oh, they also had a whole section dedicated to the upcoming London Olympics...that was hard to resist too.

Rockefeller Center with the girls (Julie, Becky, me, Alicia)

Til next time New York!

Welcome to my Blog!

And so it begins. I've contemplated the idea of starting a blog for some time now and I'm not sure why it took so long, but for some reason tonight is the night. I know, I know, this is a big deal. Please try to contain your excitement. In this blog I will attempt to capture the adventures I am having as a young single adult in the big city of Washington, DC. Enjoy!

You might be wondering why I called my blog "In Another Life." Allow me to explain. I have often wondered if in another life I would have been A) A Broadway Star, B) An artist or sculptor, or C) An accomplished dancer. Unfortunately for me (or those around me who suffer as a result) I can't carry a tune to save my life, a 2 year old with a crayon could make something more artistic than anything I've ever tried, and although I do a wicked head bob dance move, the rest of my body could use a little work in the rhythm department. Perhaps it is because I have no talent in these areas, but I completely love anything and everything to do with all three. If I was rich I would live in New York and go to a Broadway show every night. I studied Humanities in college and was lucky enough to go on a study abroad to Europe where I saw some of the most amazing works of art known to man. I will go see anything from ballet to street dancers to Riverdance - which is perhaps why my favorite show is So You Think You Can Dance, which shows incredible dancers thrown into every imaginable genre being choreographed by some of the best choreographers in the world (Mia Michaels anyone?). So, I know that you can't have it all and that I have been given many talents which I greatly appreciate, BUT in another life...