Boston Museum of Science

Brandon and I went adventuring through the ginormous Museum of Science. (No, we did not fork out the extra dough to see the Body Exhibit. One word: ew.)
But Brandon sure does like his dinosaurs!

Flash Slideshow

Btw--This slide show...so annoying. I know it doesn't quite fit, but this is as good as I could get it.

Salem and Marblehead

This weekend our friends the Perry's invited us to go on a day trip with them. Destination: Salem, MA. You know, witches and stuff. We went to two witch museums, one which included a rendition of one of the actual witch trials, and also to a pirate museum.
The winner? Pirates! You can only take so many witch stories, but those pirates never got old...at least the tour guide made pirates seem a lot more interesting.


Btw-- What does a pirate say when he has a heart attack?
Arrr! Me heartie!





After Salem we went south to Marblehead to catch a look at the coast. Beautiful, huh?

Freedom Trail in Boston

What should you do on your first trip into Boston? The Freedom Trail of course! Red lines painted on the sidewalks guide your way through the city to see all sorts of historic goodness and city sites. We saw street performers aplenty (the hip hop group was awesome; the acrobats were cheesy) and walked through some sort of festival in Boston's Italian North End. (Now we know where to go for good Italian food!) We ended our excursion at the USS Constitution, aka Old Ironsides. And Felicia went on the subway and saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time! Sweet!


Oh, and the cows.... These things are all over the Boston/Cambridge area as a fund raiser for the Jimmy Fund, which is a cancer research organization. This cow was right next to a big Paul Revere statue.
Go Red Sox!

A little bit of Harvard

So what does Harvard look like? Well the majority of the buildings are beautiful. Unfortunately, we don't take a camera with us everywhere, but here are a few pictures of the campus. (BTW--we don't get the water pump thing either.)

Finally! [Day 6 of our Journey]

We left our hotel fairly early in the morning, trying to beat most of the rush. Traffic was bad though. It took us well over 45 minutes just to get to Boston. And then horror of horrors happened: our directions were WRONG. AAA told us to get off an exit early, which we didn't figure out until the next day. So for the next three hours, our heroes Felicia and Brandon meandered around several of Boston's suburbs, something no-one wants to do during rush hour in a large moving truck. And did I already mention that it was raining? Not the best first impression of our new home town, but we survived. Eventually, through the grace of the Heavens and Felicia's extraordinary navigation skills, we eventually found the key office, and from there our apartment. We had enough time before people from our ward showed up to help us move to check out our apartment, which is surprisingly large. We really like it. We'll post some pictures when we're all unpacked. Thanks to everyone for your help, support, and prayers in getting us here safely. We miss you all already, and can't wait for you to come visit us in our new home!!!

(Look at our new futon! Super!)

COMING SOON: exclusive pictures of BOSTON! RED BRICK BUILDINGS! HARVARD LAW SCHOOL! FELICIA AND SQUIRRELS! OUR GROCERY STORE! AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! Check back soon!

Wanting to be done [Day 5 of our Journey]

By now, we are sick as could be of driving across the country in our big nasty truck. After so many hours, the seats get uncomfortable, the AC starts to make your skin itch, and the lack of a CD or tape player just starts driving you bonkers. But nevertheless, the trip had to go on.

Luckily, we stopped in beautiful Palmyra, NY, where the Church of Jesus Christ was restored. I (Brandon) think that of all the church sites, upstate NY, the Palmyra area, was by FAR the most beautiful. Just a nice place to organize a church.

Our first stop was the Hill Cumorah.


Next we went to the Smith property. Here's a view of the rebuilt log cabin where Moroni appeared to Joseph in the night.


A glimpse of the Palmyra temple from the Smith farm.


Here's the ACTUAL bricks that Joseph hid the plates under in front of the fireplace of the Smith home.





The Sacred Grove.






Our journey then took us back to the interstate, where we finally burst forth into Massachusetts. The experience was so shocking that Felicia just couldn't keep her hands steady.


We actually made it to within a half-hour of Boston, but without a key for our apartment or a parking space, we opted to spend one more night away from our home, which proved to be the most expensive night of our trip. Go figure.

Kirtland, etc. [Day 4 of our Journey - and sick of driving]

So, Sunday we went to church in Sturgis, which was a good experience. We walked in and half the ward, which only means about 20 people, turned and stared as we sat down. Friendly people though. I think two separate families tried to get us to stay in the thirty seconds we are in the building after sacrament meeting was over. But we were eager to finish out our drive.

Eventually we made it to Kirtland, OH. The temple was pretty. It is still owned by the Community of Christ, so it was interesting to get a non-Mormon perspective on things.

The Visitor's Center was pretty. We actually cut out of our tour early though because 1) we were bored, and 2) we were really anxious to get moving again, and 3) we hadn't had dinner yet. We've found our attention deficit grows exponentially the longer we go without food. Funny how that works.

After leaving Kirtland, but before we had made it to food, we came upon a burning truck at the side of the road. I don't know about you, but when I see an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road, I generally continue to drive past it, even if it is on fire. Ohioans are obviously incapable of that. So we, although only a few hundred yards from free and clear pavement, were stuck, starving, for about an hour. Frustrating.

We soon, however, made it to Pennsylvania. We were only in Pennsylvania for about an hour, but it was still one of the prettier states on our trek. We only caught this brief glimpse of Lake Erie, the only of the Great Lakes we saw on our trek:

After leaving Penn. we came upon the Empire State - New York! Sorry about the bugs on our windshield. We spent the night just outside of Buffalo. We were so sick of driving that we completely CUT Niagara Falls from our itinerary. Buffalo was nice though.

Nauvoo and onward! [Day 3 of our Journey - starting to get bored]

Saturday morning was our time to explore Old Nauvoo. Felicia was excited to go visit her great-great-great-great Grandpa's house.

Here's the Red Brick Store, of the School of the Prophets fame!

We also made the well-worth-it twenty minute drive to Carthage. Here's the room where Joseph and Hyrum were martyred. History means so much more when you can actually visit where it took place. It's amazing this stuff is still around.

After leaving Carthage, we continued our journey East, eventually passing Chicago. We can literally say that we think Chicago is a hole, because that was really all we saw of it! Traffic was horrible, and the construction was just ugly.

We stayed the night in Sturgis, Michigan, mainly so that Felicia can say she's been to Michigan. Pulling into the hotel, Brandon actually took out some of the fluorescent lightbulbs of the 'drive through'! Luckily it was just the bulbs and not the fixtures. A quick $20 later, and everyone was happy!

Not sick of driving yet [Day 2 of our Journey]

So, for the second day of our wild journey across America, we left the great state of Nebraska, and headed into Iowa. Before we left, we caught a glimpse of the Omaha Zoo. Exciting!

Iowa was fairly exciting.
That night we pulled into the vast metropolitan wonder of Fort Madison, right across the Mississippi from Nauvoo, IL. Nauvoo was pretty. We liked it.

Here's us, and the Mississippi at sunset. What you can't see in this picture are all the bugs that nearly ate us ALIVE! It was madness. Luckily we survived and were able to catch this sunset-variety-show that the Church puts on every night in the summer. Random, but entertaining. Now wouldn't THAT be a fun senior mission?

On the road again . . . (finally) [Day 1 of our Journey]

Well kids, we finally started our trek to the Great East! After a last minute decision to sell the car immediately after our return from Oregon/California, we found ourselves playing the waiting game. Luckily Ma and Pa Wilson were kind enough to let us crash at their place (thanks again!).
Thursday marked the first day of our journey, taking us out of Utah and into the wilds of Wyoming.




That same day, we actually made it out of Wyoming and into Nebraska. Felicia had been to Nebraska before, but Brandon hadn't.
It was amazing . . . ?
We like Nebraska. We spent the night in North Platte, a great place!

July 31: Visit with Grandma

On our way back to Utah, we were able to stop in Yerington, NV where Grandma Young is staying with Aunt Carol and Uncle Greg until her knee heals from surgery. It was great to stay and visit (and Carol is a great cook)! We love you guys!