Day 5

Today we started out exploring downtown Toronto. We went to the CN Tower, which is the tallest man made structure in the world (but, since its a tower and not a building, it doesn't show up on any "tallest building" lists). As we went up on the elevator (which had a glass floor), I learned real fast that Ted does not like heights, and he was not a fan of the elevator ride.

However, when we got to the top, Ted was a little more comfortable walking around looking at the view. Here's a picture of downtown Toronto:


One of the main attractions of the CN Tower is one part of it that has a glass floor. Here's a picture of my feet looking through the floor:


Ted was doing okay with the heights, until we got to the glass floor. Although they said that it could hold 100,000 pounds, Ted was very nervous to just look over the edge, as shown:



They also had a mirror where you could get a good picture of yourself on the glass floor, so here I am. The best part of this picture is that to take it, Ted had to put one foot on the glass, which made him really uneasy.

Ted's fears weren't unreasonable, considering that we were on the "world's highest observation deck...147 stories" high


From Toronto, we started our drive toward Niagra Falls. Here's a picture of Hamilton, a city on the way to Niagra. Hamilton was part of my mission, and was also known as the armpit of the mission, and here you can see why:


Next up was Niagra. The pictures say enough...pretty amazing.

The American Falls:

Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian side):



On the Canadian side, the area around the falls looks like a mini Las Vegas. While we were tempted by the multiple haunted houses open all year, we decided to move on toward Palmyra.

We did take a quick walk through the craziness, though:



This ends our adventures through Canada, as we crossed into Buffalo. While this time we had to actually show our passports, the border was no big deal.

Our next stop was Hill Cumorah. Upstate New York is beautiful with all the trees, and it was cool to imagine how it all was during Joseph Smith's time.


We then went the the Joseph Smith farm, which the log house, frame house, and Sacred Grove. Here's the room where Moroni visited Joseph Smith (well, the log cabin is actually a replica, but at least its on the same spot):


There's the temple overlooking the Sacred Grove:

and the Frame House that the Smith's later moved into:

And, finally, we went to the Sacred Grove. It was really nice because Ted and I were the only ones there because it was lightly raining. the rain wasn't bad, but it was cool to have the place to ourselves.


Here's Ted in deep contemplation in the Sacred Grove:


And, finally, our hotel for the night (the picture's a little blurry). We tried to just go as far through NY as we could for the day, and we made it to Binghampton, a city close to the Pennsylvania border. It rained a lot on our drive, but the hills and valleys of New York were beautiful. This country has a whole lot to offer.