Guess where this is? Believe it or not this is what the Sacred Grove looks like in early spring.
Maybe one day I will see it in color. There is still a very special feeling here, much like what one feels in the temple. I loved contemplating what happened here. We all separated and walked through alone. There are benches placed on the many trails through the trees. It is quite a bit larger than what I imagined.





The Palmyra Temple sits just east of the two farmhouses on a hill across the road but easily seen from the historical farmhouses.

This is a shot of the inside of the cooper's shed where the plates were hidden by Joseph Smith one time.
This is the hearth that they dug up to hide the plates another time. I have always loved that story and the ingenuity of the prophet for thinking of this.

This is the Old North Bridge outside of Concord Massachusetts where the American colonists faced down the British soldiers at the beginning of the war. Its hard to imagine something so violent taking place here. It is very beautiful and serene.

Today's pictures are from the Boston Marathon. We selected a spot in Wellesley about mid point in the race to watch the runners. These army guys were the first people we saw on the marathon route. We weren't sure how long they had been marching or how far they would go. They were carrying pretty heavy looking packs on their backs. I was just glad I wasn't part of their group.

The herald of the runners were the motorcycle cops. We knew when we saw these guys that things were going to get serious. We had been waiting for about 10 minutes before we saw them.
The wheelchair athletes are the first to go. I think we may have missed the winners of that group since she was the only person we saw in that category. She is buff.



These were the first women runners we saw.
Here's Dorothy cheering on her man. I'm afraid he may not have seen these wonderful signs though. We didn't see him until he was almost passed us and he was running on the other side of the road. I was so busy trying to get his attention that I forgot to take his picture. Sorry John. We were sure proud of him though.





These were the Kenyan runners that eventually won the race in a little over 2 hours. They were pretty much sprinting past us.


Here are the first real group of women runners. There weren't that many in the initial group.


This is the picture that describes the main part of the race. We watched a river of humanity running past us for the next hour and a half. The numbers on their jerseys went as high as 26,500+ .There were occasionally some guys dressed up in costumes that passed by. One was Minnie Mouse, another was dressed in full fairy regalia. Sponge Bob Square Pants passed by as did a shark. One masochist was in a complete Yankee baseball uniform. We didn't ever really get tired of the parade which is unusual because I generally dislike parades. We enjoyed shouting encouragement to the runners, many had their names on their shirts. Some pushed their handicapped friends/loved ones in jogging strollers.

This is what the Hill Cumorah looks like from the bottom by the visitor's center.


This is at the top on the north side. These are the great people we traveled with. As you can see we were there at a pretty good time. Not too crowded!
This is Moroni


This is Phil



This is one of my favorite people.


Have you ever wondered what the other side of the hill looks like?


We were surprised to find that there is a campground for the host missionaries on the other side.

Here are some pictures of my favorite Smithsonian exhibit. These were taken in the botanical garden. Take a deep breath and enjoy.





There is a small stream running underneath these beauties!

This shot was taken on our way out of Canada but it gives an overall view of the falls. The closer falls on the left are the American Falls. They are separated by a land mass to the right. The big misty cloud is hiding the Canadian Falls on the right.
This is at the top of the Canadian Falls The interesting thing about this is that the camera picked up the frozen chunks. We could not perceive them with our eyes at the time. I didn't realize they were there until I saw the picture today. The water is going very fast right here.This is looking down at an intermediate falls. The chunks of ice are very easy to see now.
This is looking downstream at the American Falls and the Niagara River.

There really is a lot of water here. The mist makes it hard to see the whole falls but it was spectacular nonetheless.





Here are the falls on the Canadian side just below the hotel we were staying at.

This is looking upstream of the Niagara River. You can see that the land is really quite flat until it falls at this point.
This is my favorite picture.