Beauty in a Gorge

What a wonderful world we live in.  I am amazed, all the time, at the glory of the Master Creator.  This week was breathtaking.  We started out with a drive to the Erie Canal to just grab a photo- sadly the color isn't quite what we thought it would be but hey look at the beauty anyway!

We continued on to our planned destination- a place by Ithaca called Watkins Glen.  We drove North and then took off the Thruway and headed toward Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes.  It was scattered with quaint little towns and miles and miles of vineyards and wineries.

We stopped in a little town called Geneva, a beautiful college town, but I had to get a photo of the rows of I guess you would call them townhouses, or maybe like a brownstone.  They were huge and they had character oozing out of them.  I love stuff like this and Mike is just so patient with me.  

We arrived in Watkins Glen the town but there is a State Park right in the middle of it, also called Watkins Glen.  It is a deep gorge with 19 waterfalls.  There are 800 stairs that connect all the beautiful falls along the gorge trail. Our legs felt like jelly but holy cow was it worth every jiggle. Honestly, we felt like we had stepped into another world.  Thankfully there weren't too many people.  We got out the tripod and the camera and off we went looking for the magic. We were not disappointed.  There were a few places we stood and waited for the people to clear out so that I could get a shot without distractions. When I saw these photos on my computer, the wait was so worth it.  I had to take out a couple of people here and there but for the most part we had beautiful views.  See for yourself.

There was one shot that I had seen on websites that I was dying to get for myself.  This is where the people lingered.  They loved being on top of the bridge.  I got a little impatient but Mike always knows how to reel me in.  The photo is breathtaking and I am so glad I got it.

After walking up almost every step, and down a few, we headed back on a trail that didn't have stairs-nor did it have the magic of the waterfalls but we enjoyed the pathway through some beautiful country.

After Watkins Glen we headed to Ithaca.  On the way, we ran to another covered bridge because we couldn't be that close and not go find it. It called Newfield and not very far from Ithaca. It was built in 1853 and has been refurbished.

Ithaca has a huge waterfall right in the middle of town.  As we headed to that waterfall, we stumbled onto Buttermilk Falls.   It's right on the outskirts of town so we stopped there too. This is just off the parking lot.  There was a gorge here too but it was getting too late to explore.

Next was Ithaca Falls.  Wow.  Beautiful. The blur almost makes it look like it's frozen over.

As we headed for home, just as the sun was setting, we drove into the little town of Cortland. Of course, there was the most beautiful little church so I just had to grab a picture of it.  What do you think?  Worth the stop?  I think so.

But the adventure of the day was not over yet.  As we were traveling through the dark we saw a sign for an apple orchard called Beak and Skiff.  We had tried to find an apple orchard for apples and apple cider donuts.  We looked it up on the website and it was going to be open until 8:00, so off we went.  We are so thankful for GPS.  It usually, almost always, takes us where we want to go.  Beak and Skiff is a huge complex where you can pick your own apples but not in the dark.  We bought some Cortland apples-I don't think this variety of apple grows out west???  Not sure!  And we bought some donuts.  Oh, they were so good!

We were so glad to be home.  It had been a most beautiful and adventurous outing.  We loved spending the day together.

The rest of our week was busy.  We are in charge of our Branch Halloween Party and we spent a bunch of time working on it.  Our Branch Council had decided that instead of doing a trunk or treat we would just give the kids a bag of candy.  And so we spent some time with the candy.

We, also had an idea to work on a really ugly bulletin board in our Branch building.  The idea started with me wanting to redo the board in the Relief Society Room and then it grew into more.  The bulletin board in the hallway is done and it looks amazing but I didn't get a photo-so I will have to include that next week.  We made Jesus Christ the center and built around Him with the Temple and Covenants, our Book of Mormon class and the new Book of Mormon videos,  Follow the Prophet, and an activity area to announce any activities that we have.  Next we move on to the Relief Society Room but Mike has an idea to do another board in the hall titled Book of Mormon Stories-Who's Your Hero and spotlight our heroes from the best book around.  It's a lot of work-especially if we aren't staying for much longer.  But a breath of fresh air is always better to breath than the staleness of years of nothing.

We also have been asked to be in charge of the table decorations for Zone Conference on November 8th.  We have a small budget but they asked us to be frugal.  Well this little neighborhood of ours is filled with the most beautiful leaves-and plenty of them-so one morning found us gathering boxes full of leaves. They definitely fit into our budget.

Our Book of Mormon class was amazing.  We love teaching and learning from each other in our little class.  We taught the second part of Abinidi and his teachings to the crowd.  We especially love the scripture found in Mosiah 14: 4-5.  How thankful we are for our Savior, Jesus Christ.  What would our lives ever be without Him?

On Friday, we were invited to go to Liverpool High School and watch our Mission Leader's daughter play volleyball by the office missionary couples.  It was awesome to be there with them and with President and Sister Gentry.  Afterwards we had dinner with the office missionaries.  And then on Saturday we met our Branch President and his wife and our Branch clerk and his wife for dinner in Hamilton.  Our poor pocketbooks and waistlines.  Holy moly.

Church was wonderful.  It always is.  Sunday is my favorite day of the week.  We love being missionaries.  We are trying to help this little branch in funny little ways and we pray that we are making a difference.  We love you all.  We hope your week is awesome.  Our has already started out that way.  Until next week.