The Week After

 Camp came and now is done.  It was a good week spent in a beautiful part of the world.  It was hot, hot, hot-and humid.  Luckily we had some fans in our cabin to keep us cooler at night.  Our camp theme was "UP" and we focused on LOOK UP, CHEER UP, REACH UP!  There were UP decorations all over the place.  We had a funky carnival, zip lining, archery, rock climbing, lots of fun games, and lots of devotionals with the Spirit so strong.  YW Camp is really a one of a kind experience.

While we were at camp, we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary.  We had fun on the zip line and running snacks around to all the girls.  Mike had a little speaker and played ice cream truck music so they knew we were coming.  President Gentry gave us permission to go to Corning for a couple of days to celebrate our anniversary.  So once camp was over we climbed in the car and headed for Corning. We were hot and so tired.  Our hotel room had the air conditioner blowing and because we had almost 4 days for our bodies to acclimate to the hot, we were freezing.  We cleaned up and headed into the town of Corning.  Corning is headquarters to Corning glass.   Most of you probably have at least one piece of Corning glass in your home-  Corelle Ware and Pyrex are made by Corning.  Corning is called the Crystal City for good reason.  There are shops all over the place that sell blown glass souvenirs.  For as big as a company that Corning Glass is, you would think the town would be big but it's just a little quaint town. We did some window gazing, eating ice cream (big surprise) and had dinner.  There was a little band playing Celtic music and people roaming around.  We had a lady say, "Well, hello Elder and Sister" that doesn't happen very often- but she is the Stake President's wife and has lived in Corning most of their married life.  Fun to make a connection!

On Friday, we went to the Corning Museum of Glass-the object of our little trip there.  We had been told by everyone that we needed to see this museum before we left our mission.  Wow.  That's all we can say.  We spent 9 hours there that day.  Besides seeing some amazing glass, they had demonstrations in several hot shops where we watched glass blowing.  We were mesmerized.  We went from one hot shop to another and then back. We watched 6 or 7 demonstrations.  Such talent.

They have approximately 50,000 pieces of glass in the museum but only show about 5,000 at any given time.  There are some really weird modern pieces - kind of Picaso-ish things that I don't really love, but there were some incredible pieces that were used by the rich and famous and some that dated back to 2,000 BC. (check out the 8 foot candelabra) Did you know that glass blowing started around the time of Christ?  I can't imagine the poor guys that had to keep the fires stoked to get them hot enough to molten glass.  The ovens in the hot shops sit at 2100 degrees at all times.  If the glass that the "Gaffer" or glass worker, is working with drops below 1000 degrees the glass will break. So as they are working with it they keep taking it to the oven to keep it above that 1000 degrees.  Then when their artwork is complete, they put it in a timed oven that is 960 degrees and it gradually drops to room temperature over 24 hours. Depending on the thickness of the glass, it could take days or months to cool to room temperature.  Crazy to think about.  Look at some of the beauty.  I didn't include all 5,000 pictures. LOL! All of the glass is clear.  To get the color they have to dip the hot molten glass into crushed up colored glass.  They dip the first piece after they blow a bubble into it-roll it in the color and then get more of the clear molten on it and dip it again.  The hot glass looks red because of the heat and then you start to see the color come through. So intriguing.

On Saturday, we went to Binghamton to see the Carousels.  There was a man named George F Johnson who was a shoemaker in the area of Endicott, New York, who donated six 100 year old carousels to the towns of Endicott, Johnson City, Binghamton, and Endwell.  They are completely free for people to ride.  They have a button they give you if you ride the circuit-all six.  One is actually closed for renovations so we rode the 5.  Some are small, a couple of larger ones.  They are made of wood and a couple have the calliope organ that plays the music. They have mostly been renovated and they have all had a round house built around them to protect them.  They are only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  What a fun day.

We also went a little nuts for the churches in Binghamton and the area.  It is quite a melting pot and there was a Greek Orthodox, Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox.  Plus a bunch of regular Christian churches.  Of course we had to get photos. 

As I was taking pics of the Russian Orthodox Church a gentleman approached me and asked if we would like to see the inside.  Of Course!!  It was glorious inside.

And the Ukrainian Orthodox Church!

As we were driving through Binghamton I saw a building with the most amazing painted mural on the side.  I told Mike to pull over and when he parked we saw the Binghamton Elders walking down the street.  We've never met them before but had to buy them a treat.  The building with the mural is actually a bakery so we bought them a scoop of ice cream and a macaroon each.  That was a fun little meeting.  We love our missionaries-even the ones we have never met before.

After we left Binghamton we headed home but stopped in Cortland because we saw some other church steeples that we thought we would hunt down.  Wow!  One of my favorite churches ever.

And a mansion which is now a museum.

We got home tired and happy.  We feel so very blessed to have the chance to see these incredible places.  When we got home we had a message from our Bishop that there was a couple sailing on the Erie Canal who wanted a ride to church so we said we would pick them up.  It was fun getting to know them a bit.  They are sailing the Great Loop which takes them from Florida, all the way to New York and the Erie Canal, through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River.  They will take 6 months.  Not sure that's on our bucket list.

We got a new Bishop also.  Bishop Rod Jones.  He's our good friend and will be such a great Bishop for this little ward.  We are happy for him.

The Lord loves us all!  His kingdom is where we find happiness.  Jesus is the Christ and He is the difference in every aspect of our lives.  We love you all.