Watkins Glen, Buttermilk Falls, Book of Mormon Publication Site

 A couple of months before our trip someone recommended that we visit Watkins Glen State Park.  It was a lot smaller than I expected.  But it packs a lot of beauty into a small space. There are 19 waterfalls in a two mile area.  It's very close to Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region.  As you drive to Watkins Glen, you're driving parallel to Seneca Lake so there's some pretty views.  And it is wine country, so we passed about 50 wineries.  There were grape fields everywhere.  

Gabby didn't want to hike the entire length of Watkins Glen, but we went most of the way and got some incredible views of this gorge and its falls.

There was a pond covered in lily pads.  It sits very close to where the Watkins Glen Resort/Hotel used to sit (the hotel is gone).  We stopped to admire the lily pads and heard a chorus of frogs.  We sat and watched one of the frogs for a bit, but he blended in so well you can't see him.  

Buttermilk Falls State Park:  One of the senior missionaries told us that we should visit Buttermilk Falls State Park.  It's also pretty small...and in many ways similar to Watkins Glen.  You walk a couple of miles through a gorge and see waterfall after waterfall.  It's green and beautiful.  There were signs saying that it's illegal to wade or swim, but many people ignored the signs.  (We were good citizens and didn't swim or wade.)

Lots of moss grew along Buttermilk Falls. 

We went to the Grandin Print Shop where the Book of Mormon was published.  I learned a few things that either I didn't know or had forgotten.  The print shop still has the original flooring in several rooms and one wall of bricks is the original brick.  The print shop was often used for religious and political meetings.  There were a lot of parallels between Grandin's life and Joseph Smith's life.  Interestingly, Grandin only had the printing business for 5 years...right at the time that Joseph was ready to publish the Book of Mormon.  Also, they had an acorn press...a new press at the time.  With the acorn press, it took 7 months to print the Book of Mormon. With the older press that they owned, it would have taken two years to print.  After printing, they also had to bind the book.  All together it took 17 months to print and bind.

There's a map in the Book of Mormon publication site that shows the languages the Book of Mormon is published in as of 2007...so it's not up to date.  Still it was neat to see.  And we had the same sister missionaries as at the Smith Farm so that was fun as well.

Oh how I love the Book of Mormon.  It is miraculous how it was able to come forth!  And it blesses my life every single day.  I am so grateful I was able to take Gabby to see all of these sights, to spend time talking and laughing, to feel the spirit together and to talk about the miracles that occured.