10 years and the trip of Lifetime

For years, we said we would tour Darryl's mission in the south of France for our ten year anniversary. But as that date approached, we realized that we (ok, well maybe just I) wouldn't be quite ready to leave the kids for more than a week, and we definitely couldn't  see all we wanted to in that amount of time. Plus we would love to go to the Paris temple when it's completed, and that is still a few years away.

So back during that looooong winter we had, we planned a road trip. Thanks to wonderful parents who all willing took our kids/dog and a great friend who lent us her car, we were able to do it! We wanted to go to places we'd never been before, attend as many temples as we could and eat really good food. And we did all that and more. We also had lots of time to talk, laugh and truly relax. I thought I didn't really road trips. Turns out I do like road trips, just not with toddlers. It was awesome. Not that you ever forget how awesome your spouse is, but it's nice to be reminded. Every time we'd go through the underground tunnels on the way to DC from Philadelphia, he would blast Jay-Z and drive like he was in a video game and make me giggle. We made a playlists of songs from when we were dating and sang a lot of Oasis and 90's hip hop. He made me laugh and gave me those butterflies that I love. It was so nice to talk uninterrupted, not watch Treehouse, not have to cook or clean do a load of laundry for a whole week. In the mornings we would go get breakfast, relax, watch the Food Network and Fresh Prince of Bel-air,  read, and plan our day. It was so nice.

We dropped the kids off at the cottage and started off to Philadelphia. We wanted to see the construction that has been done on the temple there. It was amazing, right in the heart of the city, it almost jumps out at you. So beautiful, we will definitely be back when it's finished. We went to Love Park and we had to have a cheese steak. We had seen that Jimmy Fallon had gone to a place called Delssandros and said it was amazing, so we made the trip to West Philadelphia to try it out. I don't know if I can even put into words how much I loved that cheese steak. It may have been the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. Followed by cheesecake, it was heavenly.

After that cheese steak we were off to Washington DC. The temple there at night looks spectacular and the visitor center was unlike one we had ever been to. It had a beautiful theater that holds 500 where the do concerts and performances, a "house" set up with family exhibit, and lots of movies and displays We will definitely bring the kids here sometime to see one of the Christmas shows. We watched a beautiful video about families being together forever and the little girl's name was Chloe, so it made cry my eyes out.

This was the first temple my mum ever attended. She was pregnant with my brother Dylan and came to do baptisms. Darryl's parents were sealed here while Bonnie was pregnant with Matt, so this temple is a special place for us. The Toronto Temple didn't exist, so they would make the 12 hour drive to Washington regularly. It was so incredibly huge, I had not realize the so big it was before we actually went inside. We were able to do sealings, which we thought was fitting for an anniversary trip. I was an experience I'll never forget. Man, I love the temple. Sitting on the grass outside facing the temple after those sealings, the lyrics of a favourite song popped into my head and perfectly described how I was feeling:

I guess my life has somehow been like the woman caught in sin
She sat there broken at His feet she knew the law
But heard let he who’s without sin cast the first stone
And not a single one was thrown
With no man left there to accuse, she left behind her tattered shoes

I’m on Holy Ground now and I don’t ever want to leave
Hold me here now and keep my feet planted down in what I’ve found
Upon this holy ground

I know I didn’t have to leave to find this feeling inside me
But I left it all the same I broke the rules to win the game
And now its clear from where I stand, I could’ve always felt His Hand
And though His touch I did refuse, I’m laying down these tattered shoes

With every moment standing here I can feel Him drawing near
And if I could stay in this place I’m sure that I could see His face
And yet I know life must go on, so let this memory linger on inside
Become a part of me.

I always have that feeling after the temple. I don't ever want to leave. We took a "Monuments at Midnight" bus tour that was fantastic. We saw so much and seeing the monuments lit up at night is really something special. I honestly thought this would be a cool thing to do at night in DC, but Darryl and I had no clue how much this experience would have an effect on us. We learned so much and seeing these monuments up close and lit up was breathtaking. The Dr. Martin Luther King JR memorial, (which also celebrates it's anniversary on August 28th, like us) was incredible. In Dr. King's 1963 "I have a Dream" speech (also given on August 28th:) there is a quote "Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope". The memorial was based on that quote, and it is perfect. It actually looks like Martin Luther King is the stone coming out of the mountain. The World War II memorial was the first one we visited it was amazing to see, we all the water and fountains glowing. The Lincoln Memorial was my favourite and brought Darryl and I to tears. It was beautiful to look at and so moving to think of what he accomplished in his short life. In the Smithsonian Museum of American History we were able to see so many amazing artifacts, including an original Nauvoo sunstone, the Greensboro Sit-In lunch counter, the hat Lincoln was wearing when he was shot, Harriet Tuban's clothing, the china of each first lady, as well as their inaugural ball gowns. It was fantastic. It was also the 200th anniversary of the American flag and anthem. Seeing the original flag on display there was breathtaking.

I couldn't go more than a minute or two without thinking of my mother while in Washington. Even though she was born in Scotland, a land she loves dearly, she bleeds red, white and blue. Growing up we learned so much about our american neighbours, and even though I give her a hard time (she wears a "Don't blame me, I voted for Romney" bag to work everyday for heaven sakes!) I am so grateful for all she taught us. She read books to us about  Malcolm X, Harriet Tuban, John Adams and Abraham Lincoln. We'd watch Braveheart, but it was always followed closely by The Patriot. She celebrates the 4th of July with her daycare kids, using the same pictures and plastic American flag plug-in lights that she did when we were little. She really has a love for that country that has started to trickle down to me and my other siblings as well.

It's interesting to be that last year we with were the kids in Ohio, and I remember at our hotel we were watching with many others in the lobby as George Zimmerman was found not guilty. Now here in Washington DC, we were at the White house and were able to watch a protest being given because it was the day of Michael Brown's funeral. Interesting to see history unfold infront of you. It was also so interesting to see buildings up close and personal, the IRS, the FBI, and the Pentagon.

After a wonderful time in Washington, we made our way to NYC. I have wanted to go to this amazing city for as long as I can remember. I another life, I dreamed of being a broadway star. I remember my yellow sony walkman playing the cassette tape of "Annie" my grandfather made for me (he was alway making me Broadway mixed tapes labeled "Heather's Tunes" with songs from 42nd Street, Annie and The Music Man) and I remember walking to school singing "NYC" from Annie and Liza Minnelli's New York, New York. I even remember trying to choreograph a dance to that song in Grade 5 with my friends at recess.

My excitement as we drove into Manhattan was at an all time high. It was everything I had pictured in my head. Big, loud, beautiful, everything. I loved just watching everything and tried to take it in. Watching cabs, cops and fire trucks navigating around these tiny streets was amazing. Another thing that amazed me was the fact that every single thing we ordered at every single restaurant, big or small tasted delicious, from the pizza to the fruit at the market, the cannoli's, the soft pretzels, ugh.... it was all so good! We did well with some good recommendations with my good friend here who is from NYC. Funny story, my baby sister was there the week before me and had ordered the same pulled pork sliders on hawaiian sweet rolls in the same restaurant in Times Square as I did, and we didn't even realize until we were both back at home talking about what favourite meals were! Anyway, everybody was so friendly. I loved the accents. I loved riding the subway and watching the people. So passionate about everything they talked about it. I loved it.

As soon as we got there, out first stop was the Manhattan Temple. We had made appointments to do some sealings, but when we arrived they asked if they could put us to work, and we agreed quickly. Darryl and I loved our time as ordinance workers before the kids were born and we counted this as such a great blessing and opportunity to be asked. We spent the next 90 minutes working in the baptistry with 2 families who had brought their own family names. They spirit was so strong, (something that usually happens when you are happily serving others) These two families were strangers to us, but we felt close to them instantly. Everything in that beautiful temple was so "New Yorkish", sleek, elegant, compact and beautiful. Darryl had an opportunity to share the gospel with a really nice lady and answer some of her questions down in the lobby that is open to the public. It was an afternoon I will never forget.

We saw The Phantom of the Opera and Chicago, and they both blew me away. I don't know why I pictured the theatres so huge in New York, but they were the complete opposite, small and intimate, but still so grand and beautiful. The sound was amazing, the quality of singing and dancing was unreal. The gorgeous costumes in Phantom blew me away, I had seen it in Toronto a couple years back, but this was a million times better. Seeing that cast singing "Masquerade" as they came down that gold staircase is something I will never forget. I had never seen Chicago on stage, but I knew all the songs, and it was everything I thought it was going to be. Sexy, black, amazing singing and dancing, and the talent was extraordinary. Such a small cast that had such a huge impact. It was awesome.

Central Park was huge and green and lush. It was just like the movies, a cellist and a violin playing under a bridge, a ballet dancer in another corner, artists, singers, beautiful fountains, just incredible. We took a ride around the whole park, with an awesome guy from Belarus, who knew everything about the park and told us so many cool facts. If money was no object, an apartment over looking Central Park would be my little piece of heaven.

We had so much fun navigating our way around Grand Central Station and shopping at 12am for shoes. It truly is the city that never sleeps. Taking a tour was an awesome way to see as much of the city as we could. We saw soooo much amazing stuff!  We took the Staton Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, we saw Wall Street, The New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, 5th Avenue, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, NBC Studios, St. Patricks Cathedral, the Dakota Building, St. Paul's Chapel, Brooklyn Bridge, Chrysler Building, FAO Schwarz, The Plaza, Lincoln Center, Tiffany's, China Town, Little Italy, and a million other cool things. But my favourite part was the very last stop we made, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It was so solemn, so sacred and interesting. The memorial reflects absence, in honour of the many families of victims who felt that it was a sacred grave site that shouldn't just have new buildings constructed in the same space. The original circumference of the two towers being shown in the structure of the two memorials.

The names of all the victims are engraved around the memorial and a white rose is placed in their name on their birthdays. It was so beautiful, so tragic, and so intese. When we arrived at the museum, our tour guide, who was usually so upbeat, became very solemn. He said "Everybody remembers where they were on September 11, 2001, and so do I. I was on the 6th floor. I saw a lot of things I didn't want to see on my way down the stairs trying to get out after the first plane hit. I went to counseling for a long time. My friend saved my life by telling me to go with him and call my mom after we got out. I was standing there in the street staring at the towers blazing, not thinking they would ever come down. But they did. Right where I was standing. He saved my life that day. I don't go into this museum. I'm not ready, but you guys are welcome to."

The museum was heart wrenching. Darryl debated for a long time whether or not he could go in or not. The museum has recordings of family members talking about their loved ones, news clips playing of when the towers went down, tragic photos of people jumping from windows, their missing persons' posters, their firefighter uniforms,  and lots of structural pieces that survived the wreckage. We basically cried for 2 hours while walking around. But at the end we watched a movie, showing the strength of the city and all that they have done to rebuild, all while never forgetting. It was such a hopeful way to end the day.

One of our favourite things was the "survivor tree" in front of the memorial.

"A callery pear tree became known as the "Survivor Tree" after enduring the September 11, 2001 terror attacks at the World Trade Center. In October 2001, the tree was discovered at Ground Zero severely damaged, with snapped roots and burned and broken branches. The tree was removed from the rubble and placed in the care of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. After its recovery and rehabilitation, the tree was returned to the Memorial in 2010. New, smooth limbs extended from the gnarled stumps, creating a visible demarcation between the tree’s past and present. Today, the tree stands as a living reminder of resilience, survival and rebirth."

We had plans to sleep in on Friday before leaving NYC to head to Connecticut, but in the early hours of the morning, the hotel set off a fire-type alarm to announce a white honda was being towed. Only in New York. So we were awake and up and at it. (Interesting side note, more than one of our hotels was overbooked, so we ended up in large handi-cap rooms, meant to be wheel chair accessible. The same thing actually happened to Darryl when he was staying at Western University earlier this month for YLC. So we ended up in some really nice spacious rooms, but no tubs, just wheel-in showers and no bathroom counters. Different.) When we woke up we watched the news and Joan Rivers was in critical care, and saw it was the first weekend of college football season.

We then made our way to Hartford, CT to see the construction of the temple there, beautiful surrounding area, it is going to be such a lovely spot when it's completed. The weather was so nice that day, we got out and looked around. Really cool to see it up close. As we were driving through Connecticut, we happened to see a BYU flag on a car, then another, then another! After so many we asked Siri if there was a BYU game close by. Turned out it was their first game of the year at UCONN that very night. We were so excited, Darryl had watched and cheered for UCONN as they won the NCAA basketball tournament this year, and we were so excited to check the school out and see BYU. We realized we were less than 10 minutes away and decided to follow the flags and try and get tickets. We were able to get some in the family section (where there is no drinking, so we had plenty of BYU fans close by) that were really close to the field. Neither of us had ever been to a college football game and it was so much fun. The band, the cheer leaders, the mascots, the lights, the tailgate parties and that American energy and passion that was so evident and enjoyable throughout our entire trip. What a thrill. And as a bonus BYU won 35-10!

We made our way to Boston after the game. Boston was a beautiful. I was so glad we took a Duck tour. It was really cool to go around on this bus all over the city, and then the bus goes right into the water and we got to see the city from a totally different angle. The architecture was so beautiful. Our tour guide was hilarious and had about 20 different kinds of "duck" tape on his clothes. We took a tour of Trinity Church, which was so amazing. It was built in 1872 and the stained class and murals were breath taking. After our tour of the church we made our way to the Boston temple. There was such a contrast between the spirit we felt at those two buildings. Both beautiful, but so different. Our Trinity tour guide asked us to sit in the chapel and tell her what we felt. But the feelings I had there in that historic, lovely building were pale in comparison to what I felt in the celestial room in that temple. There is gold wheat everywhere, in the carpets, mirrors and doorknobs, and bright blue glass in the celestial room. One of the endowment rooms is painted to look like upstate New York. The artist painted a buck behind some trees. During the final walk through, before the temple was dedicated, President Monson insisted the artist return and paint a doe as well. I love that.

We headed to Tanglewood to see The Boston Pops and Josh Groban's outdoor concert. It was quite the event. We were ill prepared compared to pretty much everyone else there. We had our jackets to sit on and didn't think we needed anything else. But most people had wagons full of lawn chairs, wine, cheese, tablecloths, candelabras, salads, blankets, cushions, it was crazy! As the sun went down, everyone lit candles and cozied up. It was so peaceful. He sang some of my favourite songs, You Raise Me Up, Smile, Your Still You, it was just awesome. Plus he was hilarious! He was cracking jokes and interacting with the audience, it was great. I had a little twinge of sadness though, because I knew it was our last night.

We had some hiccups of course, it wouldn't be a true adventure if we didn't! We had car battery that died at 4am while we slept at a truck stop on the way to Philly, we got pulled over in D.C. by some very nice cops who informed us we had turned in an exit only lane, but they helped us find a restaurant we were looking for. We left our camera on the front lawn of our hotel overnight and someone turned it in the next morning, not being able to get a hotel room on our last night till the wee hours of the morning and having pop tarts from a vending machine for dinner because everything was closed was interesting. I bought tickets for the Boston Pops assuming they perform in Boston, not knowing in the summer months they play in Tanglewood, 2 hours away. We had to skip out on our beautiful Boston hotel a night early with no refund because we didn't want to make the 4 hour round trip in the wrong direction. But it's funny, we were so relaxed and just enjoying each other we were able to laugh through the craziness.  If the kids were with us, anyone of these scenarios would've exasperated me beyond belief. I am going to try and take this strategy of laughter instead of exasperation home with me.

SO many times during this trip I felt like I had to pinch myself. It was surreal. Was I really on Broadway watching Velma sing "All that Jazz"? Was I really at a college football game at UCONN watching BYU score touchdown after touchdown? I'm I really laying on the grass with the man I love so freaking much while Josh Groban and the Boston Pops serenade us with so many of my favourite songs??? Is this for real???? So blessed, so undeserving of all the amazing things we experienced this week. More than anything I loved the time I had alone with my man. I try and take myself back there by listening to Annie, watching House of Cards and Good Will Hunting.