Steve, my sister Juli and I left Sunday afternoon, October 15th for a road trip eastward to eventually land in Rockville, Maryland for the baptism of Juli's grandson, James Jensen, on Saturday the 21st. Here is the day-by-day description of our journey:
Sunday, October 15th - we drove as far as Greenwood, Indiana, to spend the night with Juli and Alex.
Monday, the 16th, we drove through Ohio, stopping for to enjoy lunch with our great-niece and nephew, Rhiannon and Nick Fischer. They are the grandchildren of our sister, Judy Worth Saniger and the children of Janice Worth Fischer. After lunch, we found a cute roadside collection of shops called Grandpa's Cheese Barn and Sweeties Chocolates where we indulged in our chocolate addiction and we also briefly visited the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to check out the beautiful Brandywine Falls. We stayed in a hotel outside of Cleveland that night.
If it looks wet, it was. We had rain off and on all day.
Tuesday, the 17th, we spent the day in Kirtland, Ohio touring the historic church sites: The Whitney store area, the Kirtland temple and the John Johnson farm. It took all day - time we definitely did not regret - but it caused us to drive until after midnight to reach our next destination near Binghampton, NY.
Wednesday, the 18th was when we visited the Priesthood Restoration site on the banks of the beautiful Susquehanna river. The church has restored the homes of Isaac and Elizabeth Hale (Emma's parents) and the nearby home of Joseph and Emma Smith. The stone that make up the fence in front of the Smith home are from the original foundation and the steel hook in the fireplace that holds kettles was found in the rubble of the foundation so it is likely original to the house. We saw the gravestones of Isaac and Elizabeth as well as Joseph and Emma's first born child. The autumn leaf color throughout our driving was just gorgeous. This tour only took the morning so, after a picnic lunch, we drove through Pennsylvania to be in Rockville for James's birthday celebration that evening.
Thursday, the 19th, we drove up to Gettysburg (only an hour away) and spent our day there. It was a day of learning about, of remembering, and of honoring all who fell during those three days in July of 1863. We ended our day back in Rockville at the Silver Diner where we had dinner with cousin Dave Fraedrich and his wife, Laura.
Friday, the 20th, found us on the road again - the same one we took to Gettysburg on Thursday and the one we came into Maryland on Wednesday - for a visit to Hershey, Pennsylvania. We picked up James to come along (he's got home school flexibility). I have to say we were disappointed that there was not as much to do and see in Hershey as we had expected. We visited Hershey Chocolate World and started with the free factory "tour" which was really just a simulated ride like you would find in Disneyland. Still pretty interesting and we got a free Hershey's mini candy bar at the end. Then we joined the herds of people taking part in rampant commercialism in the huge Hershey chocolate store. SO MUCH CHOCOLATE! We had never planned to go to the amusement park and that was a good thing - it was closed for the season. But we had hoped to wander through cute little gift and curio shops in the town of Hershey but those didn't exist. Weird. Has no one from the Hershey city fathers ever visited Sedona or Barr Harbor or Lake of the Ozarks??? So, we just headed back home with Steve and James catching a nap along the way...
Saturday, the 21st of October was James's big day. His baptism was at 10:30 and his mom went all out! Brad's dad and brother flew out to be here. Jesse and Kat and Jeremy were here as well as Jeff. We all congregated at the Jensen home for lunch. That afternoon, Steve, Juli and I attended the Washington DC temple and we again gathered at the Jensen's for dinner. We caught some of the BYU football game afterwards before returning to our lovely Airbnb.
Today, Sunday the 22nd, we attended church - with a building that has an actual pipe organ! Ed Fraedrich and his wife, Eileen, came over for dinner this evening at our Airbnb and we had a great visit. Ed is Doug's older brother. Dave is their brother who lives in Phoenix and who we did things a few times while on our mission there. I had never met Eileen. She is an elementary school band teacher - flute is her instrument - and Ed is a free lance musician/teacher - saxophone is his instrument. He is an adjunct professor at George Mason University. The three boys were born and raised in Virginia and their family never ventured west to meet Fraedrich family so Eileen was very interested in hearing what we knew and remembered about our grandparents and aunts and uncles. Interestingly, Ed and Doug are both celiac.
I close with a photo of our Airbnb. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and and everything is very new and lovely. It has been a great home base these last few days. We head west tomorrow to go as far as Julina's. My sister, Juli, will stay one more day and fly home on Tuesday.
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