Hill Cumorah...

On the morning of July 17, right after breakfast at the hotel, we headed for the Hill Cumorah so we could mark off some good seats for the performance that night.  We were fortunate enough to see a bit of the rehearsal.  Our nephew Dustin is in the dark blue shirt just in front of the actor playing The Savior.  We didn't know it at the time that Dustin & Larah had saved us even better seats. They were the best!

 We had several hours to see more sights in the area before Tricia and McKay had their appointment at the Palmyra Temple.  Here is a picture of the group standing in front of the monument at the Hill Cumorah with the Angel Moroni on top.  It was quite windy and Steve's hat blew off and went down into the shrubbery.  After a few requests and phone calls, we were able to get permission for McKay to go off the path down the back of the hill to retrieve it.  Since it was sunny and very hot - about 104 degrees, Steve was very happy to get his hat back.

 Here is a picture of the seats and the stage area looking down from the top of the hill.

Hooray!  Steve has his hat back.

 The red brick building directly behind McKay's minivan is the Grandin Building where the Book of Mormon was first printed.  Many parts of the building are original and it was fascinating to hear the story and see the demonstrations regarding the original printing of the book.  It was an amazing accomplishment at the time and everything had to come together just right for it to be completed so quickly.  You can see the Lord's hand in bringing forth this book of scripture. What a treasure!

 Here is the Martin Harris farm house.  It was rebuilt by a more recent owner who added the rock exterior.  It was not available for an interior tour.

 We took the kids for lunch and back to the Visitor's Center for videos while Tricia and McKay attended the temple.  This photo was taken outside of the temple.

 An important part of the Palmyra settlement and history is the Erie Canal.  I wanted to see it so we found an area with benches and relaxed while the kids played and tried to skip rocks.  At last it was time to head back to the Hill Cumorah for the famous Hill Cumorah Pageant.

 We arrived plenty early so we could support the local Rotary and Lions clubs and eat the food they were selling.  Pageant attendees buy enough food to provide them with their budget for the year to accomplish their local charity work.  It's a win/win for the community, the Church and the pageant attendees.

We were so excited to see Dustin, Larah, Cassidy and Parker as actors in the pageant.  It was an overall awesome experience that was greatly enhanced by knowing some of the cast members.

Dustin played the part of John the Baptist.  He thought it was well worth growing a beard to get the part.

 Steve took this picture of our group in front of the stage.  Our seats were fabulous!!! Thanks Dustin and Larah.

Here are two cast members who played the parts of Laman and Nephi.

 There were lots of fantastic special effects-fires, lightning, storms, earthquakes, etc.  I believe this is the fire where they burned Abinadi to death.  The pageant was extremely well done.  There were approximately 800 cast members, plus crew, many extra missionaries and volunteers from all around the area helping with parking, etc.  Thousands of people come every night for the performances.  This was an extremely memorable experience.  I highly recommend it to one and all.