When we arrived in New York, Walt an acquaintance of Dwayne's family met us and led us to our hotel. Then we joined him and he took us on a tour of Buffalo. Wow, that city is erie! It is really abandoned and a dangerous city. I have to admit, I was scared as we were driving. Buildings were boarded up, there were bars on many doors and windows, it was really like a ghost town. It is really sad too, the buildings in the city were very beautiful; there is so much potential there. (The school is actually closer to Amherst, NY which is a very safe city.) Walt took us to Lake Erie to check it out. You can see Canada on the other side of the Lake! It was pretty empty because it was shutting down for the winter. We were going to eat at a little eatery there and all they had was pastrami sandwiches and hot dogs. (or something random like that) It was really fun to go around with Walt and learn about the city.
The next day Dwayne and I were able to go to Palmyra, it was so wonderful! We went to the Hill Cumora, the Sacred Grove, we walked around the Palmyra Temple and toured two of Joseph Smith's family homes. When we arrived at the site of the homes and the Sacred Grove we got there at the same time as an older group in a bus. We walked into the main building at the same time as some of them and one of the missionaries looked at us confused and said, "are you with them?" It was actually very funny. 
We decided to go walk around the Sacred Grove first. It was so peaceful. What an amazing place! After walking around the Sacred Grove, we took a backwards tour of the homes that the Smith's lived in. One of the missionaries was finishing up with the second group of the large group from the bus and stayed around to tell us about the larger home. We had a personal tour and she even showed us things that she normally doesn't show people. It was really neat. She then led us to the smaller Smith home and toured it as well.
The next day we went to the interview the first half of the day. After the interview we headed up to Niagara Falls - it was AMAZING!!! We were able to go below the American Falls on the Cave of the Winds tour. I would suggest it to anyone who goes there. We wold have loved to have done more of the tours, but we got there kind of late.
We heard that the view was much better from the Canadian side, but we didn't make it down to the overlook area. We did go to Canada for dinner though. At the time we didn't need our passports, but they sure ask you a lot of questions. I thought of saying something sarcastic, but they probably wouldn't have found it funny; and we may have ended in a small room with an interrogator. We got lost on the freeways that night heading back to our motel and ended up in a not so good area of Buffalo. Walt had previous warned us of that area. Apparently it used to have armored police vehicles patrol it every night because of the gang violence. As we sat at the end of the freeway exit ramp deciding what to do and trying to figure out where we were, a car slowly went by us with the people inside looking at us. Dwayne realized that he had a red sweatshirt on and quickly took it off. We of course made it back safely!The next our flight left at 6:30 am (east coast time). On the way to NY when we standing in line at the airport (with southwest), someone had mentioned that you can go on line and get A boarding passes in advance. So, that morning Dwayne tried to get us A boarding passes while I got everything packed. Well there were a few problems and we ended up leaving a little later than we should have. Then on the way to the airport we got on the freeway going the wrong way then got lost. Then we realized that we needed to fill our rental up with gas still. When we finally got to the airport it was about 5:45 am. The line was sooooo long!! 20 minutes later we hadn't moved that far. At about 6:10 am there was an airport worker checking tickets and sending those who were behind like us to another area. When we told him what time our flight took off he just laughed and said good luck; and that they could get us on another flight for later that day. (We really needed to be home because Dwayne had drill for the national guard that night). Anyway, we rush down to this other area and the line still wasn't short. It was shorter mind you, but there was no way we were going to make it. At 6:20 a couple came in and asked a few people if they could get in front of them that their flight was loading in 15 minutes. I chuckled and said well, ours is leaving in 10 minutes. (not loading, leaving). Everyone was so nice, all the sudden everyone was like "get in front of us", "your flight is leaving in 10 mins", "come to the front of the line". How nice were they all!! Bless their hearts! We of course had to still take off shoes and belts and all that stuff. The security people said that our terminal wasn't to far. We were at terminal 18! So we started running. I felt like the family in "Home Alone". Mind you we were on very little sleep, and I'm not in the best shape right now. My shoes kept coming off (I didn't have time to tie them) so I finally just stopped and took them off. I was exhausted, I was carrying my shoes, my bag kept falling, and I could see Dwayne getting further and further ahead of me. I laugh now thinking of how we probably looked to the other people in the airport. Terminal 18 was finally in sight yet it seemed so far away. Dwayne was standing at the door calling for me to hurry. Finally we were in our seats. What an adventure! The whole trip was memorable, but I don't think we will ever forget the flight home.
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