Around Newport

When I first got my new camera, I was playing with it and these are the pictures that I took.  We are better friends now.  I had just upgraded from a VW bug to a Cadillac and didn't know what I was doing.  This is a picture of the Newport Bridge from the park by Clyde's office.  Since it is on base - this view is not what people usually see.

 These are some of the flowers that bloomed in our apartment complex.

 Trees in bloom by the old Naval Hospital.  The hospital is just an abandoned building now.  It is a pity no one can come up with a use for it and since it is on Naval Property - it can't be sold.

 There is an old military fort - Fort Adams - in Newport.  It is from the Revolutionary War era.  This is an old bridge taken from the fort and across the bay.

 A view of the Newport Bridge from the other side.  Just as I snapped this picture, someone popped up from below the seawall.

 Another view of the Newport bridge.  This is from Clyde's office park.

 This city of Newport from Fort Adams.

 One of the harbor's in Newport.  Clyde and I have dubbed this picture - the busy picture.  The one above could qualify too.  I am going to miss the beautiful bridge but the traffic and the bustle that will now go on until almost October - I will not miss.  We will see how the traffic, etc. play out in Denmark.  I know they encourage bikes and public transportation there.

Boston Temple and Goodbyes!

 This is a view of the Boston Temple from the parking lot.  We were able to attend a session on Memorial Day and say good-bye to several friends we won't be seeing again before we leave or they leave.

 Two of the many elders that we have grown close too.  We live in the same apartment complex as the missionaries - so if they need anything, they automatically come to us.  This has been the pattern from the beginning - even when Clyde wasn't/isn't bishop.  The above elders are Elder McQueen from Christchurch, New Zealand and Elder Escobar from Houston, Texas.  Elder McQueen leaves the mission tomorrow.  It was fun going through a session with them and spending a little time before we had to say our final goodbye's.  They are both now serving the Hartford, Connecticut area - helping build goodwill for the temple that is being built there.

 The Boston Temple.  The grounds - like all temples are beautiful.

 The front door.  Clyde is standing next to the elders just left of the door.  His white head is in the middle.

The angel Moroni.  We are going to miss our many friendships we have made with patrons and Ordinance Workers in this temple.

Grandin's Press #2

 There were several original paintings on the 3rd floor of the Grandin Press.  These are the 3 by C.C.A. Christensen.  We lived in the house he designed for his son when we lived in Ephraim.  Most all of the Christensen family had been born in that house. 

 I think that the paintings are self-explanatory - at least if you know your Book of Mormon.  The other thing we found out is that Danish was the first translated language for the Book of Mormon.  Mormons Bog was the only book aside from English for many years.  The Dane's are very proud of that.

There were other paintings there but everyone has seen them all of their lives.  These were the unique ones.  This ends the posts of our trip to Palmyra.  I hope I haven't bored you too much.

Grandin's Press

 For some reason my pictures are almost in reverse order.  Oh well.  After we had visited the Hill Cumorah, we went to Grandin's Press.  It was raining so hard that people that had lived in the area for years said that they hadn't ever seen it rain like that.   This will be the first of 2 posts on the press.  This is the actual 'book press' that was used to press the books to dry the glue.

 This is the Elder that took us through the press.  He was a history teacher in a High School in Idaho before retiring.  We heard little things about the Smith Family and the press that we would have only gotten from him.  For example, I had no idea that Emma Hale Smith was 5 feet 9 inches tall.  That is very tall for that day and age.  Here is our guide showing us the book making process.

 The printing press.  We have an actual copy made from this press - of the first few pages.  It is of the original printing, so no verses and no very little punctuation.

 One of the larger 'presses'.  Grandin had just bought the presses he needed for book publishing 3 months before Joseph Smith's request.  There are no coincidences in the Church, I've decided.

 Typesetting station and pages drying.


This is another view of the actual press and drying sheets.

The front of the shop.  I guess this is fitting because we saw this after we had finished our tour.  Grandin shared the space with a lawyer.  The lawyer's offices were on the 3rd floor. 

The Hill Cumorah

 After visiting the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center, we actually climbed the hill.  There are tiers with these asphalt roads all the way up but they are actually there to help the pageant have a level area for their performance. This is the tier just below the top.  There are 4 in all.

 I took this one just to show the footlight generators they have all the way up for the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

 The Statue of Moroni that stands at the top of the hill.

 A closer view - at the top of the hill.

 

 I think this hill is steeper than Manti's for its pageant.  It is definitely higher.  This is taken from the mid-tier.

 The walk to the statue.  That is Clyde's back

 A view from the top tier.

 This is a plaque at the base.  There is a different picture on each side, one with Joseph and Moroni, this one with the 3 witnesses and one with the 8 witnesses and the 4th is a scripture.

This trek up the to the top was wonderful.  We walked up the asphalt and then Clyde had the good idea of walking down the 'path in the woods'.  It was steep but much cooler.  The temperature was in the low 90's and the humidity was about 100% because of the rain.  As soon as we hit the bottom of the hill and were walking to the car it started raining hard.  It lightened up enough for us to get out of the car and go into Grandin's Press and then poured again.

Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center

 In one of my other posts I wrote about 'the Christus'.  You see the Christus through a beautiful window from the street as you drive by.  It is really inspiring.  By the time we got down from the Hill Cumorah, it was raining, so I didn't get any outside shots of the building.

 There is an exhibit room with the story of the First Vision, the collection of the plates from the Hill Cumorah, and 110 copies of the Book of Mormon (representing each language it is translated in currently), etc.  This is one of the statues in the room. I wish it had turned out better but such is life.

This is a stained glass window that is in the exhibit hall.  While we were in the building, we watched a new film on the family that was just beautiful. After we had attended the temple that morning, it rained intermittently all day.  We were lucky enough that it seemed to rain just as we headed inside or to the car.  We stayed in the Visitor's Center until the rain passed and then head the actual hill.  I will post pictures of that tomorrow.

Palmyra Temple

 While we were in Palmyra, Clyde and I decided to do a session at the temple.  It was a wonderful experience.  People in Boston are very proud of the fact that they are the 100th dedicated temple.  Palmyra was supposed to have that distinction but was finished sooner, so it became the 99th.  It is beautiful little temple but I see where they improved on the design to make San Antonio more 'user friendly.' 

 The gardens are beautiful and look out onto the Sacred Grove and the Smith Farm.  It was a very special morning.  Going to the temple first thing in the morning, made the rest of the day extra special.