Saratoga and Easter Weekend!

Easter Weekend was a nice break from the dull drone of our lives. To start off our celebrations, we decided to make pizza benders....and look, Scott's pizza bender is happy to see you!!!

As most know, Easter weekend was the same weekend as General Conference.  Usually Scott and I try to stream conference on the web so we don't have to go to the church to watch the sessions. Saturday turned out to be so pretty and sunny...we decided to visit forgo conference, and headed to Saratoga.  Yes, we should have stayed home to watch conference...but it was such a pretty day....
Long story short, Saratoga is about 30 miles north of us. Saratoga was the turning point of the revolutionary war.  The fight that happened in Saratoga is considered one of the fifteen most decisive battles in world history.  The battle that was fought in Saratoga is where the patriots struggle for independence took a turn for the best...while England realized that the independent American's were finally taking a stand for this country.  It makes me think of the Book of Mormon and the promise that this country was meant to be won by those early rebels!  It is so amazing to learn about the history of our country.

Howes Cavern

Scott and I decided to make goal of doing something fun each weekend before we leave NY.  There are so many things to do/see and so little time left!  Last weekend we visited Howes Caverns.  It is a cave that is located just west of Albany.   When you first get to the cave, you step into an elevator that takes you 156 ft below the surface.  The air down in the cave is different, it is a constant 52 degrees year round.  

The cave has its own river running through it called the River Styx.  It also has an under ground lake called the Lake of Venus.  The cave tour includes a boat ride on the lake that ends at a waterfall.  I thought the waterfall was going to be something that we could see...but the tour ends just before the boat goes down the waterfall.  

This is me on the boat ride.  Like I said, I was so excited because I thought that we were going to see an underground waterfall.  I was sorely disappointed!

There is one section of the tour called the Bridal Alter where 600 weddings have happened.  Who would want to get married in a cave?  We saw a couple that was on their way down to get married as we were walking out.  I thought it was kind of crazy!
The end of the tour ends in a serpentine passage called the winding way.  It reminds me of the slot caves in Southern Utah (Spooky and Peekaboo in Escalante).  It was really neat. 

I don't think the pictures I took in the cave does it any justice.  Although we were on a tour and not able to go and explore on our own, it was still a neat little trip.  I will always treasure the adventures that I had in Nutty Putty in Utah.

I thought that many of the rock formations looked like caramel dribbled on ice cream.  MMMM...ice cream.  That sounds good!