New York- day 3 and 4

Thursday was an important day! We were booked to go on a tour of Wallkill and Patterson Bethels, with lunch at Wallkill.

We looked at the displays in the foyer and then watched the video they had about the recent expansion work done and being done on the Wallkill branch. Then it was time for our tour :)

We learned a lot about the printery and how the whole system functions so smoothly. We also learnt how they apply the ink to the paper, and we felt what the paper for reference Bibles feels like before anything is printed on it.

The brother showed us how big the rolls of paper are that they use (1133.98 kg), as well as how seamlessly rolls change over just before they run out on the machines. He also let us look into the plate room and showed us what the aluminium plates that had just been used looked like.

We saw the new accommodation wing briefly out in the cold, and then it was time for lunch, which was simple and healthy.

All day we had been meeting friends, and this pattern continued at Patterson. There was also a lot of warm Christian love between those experiencing the tours for the first time...

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^ Patterson foyer.

The tour at Patterson lead us past some really gorgeous illustration paintings (the original versions of the things we see in publications) :

And we saw some headpieces that are used for the composition photos, with accompanying  related objects. We learnt how much research goes into each detail for every object in all the illustrations. Astounding!

Then we got to see some things that aren't on the tour route, including Daniel looking like Sampson. Now isn't that a confusing statement, tehehehehe? :D

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^ Chromed exterior

^ Traditional interior

Friday saw an end to the touring, with us having a chilled day that started with a looong drive to find a favourite Diner of Taryn and Phil's. We all rejoiced a little when we finally saw it!

After that it was time for baby Reef's newborn photo shoot, so the rest of us took a little drive to see what we could. We ended up going to visit Taryn and Phil's old house and looking at the scenery.

^ Taryn and Phil's old house-y.

^ Scenery

^ More scenery

We took a look at Olana, the home of Frederic E. Church. It was pretty cool! We didn't go inside, but had a good look around the outside. Quite an architectural feat! The grounds were impressive, too.

We also messed around with some icicles, and Taris ran down a treacherous slope:)

After that we headed into the town of Hudson, where we met up with Jesse and Phil and went into the Spotty Dog for a while. I enjoyed having a moment to sketch the place (find the sketch here: Spotty Dog sketch) before we all headed off to go snow tubing.

That was fun, but SOOO freezing. None of us could feel our fingers or toes afterwards. Thankfully the Mexican restaurant we went to afterwards was pretty warm inside:)

^ Taris, Samantha and myself at the restaurant.

^ The last Phil we met and Kenny.

This is a video (complete with random kid talking in the background) of Taris going down the slope on a tube. It looks much slower than it is in real life!

After this...time for bed!