Rendezvous with the Reinhardts: The Nation's Capital [traveling]

There is nothing better than a weekend get-away. It's even better when its with an extremely attractive husband and perfect weather.

Our 4 hour drive from New York to Washington D.C. took over 6 hours due to tolls, and loads of traffic, but good conversation, music and Strawberry Twizlers (my favorite road trip snack) you can't go wrong.

For the record driving to Washington DC is a little pricy. Holy Moly- we didn't know that the tolls were practically every 5 feet and cost an arm and leg. I think we spent $75.75 Each way! So if you're driving make sure you have CA$H.

We got an extremely awesome deal in Pentagon City at the Sheraton. Thank you EXPEDIA! We contemplated biking to the National Mall or walking to avoid traffic but May on a Saturday we had no traffic and I found the best app to reserve parking! SPOT HERO.

I LOVE Washington, D.C. so much not only because of the history there but because everything is FREE: monuments, Smithsonian exhibits, the whole shebang. The only thing you need is good walking shoes and motivation to move. I wore my UP band and to track our steps. We walked roughly 13.78 miles/ 36,000 steps!

Obviously depending on how much time you have will depend on what you can see, so planning and time management is EVERYTHING. Evan and I definitely enjoyed several museums but we were able to see a lot because we don't read everything. We are the world's finest skimmers.

We started out at the most east point of the Mall with the Capital

The botanical gardens are always a fantastic pick. Evan's favorite garden was the "Hawaii" garden. I really loved the orchids!

We kept it really quick in the botanical gardens because it was extremely humid in there. I felt like I was taking shower #2.

I love the Smithsonian Institute. They seriously have everything. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the things I loved. I found the Air & Space museum to be especially interesting. They had great displays of space that were to scale, it was pretty unreal.

Not only did they have a model of the first airplane there were also actual WWII Aircrafts on display including Nazi Fighter jets.

The Wright brothers originally had a bike company. From there they developed the first airplane.

This is a NAZI aircraft from WWII.

I love these pictures capturing both the Nation's Capital and the Washington Monument

I loved the Natural History Museum

They had a kiosk to generate an image of you as a Neanderthal- This is what Evan would look like.

I LOVE the minerals and gems section of the museum. The jewels and gems they have were absolutely incredible. This included the HOPE Diamond, displays of Harry Winston's most popular pieces.

T-REX reconstruction

My favorite Museum is the American History Museum. They seriously have EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, there were several parts of the museum undergoing construction. There were still a lot of good exhibits. The preserved Original Star Spangled Banner, First Lady's Dresses and exhibits related to the Wars (Revolutionary, Civil Wars etc.)

This is donated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

A sandstone sun from the Nauvoo Temple in Nauvoo, IL.

This is WWII memorabilia

We were grateful for the Museums because without warning it was raining and pouring. We did get caught a couple times in a cloud burst but it was fun regardless. We did see many of the monuments on the Mall.

Unfortunately the Washington Monument didn't open for tours until the day after we left. It looks great since they finished the reconstruction.

The WWII Memorial

Ford's Theater was Closed for a play but we were able to the Peterson Home across the street where President Lincoln died. We were the only ones in the Peterson home so we got a very personal one-on-one tour. It was really interesting. (Peterson home is pink on the left of the first photo)

The Peterson home was a boarding house- The Peterson's were not related and didn't personally know the President, but the doctors and the secret service selected the home because it had a brick structure and the empty room was on the first floor.

After Lincoln was shot he was in the theater for about 30 minutes and was in the Peterson home unconscious for about 9 hours before he died the next morning. There were many doctors who were trying to help him but it was miraculous that he was alive for as long as he was, considering he had been shot in the head.

This is the bed where Lincoln Died. He laid diagonal on the bed because he was 6'4". It was extremely tall for the time.

These are ALL of the books that have been written about Lincoln

On our way to the White House we saw the President's Motorcade- not exactly sure who was in there, but my guess it was the daughters. But the Flag was up and the President was home so maybe it was him. Who knows. It was really cool to see. :)

After Hours of walking we found ourselves a Cafe Rio and called it a day. We LOVE Cafe Rio and have been deprived of such delicious food for MONTHS. We had to eat and run so we could make the last Saturday Session at the Washington D.C. Temple. Thanks to my horrible direction giving, we almost missed it. Evan is an exceptional driver and we made it with 7 minutes to spare. We had hoped to take more photos following the temple, but it was raining like crazy.

The next morning we went to Arlington National Cemetery. I had never been before. It was extremely warm but worth the uphill walk. We saw President JFK's Grave and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.