Rendezvous with the Reinhardts: Road trip

We have been on the road for the last few weeks, busy moving, visiting family and going to weddings. We are exhausted to say the least.

Moving to Arizona was great. We had no dramatic issues driving from New York. Aside from being completely stuffed into the car we had a lot of fun. We drove between 8-12 hours a day for 4 days. We made stops to a few temples along the way and visited some friends and family.
My cousin Amanda gave us an awesome tour of Colorado Springs. We saw the Garden of the Gods, the US Olympic Training Center, the Caves of the Winds, and Bellmoore resort. What a beautiful place! Plus we had so much fun playing with little Genevieve.

After arriving to Tucson on Monday morning we quickly moved in, unpacked and rested. Tuesday we took care of some business and Wednesday morning we were off again. Evan went to Pennsylvania for Orientation and I went to Utah to pick up my car! Yes, more driving!

I was lucky enough to see my family, daddy daughter date with my dad picking cherries, and girls day out with my mommy! Lunch with family from Germany and also dinner/shaved ice dates some friends in Cedar City as I was driving back to Tucson.

I got back from Arizona, Evan came back the next day and then we quickly drove up to Pheonix to catch our Flight to Hawaii!

The last time I went to Hawaii I was 4, and we went to the Big Island

This was my first time going to the Maui and our first time visiting Evan's Family since we got married.

My mother in law brought a beautiful lei when we arrived to the airport

I will say I was so blown away by everything my picture taking was forgotten the first 2 days. I was just so overwhelmed by how awesome everything was.

When we got there We met a lot of Evan's auntys, uncles, and cousins. Love them all! We had delicious food at the family dinner held at Evan's brother's house!

The next day we went to the beach! I saw a sea turtle for the first time and a sea cucumber. If you don't know what I sea cucumber is, neither did I. I told Evan to stay away from the dog poop that was rolling around on the shore. Little did I know it was a creature.

The beach we were at was called Kalepolepo. It was an old fish pond so the water wasn't too rough or deep! It was perfect for the kids... and me. I felt better knowing some large sea creature wasn't going to bite my leg off or suck on my toes. Nothing too mysterious was lurking in the water, at least that I could see.

We also saw the first LDS church on Maui.

Then we went holo holo around the mountain area near Haleakala and the next day we drive to Lahaina to the beach and the Plantation golf course area.

WOW

what a site to see

We went to Evan's sisters house. I played house with the girls and play-doh.

Then we went to get some guri-guri! A light ice cream treat that was delightful.

We ate dinner at da Kitchen which was a lot of food, but good!

Our last day we went up to Iao Valley. It was a little rainy but that didn't stop us.

We were so sad to leave the family and the beautiful island. Might I add, I LOVE HAWAII!!!!!!!!!

We took the red eye to Las Vegas for my best friend's wedding

We were able to attend Ashleigh and Daniel's sealing in the Las Vegas LDS temple.

We went from 80 degrees and humidity to 108 degrees of dry heat. We were all melting but Ashleigh still looked amazing in her lace princess gown.

It was fun to see her family, old friends and college roommates.

We attended her reception. It was beautifully done, and screamed Ashleigh 100%, especially the cake! We had a good time!

It has most definitely been an exciting few weeks of travel. Its back to work for Evan and for me I'm on the job hunt here in Tucson.

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.