Wyoming

Here are our Wyoming adventures... We stayed in the little town of Cody which is an hour and a half away from Yellowstone park. Our first day we had fun exploring the south loop of the park. We saw bison & ducks... Not too much wildlife... The Old Faithful geyser was really beautiful! We showed up just in time to get a perfect seat and see it go off! After that, we headed over to the lodge that was right there and ate an amazing dinner! We met Tyson... A very lively guy who we had so much fun with! Once we were finished eating we drove all the way back to Cody and finally arrived super late at 1:00! Our next day we went white water rafting early in the morning. This was Ryker and my first experience at this but mom and Noelani have white water rafted before. I throughly loved my first time and hope to do it again someday! After rafting, we drove an hour to a nearby town called Thermopolis. There was a mineral hot springs there where we relaxed and soaked in for the allowed time. After driving the hour back we hung out at a pool for the rest of the day then attended a night rodeo. Now I can say I've been to a rodeo in the rodeo capital of the world! Our next day we finished out Yellowstone by completing the North loop. Here we saw a lot more animals including a bear and herds of bison! A famous guy titled 'Liver Eating Johnston' was buried in Cody so we visited this disgusting guys grave... The last thing we did in Cody was going on a wild mustang hunt. We found a herd of about 80 mustangs by a watering hole. I loved seeing horses in their natural habitat... It is so much different but really cool! Overall, I am so glad that we got to visit Yellowstone park but I'd never really come back I don't think. I really enjoyed everything in Cody though... Especially the rodeo and the whole feel of that western town!

Iowa & Minnesota & South Dakota

After driving to Ames IO we stayed there a night and then drove up through Minnesota to Rapid City SD. Some friends of ours have friends that lived there so we stayed with them once we got into the city. In the morning we visited the Crazy horse monument which is still a working progress. This was amazing and I enjoyed learning more about the history. After crazy horse we hopped on a helicopter to see Mt. Rushmore. It was so beautiful! Once again we stayed at the  Tornow's and played cards late into the night. 

Illinois

Sorry about not posting for quite a while... We drove all the way from Ohio through Indiana and a tiny bit of Michigan and to Chicago, Illinois. We toured around Chicago and visited the Millennium park, the Cloud Bridge, and Lou Malnati's Chicago style pizza. We were also freaking out because we found the train bridge thingy that was in the movie Divergent. We had so much fun climbing up it and experiencing how awesome it was! 

West Virginia and Ohio

We spent a total of about 5 minutes in West Virginia driving through the little wing in between PA and OH! In Canton OH we visited this block party where we played basketball with little kids way better than us! Noelani and I had a lot of fun talking with a girl named Passion and her sister. A lady named Kelly was so kind to host is and take care of us so well! In the morning she made an amazing breakfast full of goodness! Next we drove all the way to Chicago!!

Pennsylvania

 Our first stop in Pennsylvania with Noelani was Lancaster, an Amish hub. It was quite a change straight from New York to complete farm land. I know we might be a little crazy, but we attempted to stay with some Amish... Mom talked with Ruth a girl on her porch who was 19. Her family was unable to host us though. She directed us to a bed and breakfast and we ended up at this random persons house. The mom and her daughter invited us on a run they were going on and we ended up staying with them. Katurah, the mom had been Amish before so we kinda stayed with an Amish family... 😊 That night we helped out at the farm her sons were working at. It was so much fun! The next day we also helped again milking cows and bottle feeding calves. We stayed at the Belier's one more night then moved on towards Ohio. We honestly didn't know where we were going to stay that night and so we got ready for bed in Walmart, planning to sleep in our car that night. Although I would have loved the adventure of staying in the car a night a couchsurfer accepted our offer and we stayed with this couple and their 19 month son. Somewhere in there we stopped by a Jacob sheep farm... No one was home and there was a little lamb that had gotten out of its fence. Ryker was the hero of the day and picked up the lamb and returned it to its pen. That was really cool! 

Announcement!!!!!!!!!!!

Our special guest has arrived...my cousin Noelani!!!!! We are so blessed to have her join us and finish out the trip with us! 

New York

 Our New York experience was super exciting and full of people! We took the ferry from Staten island to the city and on the way we were able to to see the beautiful Statue of Liberty! Honestly, it was much smaller than I thought it was going to be! We decided to purchase a bus tour for all of us for the two days we were in the city! It was perfect cause we could hop off on any of the stops then jump back on again at any other! This was perfect for our time there! We learned about a lot of the history of all the famous people living/lived there and a lot of the places from where movies were shot! That night, Saturday night we went and saw Something Rotten, a Broadway musical. Sunday, our friends who we are staying at came to tour around with us! That day we mostly did the busses. Part of it was a night tour which amazing! That was our small New York experience!  

Washington DC

I know it's a little late... But here is our Washington DC experience... First of all, my dad got to join us once again for DC and New York which was really special! 

Here are all the places we visited in DC:

US Capital 

The Supreme Court

House of Representative gallery

Washington monument

National museum of natural history

National Museum of American history 

National art museum 

national zoo

National air and space museum national cathedral 

National gallery of art

Woodrow Wilson house

White House 

Library of congress

Embassy row

Vietnam war monument 

Lincoln monument 

World War II monument

Ebenezer coffee house

Martin Luther king jr. Memorial

FDR memorial

Jefferson monument

Fords theater (where Lincoln got shot)

Arlington national cemetery (tomb of the unknown soldier & kennedy's grave)

The holocaust museum

We were blessed to meet someone involved with young life who also knew some people who worked in the Capitol... He was able to get someone to take us on a tour of the Capitol. It was gorgeous even though the rotunda was covered in scaffolding... All of the Smithsonian museums we visited were amazing, my favorite was the American history one. We also visited the national zoo... We kinda made a bad choice in this because the heat was sweltering (Ha ha... I've never used that work before😝) and all the animals were hidden from the sun. Of all the monuments we went to the Washington and Lincoln monuments were my favorite! It was so cool that we were able to go up in the elevator to the top and look over the whole city! Also I just loved seeing the Lincoln memorial especially at night! We got to go up so close and read two of his important speeches on the walls by his statue. I would have loved to go into the White House but we just got to see the outside... Still, it was amazing to see what we did! Our third day in Washington we visited the Arlington national cemetery where we got to experience the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was so crazy how serious the guys were guarding it! The last thing we visited was the holocaust museum. This was very impactful and super sad. It's really hard to explain... My next post will be of our adventures in New York!

Special Announcement

We have a special announcement to tell yall in a few days... Some special person will be joining us for the rest of our trip and finishing it out with us... I am excited to tell you all who it is!

Virginia

I love virginia! I actually think a lot of Washington when I see the landscapes and things... On our way to our first host we accidentally put in a wrong address and the GPS brought us to a dismal swamp state park... We stayed with Ryker's buddy from 11 years ago. That was so fun to see their kids again and make TONS of dubsmashes! We had so much fun! We also toured around the historic site of Williamsburg. We really enjoyed seeing all the reenactments of the historical scenes. Our second day in Virginia we had fun doing online SAT testing in the library all afternoon....... 

I will post a separate post for Washington DC....

South Carolina

In South Carolina we stayed at some friends of ours, Jimmy and Amanda Smith. We he a blast going and hanging out at the pool all day! Ryker and I enjoyed playing and watching curious George with their two kids Naomi and Asher. When we left South Carolina we tried to get in to the theme park Carowinds that has the fastest giga-coaster in North America. Sadly, that didn't work out so well...😭 We ended up not staying in North Carolina but we did drive through it on our way to Virginia...

Georgia

In Georgia we had a wonderful good time! We stayed in Savannah at this little cottage. The first night we went to the show Savannah Live. It was super fun and awesome! The next day we worked on updating our Facebook page... That was basically all we did that day.😝 This morning we drove around Savannah a little and visited a place where they hid people in the Underground RR. 

I'd love to hear from you...

This is a blog where people are able to comment on... please feel free to leave one! I'd love to read them!!

Florida part 2

As for our second part in Florida, (we spent a total of ten days there) we relaxed and enjoyed our halfway destination, our friends in Boca Raton. They have two little boys and little Lucy who arrived not long after we left their house. We had so much fun with them hanging out on the beach and swimming in the pool! 

On Thursday morning we enjoyed a free surfing lesson from a guy my mom met on the beach. After that we drove down through the keys and flew up in a helicopteR over them. This was Ryker and my first time up in a helicopter so this was super special to us! After stopping by some places to take pictures we stopped on the outskirts of Miami to use the bathroom. The "cafeteria" we visited ended up being this hole in the wall dark bar and pool hall...interesting! :))

Friday morning we drove to the Everglades holiday park and took an airboat tour through to see some alligators and other wildlife. 

Friday and Saturday night we stayed at a new square dancing friend, Barbara. She was so sweet and took care of us like her own family. All of Saturday we spent at SeaWorld in Orlando. That was the BEST ever! We went on the super fun and crazy roller coasters and saw the killer whale show, dolphin show, and sea lion show. Every thing about it was amazing and so much fun!

We somehow got a free second day at SeaWorld so we headed back on Sunday and did more rides and shows! I'm so glad we got to go to SeaWorld! Sunday night we stayed at more new square dancing friends of ours, Cheryl and Kelly. They were so kind to bring us tubing/floating down the river close by. This was gorgeous! We also boated down the Santa Fe river and saw another wild gator. 

Altogether I loved Florida so much besides all the ridiculous tolls we had to pay. I finally got a nice tan and am rockin' it! :P