Missouri Adventures: Day 1

I apologize for my absence the last few days. Husbandfriend and I were on a Missouri Adventure!! Our friends M and Cassie tied the knot on Saturday and we flew out for the occasion! Neither of us had been to Missouri and were anxious to do some exploring in the days leading up to the nuptials.

I am going to break our trip into posts by day. We covered A LOT of ground in the few days we were there and if I tried to post it all you'd be reading for the rest of the afternoon! So here we go...

Day 1/ PHX-KC

On Thursday, we flew out from Phoenix SkyHarbor at 8:55 am. I had a little difficulty getting through TSA. For those of you who aren't aware, Arizona is going through the process of changing the Driver's Licenses.

**Flashback**

I discovered this when I went to the DMV last Monday to change my name on my mine. (Yes, I have been married for almost 2 years. Yes, I am just now changing my driver's license. Don't judge.) They informed me off the change and that my new "official" license would be MAILED to me in 15 days. I received a "temporary" PAPER COPY that "may or may not" be accepted as proper identification. So, I grabbed every form of identification I had containing both my maiden and married name. Seriously, I had like 7 documents.

**Fast Forward to Thursday in the TSA Line**

I assumed that flying out from AZ wouldn't be the issue considering the change was within our state and the DMV had notified airlines and TSA of the change. I was wrong. I got a little hassled and was eventually sent on through due to the fact that security was super busy and I apparently did not look suspicious (profiling much?). We found our gate and had some breakfast. Then we were up, up and away! I love flying and Husbandfriend gave me the window seat! As we were watching the world pass by below we realized we were flying right over Roosevelt Lake and good ol' Home Sweet Home! 2 hours and 40 minutes later, we were in Kansas City!

Let me take a minute to say that KCI is the BEST airport I have ever been to, and I have been to many. We walked off the plane, turned the corner and BOOM-baggage claim was right there. Across from baggage claim were the doors that led outside to the rental car shuttle. Everything was right there and the signage was great! 

Renting the car was the longest process of our entire trip. The line was long and the process was slow. This was our first time ever renting a car and it was pretty exciting! Husband was the driver and I  was the navigator along with our trusty sidekick Navi-AKA-the Maps App on our iPad. We toured the next 2 days in a Chevy Cruze and enjoyed it thoroughly! 

From there we headed towards Independence, MO where our hotel would be. We were totally taken by the lush green landscape, old brick buildings and sky-high smokestacks that take your imagination back to the Industrial era. It seemed like every 10 seconds one of us would say "Look at that!". After a few miles we could see Downtown Kansas City in the distance and realized we would get to drive over a "really cool bridge" to get there. The bridge crossed right over the Missouri River. Since Independence is a little further from the downtown area we decided to keep driving and comeback after we found out hotel. 

Sorry for the poor picture quality. We were driving, I was navigating, and we were SUPER excited!

We made it to our hotel, dropped off the luggage, and decided to grab a bite to eat. MO is two hours ahead of AZ and we were stuck between what would be our lunchtime and their dinner time. We headed to Independence Square which is basically the downtown area. There were lots of building tops peeking out at us and we decided to walk around a little before settling on food. We discovered LOTS of churches. Tons. Honestly, so many. One of which claims to be the meeting place of Harry S. Truman and his wife. They attended Sunday School there together as children. Independence is very proud of the fact that President Truman grew up there. It was neat to see his home, the Soda Shop that he worked at, and various other sites. 

At this point I was becoming overly hungry and tired= grumpy wife. So we set out to find a place to eat. While walking past a restaurant whose name we couldn't decipher, some patrons walked out and said "It's delicious, eat here." So we did! It turned out to be a super authentic German restaurant called "Rheinland".

The menu was in German, leaving us wondering what exactly everything was. I decided on a Reuben. Safe and, if truly authentic, most likely delicious. Husband asked our pleasant waitress for her favorite dish. He settled on the veal Jagerschnitzl- a veal chop lightly breaded and smothered in a mushroom cream sauce. EVERYTHING WAS DELICIOUS! We followed our dinner with a slice of German Chocolate Cake that was to die for. 

With full bellies we strolled the square a little more and headed to the Community of Christ temple to check out the Spiral Spire. This spire cannot be missed and we were definitely curious. The Community of Christ  Church is a religious organization that stemmed off of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The founders were once Mormons who broke off from the church and formed their own religion. They are in no way affiliated with the LDS church any longer. Their temple was quite the site and very interesting in architectural design. It reminded me of a mix between an upside down ice cream cone and a space ship. 

From here we continued down the street and stumbled upon the Independence Visitors Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church has a lot of history in this Missouri region and we were excited to begin the start of our church history adventure. 

At the Visitor's Center we learned a little more about the settling of the area by the Mormons and the significance of the area. Independence was supposed to be Zion for the saints before they were driven out by earlier settlers. They purchased a large area of land and a temple was supposed to be erected overtime. Due to the vast amount of saints who immigrated from Europe, it is believed that the non-members were overwhelmed with the influx of mormons moving to the area. They were driven out of Independence north to Far West in Jackson County.  The land the saints owned in Independence was taken and built upon. Over the years the church has been able to purchase some of the land it previously owned. The Independence Visitor's Center sits on a portion of it. Adjacent to the Visitor's Center is what is refered to as "Temple Lot"-another portion of land that the temple was supposed to be built upon but is not owned by the Mormon church currently. 

The Visitor's Center is free to all who care to enter and patrons will receive guided tours by missionaries serving in the area. In addition to learning the history of the area in relation to the saints, the center also provides a presentation of "The Purpose of the Family". This presentation follows a family through various trials and celebrations of life beginning with the birth of a child, moving through the struggles and excitement of parenthood, the loss of loved ones, and the sealing of families in the temple for time and all eternity. This presentation really touched my heart being that Husbandfriend and I will soon be sealed together and I will be linked with my Dad once again. The spirit felt in the visitor's center in undeniable and something I had prayed for before we made the trip out. 

Temple Lot with the Visitor's Center in the background.

It was an absolutely beautiful day!

 From here, we decided to take a random street and see where we wound up. We followed Truman Street from Downtown Independence all the way to Downtown KC! We saw so many beautiful homes along the way and were in awe over the immense GREEN that is EVERYWHERE! Stunning.

We didn't explore Downtown KC as we had hoped we would (Dad always said to leave something for next time-that way you HAVE to go back someday). Husband saw an old building with a conveyor and two stacks that he just had to know the purpose of. We drove towards the building and wound up on the Missouri River Walk. We followed the path and wound up right at the base of the building he was searching for. Some passerby's that looked like locals approached and we asked what the building was used for. It turns it to be a coal factory that burns coal and converts it into energy that provides electricity for many of the buildings downtown! The coal is brought to the factory by train, loaded on to the conveyors, and delivered into the factory. Pretty cool!

With the building mystery solved, we continued further up the river walk and read little tidbits about Lewis and Clark and the importance of the Missouri River during their journey westward. It was 8:30 p.m. KC time and the sun was just starting to set.

We navigated our way back to the hotel after making a stop at Steak 'N Shake for a late night bedtime snack! Our first day was a huge success. Husband and I have only taken one other trip by ourselves together and it was to Vegas-not a huge accomplishment in terms of travel! We went to bed feeling: proud of our travel achievements for the first day, excited for the adventures of the days to come, humbled to stand on the same ground as the brave saints that came before us, and blessed to be able to share this journey together as partners.

Until Tomorrow,
Mo