Our Honeymoon Adventures

For us, it took a long time to decide where we wanted to go on our honeymoon. We toyed with the idea of going abroad, but realized that was a little out of budget for us. The next thought was Hawaii. So many people go to Hawaii on their honeymoon, and I definitely liked the idea of being by the beach, but the reality was neither one of us would be able to relax and do close to nothing for an entire week. We are the kind of people who are always moving. Finally, we decided that we both love California, we love road trips, and we've always wanted to visit what we call "hipster cities" like Portland and Seattle. We boarded a flight from Orlando to LAX and spent our first two nights in beautiful Santa Monica. 

The second night of our trip we decided to head over to Venice and try a restaurant suggested to us by the founder of Toms shoes. We ran into him on our flight and Eddie asked for some suggestions. It turned out his taste was a little too outside the box. We could barely understand most of the menu except that one of the entrees was bone marrow. Yea, not our vibe. The atmosphere was cozy, so we ordered the most ordinary thing on the menu then hit up a local dive bar.

Much more our vibe.

After a quick detour for a day at Disneyland, we made our way north to San Francisco.

Unfortunately, LA traffic forced us to limit our time in San Francisco, but we managed to take in some of the scenery on the drive.

With less than 24 hours to spend in San Francisco, we only had time to for an early morning visit to the Golden Gate Bridge and a quick tour of Alcatraz, which was surprisingly less creepy than I had hoped.

Our next stop was a small town called Trinidad, just outside the Redwood National Forest. It overlooked the beautiful cliffs and Pacific Ocean. We could even hear the sea lions from our room. This was probably our favorite spot and we took advantage of all the great photography opportunities. 

You can tell by the smiles we were honeymooning.

Portland was next on our journey and we enjoyed the the free champagne provided by the hotel, and the amazing coffee shops nearby, but honestly it was hard not to be distracted by the large population of homeless in the city. As one friend put it, "The culture is marked by homelessness." It's sad to see. 

The night before we left Portland we met a couple who told us about the beautiful falls right outside of the city. We made it a point to stop on our way to Seattle. It was worth the detour. Unfortunately, our time in Seattle was rather dull. We hit up Pike's Place, but realized it was hard to take in the wonder of all the fresh food and flowers when we wouldn't be staying overnight. So we had one last cup of coffee before getting on a plane back home.

What's your favorite honeymoon memory?