Drive up the Coast- Day 5

This was the final day of our road trip. We were loving the drive up the coast, but were excited to see our new apartment and start getting everything set up!

In our first little home/apartment!


We went for a walk around the area. There is a really pretty running/bike path near our apartment that goes through a little forest area with a creek. It is so pretty and so nice how close it is to us.


The first meal I made for us as a married couple! Honey Lime Enchiladas- they don't look that appetizing from the picture but they are really good! We didn't get a table for a couple of weeks, so we would just eat standing up or sit on some packing bins!

Drive up the Coast- Day 4

This was one of my favorite days of the drive! The oregon coast was breathtaking with all of the huge rock formations in the water! Then on the other side of the road, the forest is sooo beautiful! We stopped in the redwood forest and wen on a little hike. It was so pretty and I felt so small compared to the thick, tall redwoods. Bright green moss covered all of the trees and rocks and ferns and 3 leaf clovers where everywhere!





Next we stopped at the huge Paul Bunyan and Babe statues.



We saw about 50 elk, in this field right by the road!




Drive up the Coast- Day 3

We woke up early and headed down to take a walk on the beach our hotel was on. We were the only ones on the beach, well us and about 100 seagulls that were floating in the water and flying around. After a long walk on the beach, we headed to a little cafe for the best breakfast. Nate got french toast which he ate in about 30 seconds! I wanted a bite but by the time I had about 3 bites of my food I looked up and his was completely gone! I had the best waffle with tons of berries, bananas, and whipped cream!



Our next stop was the Monterey Bay Aquarium and it was amazing!!! They had a special jellyfish exhibit that had over a hundred different types of jellyfish. We were in awe of all of the different kinds. There are egg yolk jellyfish, which look exactly like a cracked egg, and rainbow glow jellyfish that are neon rainbow colored in the dark! The whole exhibit was so incredible to see but also made me cringe thinking of being stung!!! My friend Sam and I both got stung by a box jellyfish while we were surfing in Hawaii and it was the most pain I have EVER been in. We both thought we were going to die! I am still so fascinated by jellyfish though!!



Trying to get a picture of Nate by his favorite, penguins! It took a few tries to get a normal one!





After the aquarium, we drove to San Francisco!!! It was so hard to find parking there and we finally found a spot on a huge hill that we hoped we wouldn't get a ticket for. We walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and our first stop was Ghirardelli Square. We saw chocolate being made and had the BEST chocolate brownie ice cream sundae I have ever had! I am an extreme chocolate lover so I was in heaven!! Then we found a place for Nate to get some clam chowder. We could see Alcatraz and wanted to take a boat tour to see it closer, but were a little worried about getting a ticket on our car. We will definitely come back to San Francisco another time though.




Drive up the Coast- Day 1 and 2

After our honeymoon, we stayed in San Diego for a day to spend some time with family and pack everything up. The next day we headed on our roadtrip up the coast to our new home! We decided to take about 5 days to drive up so that we could enjoy the drive and make a lot of stops. It was my first time driving up up the coast, which I have always wanted to do and I LOVED it!! Nate had been before and knew a lot of good places to stop. On the first day, after only driving 1 1/2 hours, we made our first stop, Cafe Rio! Then we stopped to visit John, Jill, Marshall, & Grandma Janie. We had a nice visit with them and saw the sunset over the ocean near Santa Monica Pier, it was beautiful!!



From there we drove to our first hotel. The next day, our first stop was Solvang, a little Danish town that was founded by a group of Danes in 1911. It was the cutest town, all of the buildings looked like they were right out of Denmark!




There were a ton of cute little bakeries, chocolate shops, little boutiques, and restaurants. We got some delicious chocolate covered honeycomb from one of the shops. Then we HAD to get some Aebleskivers for breakfast/lunch. They were so good and HUGE!!! I think I ate 5 of them and then felt like I was going to explode, that dough definitely expands in your stomach!! They had powdered sugar and fresh jam on them, so good!!



Our next stop was San Simeon beach. We had a little picnic there and walked out on the pier. The water was so clear and bright turquoise, it looked like Hawaii!! (Except it was probably 30 degrees colder!!!) We would love to go back there sometime to kayak!



After the beach, we went to Hearst Castle, which was just right across the street. Hearst Castle is a huge mansion that was built from 1919-1947 for William Randolph Hearst. Hearst built the nation's largest newspaper chain. During the 1920's and 30's, Hearst had many famous guests at his mansion, including Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles Lindbergh. The castle has 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of garden, a movie theater, an airfield, an indoor and outdoor pool, and the world's largest private zoo!!!

We went on the bedroom tour, which we heard was the best one to go on. My favorite part was the beautiful,intricate architecture and all of the beautiful paintings and statues. The total worth of art in the castle is estimated to be $15,000,000 .





Next, we stopped at a nearby beach with a ton of elephant seals! I have never even heard of those before and it was so cool to see a whole beach covered in them! They were gigantic and we saw a couple of them fighting!



Then we were on our way to our hotel. We stayed at a hotel right on the beach! It was so nice to be able to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean again!

Honeymoon in Cabo!!

On our wedding night we stayed at The U.S. Grant Hotel. It was beautiful!! It was built in 1910 and had a fancy, classic look. We stayed there a night, walked to the nearest donut shop for breakfast, and then left for Cabo that afternoon! Nate forgot his regular shoes and socks in the car so he had to walk down to the car wearing his wedding shoes, so high class (: Cabo was amazing!!! We stayed at a gorgeous, gigantic resort, Pueblo Bonito at Sunset Beach. It was so huge that you take golf carts everywhere. The drivers drive super fast up all of the windy roads and it feels like you are on a roller coaster! It is right on the beach and was really the perfect place to stay!! The weather was perfect, nice and sunny until our last day, when it poured! We spent most of our time at the many pools(eating a lot of chips and pico and pina coladas) and OF COURSE at the beach!!! One day we saw a sea turtle on the beach, digging a hole to lay eggs! There was a man guarding her so we couldn't get to close, but it was still so cool to watch!

The waves at the beach our resort was on were too big to swim in, it was fun to walk along the beach and watch the waves crash though! There was a beach nearby that we took a shuttle too a few times and could swim there! The water was so clear and blue and reminded me of Hawaii! One of the days we took a boat to Lovers Beach (which is on a tiny island) to snorkel. That was one of our favorite things! We took a bag of tortillas and we tore them up and fed them to the fish. It was so fun, we had hundreds of fish swimming all around us! One even bit my finger when I was feeding it (they would eat the tortillas right out of our hands)! Another day we got a couples massage at the resort spa, which I have always wanted to do on my honeymoon! The spa had jacuzzis, steam rooms, and chairs to lay out on with cucumbers and hot cloths to put on your face. It was so nice and sooo relaxing!!! Then the massage felt so good!! I just loved it and wish I could go there every week! (When I first walked into the women's side of the spa there was a very huge naked lady walking around very confidently, so I thought I might be supposed to strip down for the jacuzzi and steam room. I walked around and found that everyone else was at least in bikinis, thankfully!) On another day we went parasailing!! We went up together and it was so cool to see Cabo and the ocean from so high! It was a little windy so we were moving up and down a bit, which was fun! It was actually mostly just relaxing parasailing. We saw a manta ray down below us! We went out to eat at a restaurant at the hotel a lot (they had the best enchiladas) and at some places in the main city. We ate at one place by the marina that was really good (Nate finally got some seafood, which he loves)! We got homemade tortillas, cheese, pico, and avocados and had quesadillas and fresh papaya for most of our lunches. Overall, it was the perfect honeymoon and it was just so nice for Nate and I to be able to spend so much uninterrupted time together. We loved every minute of it and that was our favorite part of the honeymoon!

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