After the wedding, we drove to our honeymoon cabin at
Spring Bay Inn. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. The cabin was in the middle of nowhere and right on a bay (Spring Bay) surrounded by state park. It had a fireplace and a nice open floor plan. My favorite was the hot tub on the deck that looked out to the water. We were greeted by deer every morning and throughout the day. It was straight out of a Disney classic.
We enjoyed a huge meal at Rosario the day after the wedding. My favorite was the deep fried PB & J with vanilla ice cream. A-mazing! We stopped at an art gallery in Olga and a pottery gallery over by Eastsound. I picked up a Madrona bowl and nice clay flower pot. On July 4th we watched fireworks on Lopez Island from our cabin. I watched them from bed (I was exhausted) and Matt watched from the hot tub. We stayed on Orcas until July 5th. When we left Orcas, we drove through Whidbey Island, over Deception Pass, and took the Port Townsend Ferry to the Olympic Peninsula. We drove to Olympia and spend the night with my aunt and uncle. Early the next morning we drove south and followed the Oregon coast. This drive was beautiful and I highly recommend it. Cannon Beach was my favorite. It was the beach they used to film the end of "The Goonies".
We continued down the coast until we got to Gold Beach. The hotel was less than desirable. I thought the bathroom reeked of mold and pee. We survived. The next day we continued down the coast to Northern California. First on our list was the
Tillamook Cheese Factory. Matt loves cheese and I am quite fond of it myself. This place was a ZOO! We walked in and walked right back out (after getting some ice cream - of course). A lot of people decided to stop into Tillamook at the same time we did. It felt like we were at the State Fair.
After we left the zoo Tillamook, we drove through the Redwood Forest into central California. These Redwood trees were HUGE! Here is one compared to Matt's truck.
The California coast wasn't as impressive as the Oregon coast so we took a half gravel/half paved jaunt to central California. We drove to Vacaville, CA and stayed at the Comfort Inn & Suites for the night. This hotel was much nicer than the Gold Beach hotel. Early the next morning, we drove to Napa Valley. Immediately, Matt needed to take care of business drain the cooler.
We spent three nights in Napa at a beautiful bed & breakfast. We toured a few wineries and drank a few glasses of wine. One of the wineries was a castle that took 15 years to build (estimate). The owner wanted the castle to look authentic and knew the only way to do it right was to build it like they did in the old days. They hand cut each stone. It was quite impressive.
We stopped at Sutter Homes, Sterling (rode the Gondola), and Beringer. There were a few others but they get a little blurry toward the end.
As a "thanks for marrying me" gift, Matt surprised me with tickets to see Colbie Calliat perform at the Robert Mondavi winery. He packed a picnic while I napped and we drove to the winery early to get a good spot on the lawn. We ended up sitting right behind the Mondavi grandchildren! I was a little star struck.
The guy sitting behind us had his wine bucket kicked over three times (not by us). We had a little fun with that...
We went golfing one morning (morning because it was 100 degrees in the afternoon). Unfortunately, the morning we chose to golf was very chilly. I enjoy golf but I am a warm weather - beer drinking golfer. It was still a great experience. The course we chose was
Chardonnay Golf Club. Instead of trees in the "out of bounds" area, we had grapes. My ball went into the grapes a couple of times. Again, it's difficult to swing a club while shivering.
We left Napa and drove to Lake Tahoe. Matt's intentions were to drive past Tahoe so I would fall in love and we could come back sometime. He got his wish because I was instantly in love. I wanted to stay the night. Unfortunately, we couldn't find lodging. I did get the opportunity to put my feet in the blue water. That was something Matt hadn't ever done.
We continued on to Yosemite National Park. We stopped to camp just outside of Yosemite at Lee Vining campgrounds. We lucked out with a nice site on the river. The sites filled quickly and we were lucky to have a place to sleep at all! The next morning we broke camp and drove through Yosemite. It was a busy place and we only drove through. Even driving through was beautiful. I watched for climbers on El Cap but I didn't see anyone.
We had a little mishap when planning our next route. We originally planned to drive through King's Canyon and Death Valley on our way to Las Vegas. After we left Yosemite we realized there was no road to take us through King's Canyon. In order to get to Vegas, we had to drive down to Bakersfield, CA and up/over to Vegas. This was a long day on the road, but we made it to Vegas by 8:30pm.
We had planned for two nights in Vegas. Upon check-in, I tried my luck at getting a room upgrade for our honeymoon. Now, I've tried getting free upgrades on rooms for my "honeymoon" long before I was married. It has never worked before. This time was different. I must have had a honeymoon glow, because we were upgraded to a junior suite at the Golden Nugget!
The room was very nice. Two flat screen TV's, an entry way, an L shaped couch. I've never been in such a nice room. The bathtub was huge and after camping, it was very inviting. We dedicated our first full day to the pool. We were itching to try the slide through the shark tank. It was neat but the line for it was not short. We went down it once. We reserved a poolside cabana and lounged all day long. Matt left on the prowl for some large slushy drinks. He found the drinks but they were from a neighboring casino. The Nugget didn't think that was okay so we were stuck downing the drinks in our room. It was a nice attempt.
We were planning to do the same thing the following day but I was a little red. We gambled instead. Matt lost, I won. I lost, Matt won. I think we came out about even. I consider that a win in Vegas. We were so happy with our suite that we extended our stay for an extra night.
We left Vegas and started our drive home. We drove through Utah and Colorado, stopping in Rifle, CO for the night. The next day we drove more of Colorado, Nebraska, and Iowa before returning home to Minnesota. I was on a mission to see my dog, Lucy. I had never been away for that long and I missed her. Matt would never admit it, but he missed her just as much as I did.
