Honeymooning on Highway 1

Our honeymoon was a blast! Mark did a great job arranging for hotels, meals, adventures, etc...

For the longest time, Mark said that we would be honeymooning in Bellmead - and for those of you that don't know where Bellmead is, it's across the railroad tracks in Waco. (in every bit of what you think "across the tracks" means). But, Mark confessed about a month out that we would be spending a week on the coast of California. It was perfect!

We stayed the night in Dallas on Saturday at Hotel Palomar. It was a great hotel and with a super chic urban restaurant called Central 214. We had a great meal and celebrated by ordering salad, soup, entree, dessert, and of course wine! We flew out the next morning via Southwest to San Diego. From there we began our adventures! Our honeymoon got off to a great start at Enterprise Rental Car. We had reserved a Toyota Prius (as practical as we are) only to find out that they had checked all their Toyota Prius' out...so they offered a free upgrade: a 2010 Red Convertible Mustang. WOWZERS! The wild horse cannot be tamed - that was our motto (or at least Mark's). It makes his fast happy- 300hp and 27mpg, not bad.

We started driving up the coast and almost immediately were halted by the onslaught of traffic in the greater Los Angeles area.  After two hours of gridlock at 3pm we kept driving north and took a brief respite in Santa Barbara, before stopping for the night at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort just outside of San Luis Obispo.  Here we got to experience our own personal hot tub (w/hot springs mineral water), a labyrinth made out of rocks (used for contemplation/meditation), a beautiful walking trail and yoga classes (well, we didn't wake up in time for that one). From there we traveled into town and got an Americano from a fun coffee shop, The Black Horse, that we made sure to visit when we were traveling back down south. After our coffee, we headed for Big Sur. Of course we stopped several times along the way, one being a town called Morro Bay. This was a really neat town to stop in, just off the PCH. It has an enormous granite boulder emerging from the depths of the bay, ominous in nature. We also had a great meal at the Flying Dutchman and some yummy ice cream down the street. We kept driving on the PCH and saw incredible sights -   stopping to take pictures of the incredibly fascinating coast line. One important stop worth mentioning was at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We took a short hike and found the waterfall that Mark has visited before and always wanted to bring his wife. We continued on and made it to the River Inn Lodge in Big Sur. We stayed and ate at their restaurant. The cool thing about almost all of the restuarants we ate at while on the coast was that most of their produce was grown in their own garden, all organic, all local, all natural. AWESOME! It was delicious!  The next day, we visited Andrew Molera State Park and almost got bitten by a rattlesnake.  Well at least we were really close. It was fun to see all sorts of shelters and art made out of driftwood.   That afternoon, we began our journey further south to TreeBones Yurt Resort.  It was so cool! By far it was our favorite place. One night we at their sushi bar (fresh sushi!) overlooking the Pacific Coast....breathtaking!  And Mark ate dessert, which he never does and was really impressed with sticky date pudding made by an Australian chef.  If you ever get the chance to stay at Treebones do it!  Also, they have one of the most obscure accommodations on earth- THE HUMAN NEST.  

We left Treebones and headed to San Diego on Thursday, staying in SD on Thursday and Friday nights at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley. On Friday, Mark took me to the SD Zoo....which was awesome! We saw tons of animals: Gorillas, Monkeys, Elephants, Pandas, Polar Bears, Lions, Tigers, oh my! I loved it!

Our honeymoon ended with a reception in San Diego hosted by Mark's parents. They did such a great job planning, organizing, and inviting all of the family and friends that were close to them and Mark. We were so thankful that so many people came! I had great time meeting everyone and hearing stories about Mark when he was growing up. 

Well, that was our honeymoon. We spent the day on Sunday in Waco sleeping in and running errands. We currently have a path carved out in our study so we can get to our desk and then back out to the hallways. We have so much stuff to sort through, plan, and organize. Not to mention, thank you cards to write! That's actually the best part. 

Keep checking our blog for another post about our adventure of not eating out for an entire year! Coming this weekend! 

Love, Mark and Kenda