Honeymoon Part III

Here is the last installment of the tale of our honeymoon. 

So, after spending 3  days being tourists in the city of Seattle we left the city to drive to Matt's grandma's house near Port Townsend, Washington.

We went back to the airport to get our rental car (which we loved) and set out on the 2 hour drive around the sound and up the peninsula to the little gated community in the woods. Yes, Washington is very much like a geography class. 

The drive there was absolutely beautiful, and very reminiscent of the UP, except there were WAY more flower gardens and way less cars parked in the lawn. All the roads were surrounded by tall pine trees except for when there was a view of the ocean sound. The woods are my favorite. I grew up in the woods. And sometimes living in the rolling cornfields of southern Wisconsin makes me miss my woods so much. I could live in Washington, with the amazing pine trees. 

Then we got to grandma's house. The first thing I saw were the flowers. She has one of the most beautiful flower gardens I have seen in quite awhile. They are gorgeous, as is the rest of her house. And, as is she. 

I really, really like Matt's grandma. She is pretty fun. She lives in a house with a room called "the library", how could I not think of her as a kindred spirit? She is educated and very well traveled. She likes to read and play cards. All over her house are interesting souvenirs and fascinating artifacts from memories long past. We could talk for hours, and also sit in silence and feel no need to talk. So, it was a fantastic trip and I can't wait until we can come visit again. 

Matt and his grandma

We stayed with her for 4 days. We went whale watching. We played down by the beach. We explored Port Townsend. We played cards. We ate fantastic food. We had a great time. 

After leaving grandma's house we took the ferry across the sound back to Seattle. Then we drove to our great friend's house. Caleb and Kate went to Thailand with me a year ago, and we became very close. They are the funnest people to hang out with. We spent a lot of time hanging out at their house talking and laughing very hard. We spent our last day with them exploring the city one last time. And, of course, this included one last trip to the market. 

Matt and me with Kate and Caleb Miller

So, there are a few highlights from our trip. 

Here are my top 10 favorites from our honeymoon:

10. 

Our fancy dinner out to eat the best meal of our lives.

9. 

The weather. It was perfection for me!

8. 

Taking a boat out to an island and then strolling on the island in the sun.

7. 

Our fancy hotel, and having two beds. :)

6.

The ferry. It scared the crap outta me, but I grew to like it. 

5. 

The market! There is nothing more that needs to be said. 

4.

The plethora of Starbucks available! Including the VERY FIRST ONE!!!

3. 

Feeling like an adult and being able to make all my own decisions, and SUCCEEDING at it!!!

2.

Meeting more of Matt's family and realizing I REALLY like them. 

1.

Spending 10 days on a super fun adventure with my best friend (who I get to kiss).

One more thing...

Tomorrow is my birthday!!! 

honeymoon part II

So, I promised some more details of our honeymoon. Let me dive right in.

We flew to Seattle on May22nd. We woke up bright and early to get ready and hop on the city bus. We rode the bus to the airport. We got to the airport in time to get breakfast and for me to get a magazine for the trip. We walked onto the plane and flew a great flight out west. When we got to Seattle we grabbed our bags and hiked out to the train that would take us downtown to our hotel. As we got closer to downtown we disappeared under the pavement. We got off the train and came up to meet a misty rain and massively tall buildings and a lot of homeless people. Luckily we only had to walk a couple of blocks to our fancy hotel. 

We relaxed for a few minutes before heading out for the evening. This included a soak in the tub for me. It was glorious to be on our own schedule and take our time doing what we wanted to do. 

We walked down to the market. Our hotel was literally just up the street from

  Pike Place Market. Upon arrival my senses were completely overloaded. There were smells from every part of the world. French bakeries next to chinese fried food stands. Enormous bouquets of flowers perfumed the air between the smells of every kind of coffee. There was Polish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, French, Indian, Czech, Italian, American and Irish food all within a block. There was music coming from every street corner. There was a piano player, brass players, singer, violin and everything in between. There were people of every shape and size and color. Languages from Asia, Europe and the Americas mixed and formed a beautiful symphony of cultures. You could buy loose tea, used books, magic supplies, art, jewelry, hand knit sweaters, leather journals, comic books and a plethora of other treasures. 

This was my favorite part of Washington. 

I want to live here one day, if only for the joy of visiting this market. 

We choose Indian food for our first meal in WA.  They were curry wraps and mango lemonade. We ate watching the view of the sound. 

the flowers in this market are the prettiest I have ever seen. 

I want to learn how to cook stuff like this!

part of the maze of stairs and hallways that is Pike Place Market. 

The next couple of days we took in all the tourist sites of Seattle. But, I will save that for tomorrow. 

I will leave you with this thought: I never had much desire to move out of the midwest, that is until I visited Seattle. I can see myself living here. And, it makes me excited!!!

I'm back! (honeymoon part I)

I haven't written anything in about 2 months. That's a long time. When I started a blog I decided that if the pressure to write was stressing me out at all I would take a guilt free break. 

So, finals came and then the semester finished and then we went on our honeymoon and then summer got into full swing, which for me meant summer classes and work and busy weekends and a very hot week with no air conditioning. 

I think my life has finally settled into a nice summer schedule, also it is now only 74 degrees. 

I feeling like writing. 

This means I have to decide what I want to write about first. There are so many things I could tell you about that happened in the last 2 months. 

I have since got a haircut too!

I think the first thing we have to get out of the way is me telling you how awesome our honeymoon was. 

We got married in the middle of the fall semester. I literally drove home on a Wednesday afternoon (Matt come up on Thursday night), got married on Saturday and went back to school on Tuesday morning. So, we planned to go on our honeymoon right after Spring semester. It was a much needed vacation for both of us. 

We decided on going to Washington before we even got married. It is pretty much the only area of the country I haven't been to, and I had a feeling I would really like it. Matt has been there before, to see family and he really likes that area of the country. The idea of laying on a beach for a week does not seem very appealing at this point in my life. I would much rather spend my time exploring a new place, drinking coffee, going to museums and visiting fun shops. I also wanted to meet some more of Matt's family. His grandma lives in Port Townsend, which is a couple hour drive from downtown Seattle. His aunt and uncle live within a days drive as well. 

I have never planned a trip by myself before, so I was a little overwhelmed to put it lightly. But, I do believe I have discovered a new favorite thing. It was probably helpful watching my mom, the expert family trip planner, through the years. So, throughout the whole thing I would just keep asking myself, what would my mom do? And then I would do that. 

So, I booked the airplane tickets, booked the hotel, booked the rental car, found fun stuff to do and did it all on a pretty tight budget. 

So, the day to leave came and we took a bus to the airport. The butterflies in my stomach we trying their best to burst out of me. We got to the Milwaukee airport, checked in and had breakfast while we waited to leave. Then, we just got in the plane and flew to Seattle. And, the rest of the trip went pretty much just like that. Everything went PERFECTLY! I think we had one fight. It lasted about 15 minutes. We got to spend time alone together. We stayed in a fancy hotel. I took relaxing baths in our huge tub. We went out to eat at a fancy restaurant. We walked down to the market and wandered happily enjoying the sights and AMAZING smells. We than got to spend time with family, wonderfully fun family. We got to drive through gorgeous towering pine trees, ride a boat through the ocean, stroll around an island. We then got to spend a couple days with friends. We spent hours laughing and talking about fun memories and exciting plans for the future. Then we flew home. 

That is our trip in a nutshell. 

I will share some more fun details and stories later. 

I am a successful trip planner. I am an adult. There is really nothing I can't do. 

What you will hear about next time:

a trip to the space needle

Starbucks!!!!!!!!

a boat trip to an island

An Officer and A Gentleman

ferries

You will get to hear about all this and more... so stay tuned.