HoneyMOON!

What an awesome honeymoon we had! It was more like an ADVENTUREmoon!

Backtrack- what an awesome wedding we had! 6-27-09 :) in spite of the sweltering
heatwave and monsoon. My Grandparents anniversary as well as Shaye & David's
anniversary. They are practically my other set of parents. <3

The first 2 nights we stayed at The Inn at the Market in Seattle, Washington. We toured Pike Place Market, took in the sights of the city and Puget Sound, enjoyed gorgeous perfect weather, took photos around the city, had an in-room massage, ate sushi and fish tacos galore, visited the ORIGINAL Starbucks, basked in the glory of room service (Jon was a room service virgin!), had lunch at the Space Needle where I put my fear of heights aside and ate lunch 600 feet in the air, toured the Experience Music Project (Seattle music scene- my most favorite music ::sigh:: If I was only a few years older), spent money we didn't really have, and stumbled across a Michael Jackson Memorial. The Space Needle and EMP was my favorite!

Couple's massage & view of puget sound from our window

Seattle aquarium & picture on the terrace level of our hotel

A delicious dessert waiting for us upon arrival at the Inn at the Market. According to Frommer's ... THE most romantic place to stay in Seattle. Organic fruit from the Market.

Atop the Space Needle

Days 3-6: We packed our backpacks, paid a visit to Trader Joe's, and headed three hours west to Olympic National Park. We had to put our car on the fairy to get there- pretty cool! We were supposed to climb the High Divide Loop- much to our dismay it was still covered with ice and we weren't experts with ice axes (plural: axi ?), so we went to the HOH Rain forest instead. On the way there we drove through Port Angeles and FORKS... for all my fellow Twilight freak-o's out there. We stopped at the Forks Chamber of Commerce and took a few pictures. Twilight paraphernalia was everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. After we hiked in we only stayed one night because it was muggy and filled with bugs! We hiked out the next morning and headed for THE BEACH (with a pit stop at an awesome pizza joint in Forks- Pacific Pizza)! Specifically, La Push :) Oh yes, no werewolves to be found.

Day four we hiked down to the beach and got a slightly flat campsite surrounded by driftwood. The beach was amazing. I mean amazing. I was glad we went this day because the rest of our days at the beach were full of mist and dense fog and we couldn't see the sea stacks. At night the tide came up just feet away from our tent and the majority of the beach disappeared. My one regret is that we didn't stay awake long enough to watch many of the stars come out because we were oh so tired from traveling, eating, hiking, hiking, hiking, hiking... I loved falling asleep to the sound of the waves crashing just feet from out tent. The Pacific is so different than the Atlantic.

Day five we hiked like, ten miles. Okay, so maybe this isn't that far. But when the tide comes in and you can't get around certain point and you have to climb cliffs to get around them, and you have all your crap on your back, and you are hungry, tired, wet from mist, and have been walking miles in the sand and climbing random ropes... it gets far. Don't get me wrong, I completely enjoyed it! Spending time isolated & just the two of us was amazing! Most people aren't given that opportunity too often. Think: movie deserted beach. Moon. Stars. Waves. Sand - the little rock kind that doesn't stick to you that's way better than Florida sand. Flatter camp site at Third Beach :) Fantastic. Banana Slugs? Look it up...

Day 6 we had to leave the beach :( We packed up early to get back to Seattle since it was the FOURTH OF JULY! My most favorite holiday in the whole world was happening on my honeymoon! On our hike out we surprisingly passed a park ranger- she had a list of cars that had been totaled at the parking area. Apparently some drunk person going super fast toward the Indian Reservation lost control and litterally totalled 12 cars. Luckily ours was not one of them. And no one was hurt. But, I'm sure lots of people returned exhausted from backpacking to find their car had been towed in the middle of NOWHERE. We got in our car and did a little more sight seeing- we drove through Forks on the 4th... drove actually through the middle of their parade... OOPS... ate lunch in Port Angeles... took pictures in front of Bella Italia "home of Bella & Edward's first date"! Hopped back on the Ferry to Seattle.... and on to our B&B for the next two night.

Days 6-8 we stayed at the Pensione Nichols B&B. It was a really cool place! We went out for the fourth and watched Fireworks at Lake Union, saw an antique boat show, at some late-night fish tacos, ate sushi every day, woke up to a great breakfast at the Inn, went shopping, spent more time at the Market, drank some really BAD beer and some really GOOD beer. We were so sad to fly back home to reality!

Seattle is most definitely a place we hope to return to and would reccommend anyone going to. We had a fabulous time!!! We would like to return to go to Mount Rainier, which we only saw from a distance when "the mountain was out". :) We have 1500 hundred pictures to prove we had a great time! :)