Honeymooning

Kyle and I decided to use our honeymoon to visit a part of the country that has been on both of our bucket lists for quite some time....the pacific northwest!

On Monday morning we flew in early to Seattle, where we grabbed a rental car and roadtripped it to about two hours north to the small town of Lynden, WA. This was our home base for the week (Thanks Tom for letting us use your timeshare hookup!)

We spent Monday evening just getting our bearings and getting settled. On Tuesday morning we decided to drive in to the larger town close by....Bellingham. This was surprisingly the only day it rained on us!

We walked around town a bit and eventually found a beautiful park that came complete with waterfalls!

Those who are close to me know that apples are one of my most favorite foods ever so you know that we had to find an orchard ASAP!  They were some of the BEST apples I have ever had. I probably should just order apples straight from orchards in the fall and have them shipped!

 

On Wednesday we decided to drive up to Vancouver, BC. It was a pretty easy hour and a half drive. We got an awesome deal on a downtown hotel.

 

 This was our view from the 29th floor!

We spent the majority of the day wondering the city. Vancouver had just enough of an international feel without the culture shock I have experienced in other countries! On Thursday, we explored a bit more before heading back to Washington. For the whole week, we used Yelp to help us pick food and site seeing destinations! We found a delightful french restaurant for brunch on Thursday morning. I had a bit of food anxiety because the menu was mostly in French and when you have a severe food allergy like me...You get worried! I couldn't even use my phone to look things up because I didn't want to pay the outrageous international data charges! ( We didn't need it enough to buy a plan). Luckily I could recognize enough to order what I thought would be pretty safe..a delicious skillet with rib meat, potatoes and eggs. It was amazing!

 Since we were a little late for whale season, we decided to go to the aquarium!

 While we were admiring the beluga whales...These two little girls walked up to the glass and held hands while singing " Baby Beluga...live wild and free..." at the top of their lungs. I was pretty sure my heart was going to explode from all of the cuteness.

If you ever venture up to Vancouver, I highly recommend you check out Stanley Park. This is where the aquarium was located but is also a GORGEOUS park with amazing views of the bay and the downtown landscape. I was too busy admiring with my eyes that I forgot to take a picture. Oops!

We headed home Thursday evening to rest and get ready for our next adventure, San Juan Island!

It was about an hour drive down to catch the ferry on Friday morning. The San Juan Islands include a few islands, but because we were limited in time, we chose to go to just one. The ferry was a gorgeous ride!

We wore our "play clothes" and grabbed some snacks in order to enjoy a full nature day.

 We didn't see any whales but we did see quite a few seals! San Juan Island was honestly one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to.

 

 On Saturday we drove back to Seattle to explore before we flew out on Sunday.

 We visited all of the tourist spots ( Pike's Place Market, Space Needle, etc.). It was unfortunate that it was a Saturday and a mad house every where we went! I loved the vibe of Seattle though. It was really fun to explore!

I have to admit that a honeymoon that relied on a lot of teamwork was a nice test for the beginning of our marriage.  We had to do a lot of communicating to figure out specific plans and figure out how to drive ourselves around unfamiliar cities (especially when we didn't have our phones in Canada!). Kyle has always given me a hard time about my lack of map reading abilities but I think I was doing pretty awesome by the end of the trip. I like to use the "follow your instinct" method. It's genetic. ( Wink, wink mom!)

I'm really excited to be home again and back into our normal routine. There haven't been any major adjustments in our daily life since getting married but there is something special about being an official family. I feel like this is the beginning of this next major part in our lives and I'm so excited to experience it with my best friend!