honeymoon, check.

We did it. We FINALLY decided on a honeymoon. After a lot of back and forth, we decided on going to Vegas. We finally nixed Mexico last week when we still did not get our passports. We then debated about Palm Springs, but ultimately decided Vegas was the cheapest and best option. We decided that since the all inclusive Mexican vaca is what we actually really wanted to do, we will go on a shorter honeymoon to save some money and (hopefully) go to Mexico for our 1 year anniversary. This way we don't have to go in the dead of summer also. We can wait until November or December of '09 when we will really enjoy the sun.

As far as Vegas goes...

We will be flying out of Milwaukee on Sunday at 8pm and getting in to Vegas at 9:30pm. This is perfect I think. It will give us enough time to sleep in on Sunday morning, catch up with some of our out of town guests and maybe open a gift or two.

We will be staying at The Palazzo in one of their standard suites (which is far from standard in my opinion). Remember this?

There is a sunken in living room in every standard suite. And you see that table in the far right hand corner of the picture? I'm pretty sure it is for honeymooners to have a room service brunch on the first day of their honeymoon.

Hopefully we will catch a couple shows, sit by the pool and we'll have some yummy and fancy meals. I'm also kind of hoping we will get an upgrade if we tell them we are on our honeymoon. We also get the following specials:

- $20 Food Credit at the 40/40 Club, ( Jay-Z's Sports Bar)
- $25 Slot Credit or Match Play
- Complimentary dessert with purchase of an entree at Morels, a French Steakhouse and Bistro (this place looks muy expensivo, so I'm not sure it we will take advantage of this)
- Complimentary dessert with purchase of an entree at Dos Caminos, a Mexican restaurant obviously

And besides all that, just look at how much fun people have there! :) This lady can hardly contain herself.

Our flight leaves Vegas on Thursday night at midnight and gets in to Milwaukee at 5am on Friday. (Mom, I hope you are ready to pick us up at the crack of dawn!!)

This gives us 3 whole days to be back home, get situated and relax before we have to go back to work on Monday.

We are actually really excited about this. It wasn't our first choice, but we are going to make it as romantic and special as possible. It's kind of awesome to now not only look foward to the wedding, but also to going on a fun vacation. Can't wait!

honeymoon rollercoaster

You want to know what is DE-pressing? The gas prices and its effect on the price of traveling. So much that it is almost not worth traveling. Not even to the desert in the summertime.

We are procrastinators and decided that when it came to getting passports, why do it now, when we can do it later? Since it is now T-63 days until the wedding/honemoon, I think we are cutting it a little close to get the passports in our hot little hands before the big day. I know we can rush them, but then we are just spending a lot of exta money to get it in time and we might as well just stay domestic and spend that extra money on something we can enjoy. Even if we still did go through with getting the passports, I feel nervous booking a passport required vaca without having one yet.

So, I started looking into other options. Remember back when I thought it would be fun to go to California? Turns out that was a pretty expensive idea 4 months ago, so I don't even want to think about what the prices would be like now. We also nixed a lot of those ideas because we were really looking to do as little activity as possible on the honeymoon.

A couple weeks ago, I got an email from The Palazzo in Vegas about their special summer rates. $159 for a 720 square foot room with a sunken in living room. I think that might be bigger than our apartment, and I love Vegas. I was feeling optimistic. The Palazzo is The Venetian's brand new tower/resort. It opened in March I think, so it really is brand new. Check it out

I thought it was a fantastic deal and maybe we should consider Vegas.

The drawbacks:

• It's not terribly romantic (or it could be!)
• we have both been there multiple times (we were hoping to go somewhere neither of us had been)
• we would probably pay close to the same amount for this trip as we would to go to an all-inclusive
• it will be HOT...and that might even be an understatement.

The positives:

• We love it there!
• The restaurants are amazing and we could treat ourselves to a couple really nice meals
• I love a show...and they have plenty to choose from
• The room. It would be amazing. I imagine getting room service and eating it in our sunken living room :)
• the Bellagio fountains. I will never tire of them.
• The pool areas. They have lounge chairs built in the pools. (this could also be a negative if it is too hot to lay by the pool)

So last week, the prices for flights hovered around $250 per person.

Today?

$359!

Three hundred and fifty nine mother f'n dollars. Why? Why? Why? Why? (I'm sorry. I never swear)

I don't know what to do now. Wait for last minute deals? Still go to Vegas, but don't stay at the luxurious Palazzo? (That doesn't seem as cool to me.) Still try for the passport and go to Cabo (our first choice)?

And don't even say go to Door County. It's not happening.

honeymoon ideas

Well, we found a dj. I now feel like the big, necessary vendors have been chosen. We now need a form of transportation and...a honeymoon! This has been pretty fun for me so far because I love planning trips. Even when I have no trip on the horizon, I like to go to tripadvisor.com or frommers.com and check out places I'd want to go and plan fake trips. Its great. For real, it is. For our honeymoon, we initially thought going to an all inclusive resort was the obvious choice. Neither of us have ever been to one and the relaxation, beach, cocktails, having nothing to do aspect of them was very appealing. The problem here lies in the date of our wedding: August 9th, the beginning of hurricane season. Now, normally I don't think this would worry me or concern me much. However, we got stuck in Florida a couple years ago during a hurricane and my friend's honeymoon got all messed up last year because of hurricanes. So basically, I just don't want to take our chances with anything southern and/or carribean. **tears streaming down my face** This has led me to some creative thinking and I have come up with some alternate plans. Our only requirements is that it is a place neither of us has been and will offer relaxation and ideally an ocean. So I bring you our options:

1. Central California: Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur

I have wanted to go to Big Sur ever since I saw that episode of Six Feet Under when Brenda and Nate get married on a cliff there. SO beautiful! I've done some extensive research on this area. All three of these cities, along with Pacific Beach and Pebble Beach are very close to one another and are usually visited in one trip when people vacation there. The area is very quaint and rich with artists, has a couple state parks and reserves, beaches, cute little boardwalks, restaurants, shops and beautiful scenery. We would stay in Monterey or Carmel, spend a couple days probably just lounging on the beach and relaxing. We'd have a couple nice dinners and we would take one day to travel to Big Sur spend the day checking it out (it's about a half hour away I think). Aside from these pics, I have seen plenty of peeps chillin on the beach also, which is probably what we would spend most of our time doing.

Pros: beautiful area, no weather issues to worry about.

Cons: Might not be the relaxing trip we are looking for if we end up seeing a lot of the sights.

Cannery Row - In Monterey (The ocean is right in the distance)

Carmel-by-the-Sea - cute paths right on the beach

Look how cute these little shops are in Carmel...I can't stand it!

A view of coastal Big Sur

2. Palm Springs

I know, I know, it will be HOT there in August (Avg high = 107, Avg low = 76). But!! I feel like as I read about it, it is like Vegas without all the craziness and contant stimulation. There are huge resorts with tons of pools and restaurants, like Vegas, which I love. There are outlet malls, golf courses, casinos, spas, etc. It is loaded with Hollywood history (love that stuff) and every Thursday night they have this thing alled Village Fest where there are musicians, food, arts and crafts vendors, and a Farmers Market. It kind of sounds like the sunset celebration on Mallory Square in Key West. ..and we loved that. This also happens to be the home of the Viceroy...the hotel where the most out of control coordinated wedding took place that I saw on theknot.

Pros: It will be the off season, so the rates are great. It will be the ultimate in relaxation. The closest to what an all inclusive would offer I think...without the ocean and the unlimited food and booze.

Cons: The weather. Not near an ocean.

You can take a tram ride through Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Coachella Valley, Mt San Jacinto's Chino Canyon, etc. I will note that these tram/ski lift things are my least favorite things in the world. I feel as though at any minute, it will fall off the cable and I will fall to my death. I will however, force myself to do this if we did the honeymoon here.

This is the Marriott resort, which I guess is the most expansive of the resorts (and yes, I mean expansive, not expensive)

3. SoCal - The O.C (Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach)

Not going to lie...MTV had a huge impact on this decison. Who is going to tell me that Laguna Beach and Newport Beach don't look adorable though?! Remember the views from LC's house?? Yes, it was awesome. Besides the slim chance I could run into a Laguna Beach High School alum, this area also has a lot of shops, restaurants, art galleries (not sure if I even really love art galleries though)and great beaches.

Pros: Great beaches. Quaint towns.

Cons: May involve a lot of driving, might not be very relaxing.

Laguna Beach

Newport Beach - another cute little beach town like Laguna, only Newport is part of the Balboa Penuinsula and close to Balboa Island and Catalina Island. Balboa Island is where the frozen banana stand was located on Arrested Development...and that is the only reason why I know of Balboa Island...and now I think I need to read more books. It is a hip and cool beach town with trendy cafes and surf shops. We could rent tandem bikes and take them for a spin. Oh! and good news! Summer is the best time to visit Newport Beach apparently. The beach crowd is relatively small because the peninsula is located somewhat off the beaten track. The car traffic is minimal also, which makes for great bike travel. Riding along the boardwalk is fun and a great way to check out some of the most expensive real estate in Southern California.

Catalina is described a quaint island escape in the Pacific, framed by crystal-clear waters, picturesque beaches and rolling foothills, boutiques, galleries, etc. The island can be toured by golf cart, which would also remind me of Key West.

Newport Beach

Balboa Island

Catalina Island

Huntington Beach is known as "surf city", it has a great beach with that famous Municipal pier that kind of reminds me of the Santa Monica pier. I am sure we would just spend the days here parked on the beach watching the surfers.

And another shot of the beach during a surfing competition...

So, what do you think? Been to any of these places? Recommend or not recommend any? Any suggestions I might not have thought of? I'd love some input.