HONEYMOON! (days 1 &2)

Our professional wedding photos arrived the day before we left on our honeymoon (a week long roadtrip down the coast of California), so, we are going to do things a little backwards. The wedding photos are still being sorted through and Deanna will start posting some of those later today, but the honeymoon photos are ready to roll.

We just got back from California yesterday and had a blast traveling down the coast for about a week. We fit in a lot of stuff, saw some friends and enjoyed not talking about money, weddings, jobs, and all that jazz.

We left on Tuesday, July 29th at 8:45 am to go to the Philadelphia airport. We had a long day of traveling, going on three separate legs, and exploring four of the country's finer airports.
The only highlight to share on this day was the Detroit airport. If you are ever there make sure to check out the connecting tunnel between the A gate and the B & C gates. We have been there before, and always like spending some time being dazzled by the WillyWonka-like lightshow and music. The tunnel is constantly changing colors and has Blue Man Group sounding music playing in it.

Me (Jesse) in the tunnel

The first of many panoramic photos I took by stringing several images together in Photoshop. This is Deanna in the Detroit tunnel. You can click it to see it larger.

We went from Philadelphia, to Detroit, to Salt Lake City, to Arcata/Eureka airport(we are deal hounds, and the more legs the cheaper the fare). We got into our hotel by about 11pm Pacific time. Since we were on Eastern time still it felt more like 2am to us.

We got up in the morning and drove south down Highway 101 to the Avenue of the Giants. This is a large state park area that has some of the largest Redwood trees in the world. We got to go inside a one room house built in the base of one of the trees. We stopped off at a lot of scenic views, and stood next to trees that made us feel like ants. We also drove our rental car through a giant tree.

Jesse in front of really big tree

Deanna in front of another really big tree. This one was over 300 ft tall.


Us in front of our rental car in the middle of the Redwoods

Me confronting one of my childhood (ok, and adult) heroes as we left the Avenue of the Giants
Deanna at the (1st) intersection of Highway 101 and California 1 in Leggett, Ca

After we got through the Redwoods we drove down Ca 1 for a while. Almost immediately after we started on 1 there was a curvy arrow sign telling up the next 22 miles would be winding. It was not lying. We drove up a mountain through constant twists and turns. The steering wheel was not held in a stagnant position during those next 22 miles. It was a little dizzying. But after that we were rewarded with our first look at the Pacific Ocean from a pull off at the top of a big cliff. We drove on for another 20 minutes or so until we happened across the first beach you could actually access by foot and walk about onto. The fog was rolling in as we drove, and the beach was covered in the thick mist. It was really beautiful and made the stop seem very surreal.

Our first beach stop on the trip. Click to enlarge.


Deanna atop a large 30ft rock we climbed on the same beach.
She's trying out her heart shaped honeymoon glasses here.


After exploring the beach for a little while we drove on to Mendocino and got some lunch. It was a cute little artist community that was smaller than I was expecting. It was filled with boutiques, galleries, and eateries. We drove on to Point Arena where we spent the night. We stayed at the Wharf Master's Inn which overlooked the ocean and and pretty fishing pier. It was my favorite hotel of the stay (and maybe Deanna's as well). They were the only ones to wish us congratulations and a happy honeymoon, and had really cute rooms with a nice view. I am just going to post these a day or two at a time since we fit so much in, so check back soon for the following days...