Happy honeymooners come from California
The Monday after the wedding, I went back to work and Tommy began preparing for graduation. We still had a week or so living in his old apartment so I was pretty much living out of a suitcase just to get by. After our long work days, we would then go to pack up my old room/our new stuff each night in preparation for the big move...needless to say, the week after the wedding was just as hectic (if not more) as the week before the wedding. Also, we hadn't really done any extensive planning for our trip so we used any extra time we had to finalize some form of route. Near mid-week we had our plan: land in San Francisco, drive Highway 1 down the coast as far as we could make it, and then book it back to San Francisco to explore. It was an added bonus that we were going to get to stay with Tommy's uncles on our last few days in the city. With the larger pieces of our trip planned, we relaxed. Friday rolled around and it was graduation day for Tommy, the day before we leave, and um...packing day. This is where I'd like to say "please don't judge, I swear we're more organized" like I was able to earlier, but in terms of packing, that is just my style. Our day went as follows: graduation, followed by a celebration dinner, and then back to our grandparent's house for dessert and more celebrating. I share this timeline to point out the fact that the day was pretty much consumed with partying...not packing. Now we found ourselves at 10 o'clock at night with not one stitch of clothing in a suitcase. My sister-in-law was helping me pack by sorting through my total wreck of a closet/room at my parent's house while Tommy and my brother began packing our camping gear (yes, camping gear...on our honeymoon...we'll get to that later). A few meltdowns later, we were packed, and at four in the morning my brother and sister-in-law drove us to the airport. Off we were to the golden coast!
We landed in San Francisco around two o'clock pacific time, but to our stomachs it was five o'clock and we had missed lunch. We were exhausted from the night before, starving (hunger is our kryptonite), and now we had to get our luggage and figure out how to obtain a rental car. I feel the need to add that neither one of us had ever rented a car before. When we reached the airport rental car hub we found ourselves standing in the midst of a ton of other travelers, and we were trying to do research on our phones to find the best company to rent from. After finally choosing Budget, we had to stand in an obnoxiously long line where we eventually got our little SUV and hit the road.
#meadadventures tip: as soon as you book your plane tickets, book your rental car as well. It helps if you know someone who has a Costco membership because booking through them saves you at least 30%. Having the car already rented takes some of traveling stress off of you, lets you find the best deals, and sometimes they even have a line that lets you bypass all of the other travelers who waited to book.
We made it as far as Pacifica until we had to find somewhere to eat...Round Table Pizza. To this day, we will both tell you it was the best pizza we've ever eaten. It could be because it really was the best, or because we were both so hungry that even styrofoam would have tasted good. (I was actually so hungry I didn't give mine time to cool and ended up scalding my tongue so bad that I couldn't taste for 2 days...I told you, hunger is our kryptonite.) After we ate, we stopped at a Safeway and grabbed some granola bars, oranges, and some water jugs just in case our travels put us in a place with no options.
#meadadventures tip: On all of our trips, our first stop is now a grocery store to stock our car with supplies. The most important thing is to have some water in reserve for "worst case scenarios" or if you find yourself at a campsite that doesn't have potable water. Grabbing some form of protein packed food and fruit you don't have to prepare is good too. It all comes in handy for a solid non-fast food breakfast or a snack on the road.
Back on the road and the first stop we came to was Montara State Beach. This was my first experience with the Pacific Ocean. The water was freezing, the waves were bigger than anything I had experienced, and the cliffs surrounding the beach itself were gigantic! Just as I was about to cry at the sheer beauty of it all and take a picture my camera lens caught sight of a man that could be best described as a raisin dipped in a thin coat of chocolate...sun bathing...nude. Moment passed. The rest of that day was spent stopping at a few other state beaches and a light house until we reached Santa Cruz where we decided to stop for the night. After just the first half day on this trip we both knew that we made the right decision for our honeymoon and couldn't wait for the next day.
