We're on a roll! San Antonio: Done!

Yes, we booked another hotel last night - this time in San Antonio, Texas.  Our second stop on our Honeymoon.

We have booked the Drury Plaza Hotel Riverwalk and managed to bag a 2 room jacuzzi and terrace suite with a king size bed! Nice!

The hotel used to be the Alamo Bank and when it was renovated they kept a lot of the building's old characteristics.  The lobby looks amazing!

The location is pretty awesome.  It sits right on the Riverwalk so we'll be really close to loads of different restaurants and shops.  We also close to the Alamo, I can't work out whether we'll be able to walk it but a taxi certainly won't cost that much.

There is a pool on the roof and they serve complimentary food and drink every evening.  In fact I had to giggle when I received the confirmation email.

"Join us for free hot food and cold beverages at the 5:30 Kickback. Sunday through Thursday, enjoy a rotating menu of chicken strips, egg rolls, hot dogs, charbroiled meatballs and more. Start a great Friday or Saturday night with hot dogs and chili. And every night, you will find baked potatoes, salad, beer, wine and mixed drinks available."

It sounds so Texan!

I'm so excited about visiting San Antonio I don't think either of us have to anywhere like it before.  I'm looking forward to strolling around the Riverwalk, trying the local food and picking up little souvenirs from the shops.  Hopefully the weather will still be nice enough for us to sit outside sipping our drinks as we watch the world go by.  Sounds like heaven!

New York: Done

We booked our first hotel for the honeymoon last night!  Yay!

We felt a degree of urgency around booking our hotel in New York as we'll be staying over Thanks Giving.  We're aware it's a busy time and really didn't fancy the struggle of finding a decent hotel because we'd left it too late.

So we picked the Wyndham Garden Hotel Times Square South.

The hotel is situated close to Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, and a few blocks from the Empire State Building.  I believe some rooms in the hotel provide wonderful views of the Empire State Building.

The rooms look comfortable and the beds look huge!

We always thought we would stay at the Casablanca Hotel for our honeymoon and as nice as that hotel is, we felt that our money was going to go a little further at the Wyndham Gardens.  We obviously want to stay in nice hotels on our honeymoon but we also recognise that whilst in New York we really won't be spending much time there.  We'd much rather save our money and splurge a little in Hawaii.

Having been to New York a few times before we have already done most of the famous sites.  But there are still a few favourites we have to do, including Rockefeller Center.  I love the views from up there.  In my opinion it's the best way to see the city.  You have an amazing view of the Empire State, Central Park and on a clear day the Statue of Liberty.

We also - without a shadow of a doubt - have to visit Virgil's.  When any body asks me my recommendations on things to do in New York I always say "Visit Virgil's"  We've eaten there every time we've been, at least twice on every trip.  It's nearly always busy but it's definitely worth waiting for.

It's a laid back restaurant and bar that delivers the most mouth watering food I have ever tasted.  Their macaroni cheese is to die for!  We always end up ordering far too much and come away with bellies double the size than when we walked in, but it's worth it.

Every time we go to New York we always take in a game of some sort.  Usually the Knicks (basketball).  We're planning this time to get tickets to see the New York Giants (American Football).  Tickets will be realised soon so we'll hopefully get our hands on a pair.

If we're not watching a game, our evenings are usually spent on Broadway.  We've seen some amazing shows, such as Spamalot, Beauty and the Beast, The Phantom of the Opera, Evil Dead the Musical and Young Frankenstein. 

This time we reeeeally want to see Rock of Ages, Green Day's American Idiot (problem being at the moment these two are only running until September - they need to do well for them to continue longer) and Spiderman.

There are a couple of other things I'd like to do whilst in New York that we haven't done before.  I want a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery.   This is non negotiable!  I need one!  I'd also really like to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.  I'm not sure how likely this is seeing as New York is our last stop and we'll probably be exhausted but I've heard the views from the Brooklyn side of Manhattan are amazing (plus there is a really nice ice cream stand just off the bridge) I suppose we could always take the train across but I should imagine there is something quite satisfying in saying you've walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

We'll also have the opportunity to see the Macy's Day Parade.  This is something I have always wanted to see.  It will mean we have to get up relatively early to get a good spot but I don't mind as long as we see it!  I believe a lot of attractions are closed on Thanks Giving, so we'll have to plan our day so we have plenty to see and do.  We'll also have to book a table quite a way in advance I've heard Opentable.com is quite a good resource.

The Friday after Thanks Giving is also known as Black Friday a date hard core shoppers will know well!  It marks the first day of Christmas shopping, retailers often open early and reduce goods heavily.  I'm sure we'll get involved and hopefully pick up a few bargains!

Our honeymoon all seems to be coming together quite nicely now.  We're pretty certain on our Honolulu hotel and have found options for our other stops. We're both getting pretty excited now and can't help but talk about things we want to see and do whilst we're away.

Has has worked so hard on planning of our honeymoon, making it the best he possibly can.  It's going to be awesome! I can't wait - our first holiday as husband and wife!

Seattle

It's funny because Seattle only became an option when we had planned to go to Alaska.  It was one of the only places we could get a direct to or from within the mainland USA.  During the early stages of planning we looked in to the city just enough to decide whether or not it would suit us.  Has mentioned to me this morning he didn't really know what we were going to do once we were there.

We are both aware of the cities musical background as some of our favourite bands came straight out of Seattle.  We'd love to do a grunge tour and see the venues that had bands such as Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains play.  I could be wrong but I don't think there is an organised tour, we would have to put in a lot of research and create our own, which could be a lot of fun!  Notable places would probably include The Crocodile and The Central Saloon.  We could also visit the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum which is dedicated to the history of both music and science fiction.

We couldn't travel all that way without visiting the Space Needle, 184 metres high the Space Needle is probably Seattle's most famous landmark.  At the top sits the Sky Cafe, which rotates 360 degrees as you eat!  The menu is a little on the pricey side but hey you're only on honeymoon once!

source

Pike Place Market is home to the first ever Starbucks Cafe.  If you know me and Has you'll know that Starbucks (however cheesy) played rather a large part in our relationship.  It seems fitting to visit this store on our honeymoon.  As well as the famous coffee chain Pike Place also has plenty of restaurants, stalls, shops and bars to keep us busy.  If we're peckish I've heard good things about the Three Girls Bakery, mmmmm cake!

Source

 (Mine's a tall hot chocolate with whipped cream, Has' is a grande cappuccino!)

Seattle has a secret world right underneath the streets! After the Great Seattle Fire in 1889, city leaders decided that they would rebuild the city 2 stories above the previous level. In 1965, Bill Speidel established Bill Speidel's Underground Tour  You can now take tours underneath the city and learn about Seattle's history.  It gets mixed reviews on Trip Advisor but it may be a fun way to spend a few hours.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Seattle has to offer.  We'll be arriving into the city on the red eye from Oahu, where we'll obviously have been taking things very easy, so I think it's a great way for us to get back into the swing before moving on to New York.

NFL fixtures - What games will we see?

The NFL fixtures came out last night.  We were hoping that Has' team the Oakland Raiders would play at home when we were in San Francisco.  Unfortunately the Sunday we are there is their "day off" (typical!) However the San Francisco 49ers will be playing the St Louis Rams.  The cool thing about seeing the 49ers play at home is a week before our wedding we will be going to Wembley to watch them play the Denver Broncos.

Also my team the New York Giants are playing at home on Sunday 28th November.  The day we leave to come home.  Our flight isn't until late so we'll try and get tickets to see the Giants play the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Providing we get tickets I'll be able to cross off number 16 on my 30 before 30 list

In other Honeymoon news - it looks like we'll be making a decision and booking our New York hotel by the end of the week!  Eek!

source

The Moana

One of my jobs for April was to research honeymoon hotels.  So, what do you think of this one?

The Moana Surfrider in Honolulu. Also known as "The First Lady of Waikiki" the first beach front resort opened in 1901, the re-opened in 2007 as a Westin hotel.

The location is perfect for us, it's central without being too busy.  We won't be renting a car for our stay as I've heard parking in Waikiki is a nightmare and expensive.  The buses will suit us just fine.

I love the colonial style furnishings, it all looks so grand and elegant.

Another plus point is that this hotel is a Westin,  which means it comes with Heavenly Beds!!  We stayed in a Westin when we went to Orlando a few years ago, and I seriously can't tell you how amazingly comfortable they are.  They really do live up to their name!  When I win the lottery I'm getting one of these bad boys!

Although we won't be slumming it on our honeymoon, we have a budget to keep to. However Honolulu is somewhere we've both decided we'd like to really treat ourselves.  

Ideally we want an ocean view room with a balcony.  I can envisage us ordering room service for breakfast (french toast for me please!) and sitting in the morning sun on our balcony planning out the rest of the day.  Bliss.

We're pretty sure this will be our Honolulu honeymoon hotel, we should be able to book the majority of our hotels by the end of the month.  Once that's done there'll be no stopping us!  How real will it all feel then!

San Francisco

All the blogs I read are telling me Spring is here...  I'm not convinced (Although I did go the whole day yesterday believing the clocks had gone forward and my mobile phone had "auto-corrected" the time whilst I was asleep... no I'm not a natural blonde!)

Outside is grey, dull and rainy.  It feels like ages since I've seen the sun, in fact we had a discussion in the office about the last time we had seen a beach.  Sunday 6th December in Rhyl.  It was freezing!  Before that I can't remember!

To cheer myself up I've been looking at pictures of the places we'll be going on our honeymoon.  Yes, not everywhere we go will allow us to wear shorts and t-shirts, but none the less it's cheered me up.  I feel like I need a holiday but today November seems a million miles away.

I found posts about San Francisco on the English Muse, which instantly lifted my spirits

from here

I visited San Francisco in 2002 with my family when we travelled around California for 3 weeks and loved it. We flew into San Francisco and had only 1 full day to explore the city.  We took the boat to Alcatraz, walked around Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 to see the famous sea lions and queued for what seemed like hours to travel via cable car (worth it!)

I'm really excited about going with Has.  He's never been but I think it's a city he will love.  I think the main reason Has wants to go is because his NFL team The Oakland Raiders play only 20 minutes away and he's hoping he'll get to see a game!  Despite this I know he'll feel the same way about San Francisco as I do.

We'll have the weekend to spend in the city and there is loads I want to see, do and explore.  Lombard Street, The Painted Ladies, Union Square, Chinatown, and Golden Gate Park just to start with!

A lady in my office kindly sent me this link 24 hours in San Francisco, definitely liking the idea of walking across the Golden Gate Bridge then stopping off at the Atlas Cafe for hot chocolate and a pastry!

San Antonio

Now all our honeymoon flights are booked I can't help but get excited!  I know it's still a while away yet, but that hasn't stopped us talking about hotels we like the look of and things we want to see and do whilst we're away.

It's been a long hard journey to get us to this point with many changes along the way, so it's a huge relief to finally get to the stage where the plan has been worked out and finalised.

One destination that was added quite late on in the planning was San Antonio.  We always knew we wanted to visit Texas and had considered Houston and Austin.  It really came down to where we could get direct flights to and from.  I actually suggested San Antonio to Has after reading a post from a blog I read. Heather Drive.  We quickly fell in love with the idea of seeing the second largest city in Texas and as San Antonio is situated so close to the border of Mexico is no surprise to find a lot of Tex-Mex restaurants, a type of food we adore!  We also love the idea of seeing two very different cities in one state, Dallas and San Antonio.

We will probably end up staying quite close to the River Walk or Paseo del Rio.  20 ft below street level, this amazing place stretches through Downtown and is lined with shops, restaurants, bars and hotels.

from here

I can imagine us sitting on the rivers' edge enjoying a big plate of Tex-Mex food!  Seriously we're going to come back 2 stone heavier!  One place that has been recommended is Mi Tierra an award winning restaurant with an amazing looking menu... I've just had my lunch but even now I'm thinking about Enchiladas Verdes de Pollo!

Something else we intend to see is the Alamo.  How could we go all that way and be so close to the Alamo and not visit! 

from here

I'm really looking forward to visiting San Antonio, I think it will be quite unlike any place we've ever been before.  We're only there for 3 nights before flying off to San Francisco but I really think it's really going to make an impression on us.

If anyone has been before we'd love to hear recommendations on what to do, where to eat and what to see!

Hunamoon flights booked!

So today we finally made up our minds and settled on our honeymoon schedule.  After a lot of humming and harring we've decided to not to go to Anchorage.  Although it's somewhere we both desperately want to visit we feel like we wouldn't be doing it any justice.  If we had kept it into our schedule it would have meant we would have had limited time in both Anchorage and Honolulu.  Instead we have decided to spend an extra few days relaxing in Honolulu before moving on to Seattle.

We plan to go to Anchorage at some point in our future and hopefully spend enough time visiting the places we want to and not have to rush to move on to somewhere else.

Once we came to this decision it meant that we could book ALL of the remaining flights!  That's right!  Every single step of our honeymoon has now been booked.  Phew!

It has been something of a labour of love for Has.  He's spent so many hours working on this honeymoon trying to fit in everywhere we wanted to visit at the best price.  It's been something that has dominated our thoughts for a while now, especially the question of whether to take out Anchorage or not and now that's it's been decided we can both finally get excited about our 100% certain schedule!

So here it is in full.

1. Sunday 7th November - Arrive in Dallas, Texas - The honeymoon begins!
2. Tuesday 9th November - Leave Dallas via a Greyhound coach for San Antonio
3. Friday 12th November - Off to San Francisco with flowers in our hair.
4. Monday 15th November - Aloha Honolulu!
5. Saturday 20th November - We catch the red eye (yawn!) to Seattle
6. Wednesday 24th November - We leave for New York for Thanks Giving.
7. Sunday 28th November - Bye bye honeymoon - Hello married life!

Can.Not.Wait!

I'll take it!

I've been after a black parka for our honeymoon for a while now, I spotted this in the sale section when I was out shopping in H&M.  It didn't have a label on so I wasn't sure of the price or size but when I tried it on it fit perfectly.  I took it to the till to ask the price and couldn't say "I'll take it" quick enough when it showed up as £15.  Even better when I checked my receipt to find at full price it was £50!

I love shopping like that!  Let's hope all my other essential honeymoon wardrobe items are as cheap and easy to find!

Honeymoon Wardrobe

I've been thinking a lot about our honeymoon lately, and worrying slightly about the amount of clothes I want to take and the amount of clothes I'll be able to take!

With spring/summer clothes now hitting the shops, it's the perfect time to grab a few key items ready to take with me.  I've done some searching around and found a few things I really like.  I've done 2 boards, one for the warm weather and one for cold!

I found it funny how the colours of the clothes are all very similar!  I only noticed this as I was saving the images so it wasn't intentional!

First up, a selection of clothes for the cooler cities we shall be visiting.

I should imagine I'm going to live in jeans, denim skirts with tights/leggings and warm cardigans and jumpers.

from top left to right

Black wild rose frill dress from Debenhams, Cropped bow cardigan from New Look, Shoe sequin crew top from Oasis, Heart Boyfriend Cardi from Oasis, 70 Denier tights from New Look, Sophie wash garnet jeans from Oasis, Raw edge denim mini skirt from New Look. Boyfriend Cardi from New Look, Bench Parka from Bench, Boyfriend sweater from New Look, Purple ribbed long cardi from ASOS.

For the warmer parts of our honeymoon I've found these...

from top left to right

Cotton slip cami from Oasis, Studded pleat neck check top from Oasis, Navy lace bib top from Dorothy Perkins, Ladder tiered sundress from Topshop, Dallas wash denim knee short from Oasis, Belle bow dress from New Look, Marled boyfriend cardigan from ASOS, Button detail strappy dress from ASOS, Purple twist back muscle vest from Miss Selfridge, Aqua crinkle vest from Miss Selfridge, Khaki ditsy tiered skirt from Dorothy Perkins

The nice thing is a few of these items can be worn whether it's hot or cold.  I already have a few staple tops and skirts I'll be taking but it's always nice to treat yourself to a few new pieces when you go away!  Now shoes...!

Spring time!

It feels like Spring has arrived this morning with beautiful blue skies and sunshine, I'm not sure how long this is going to last but it's nice to see the sun!

I can't believe March is here already... this year seems to be flying by, which is scary!  In January I made a list of things to do and said I would do this ever 3 months.  It really helped me to get a lot done, I work best when I have a schedule and I enjoy having something to tick off.

I have done most of the items on my list, the only thing I'm behind on is the Hen Party.  I'm not too worried about it, because we still have plenty of time to finalise details.

In February we have...

Registered with John Lewis and we have received our gift list cards to put in with our invitation (I may have also searched around on the John Lewis website making a mental list of things I'd like!)

We've obviously attended Suzie and Rob's wedding!

We have started to think about songs we can use during the ceremony and wedding breakfast, Has has put together a little play list of songs on his laptop.  We'll often have little chats about what songs to use during our journey to and from work and we have quite a few we'd like to hear down on our list now.

Honeymoon flights... well we're holding off for a little while to see if the price comes down.  I'm not convinced they will but Has keeps checking.  We'll hopefully have the flights from Honolulu to Anchorage, Anchorage to Seattle and Seattle to New York booked up soon.  Then it will just be a case of booking the coach from Dallas to San Antonio and then the flight from San Antonio to San Francisco.

I think there will be a lot going on in the next few months.

March (8 months to go)

• Attend the National Wedding Fayre at the NEC this weekend with the intention of looking for Bridesmaid dresses.
• Look into the possibility of having the bridesmaid dresses made and contact local dress makers.  (John Lewis provide a list of local dress makers, so I'll be calling a few of those)
• Start to make up our day invitations.  I still need to decide on an outer design but I shall be working on a few ideas and will hopefully start to make those up.
• Book remaining honeymoon flights.
• Try on MY dress! (It came in to the shop last September but I haven't tried it on yet!)
• Providing weather is nice work on chalk board place cards.

April (7 months to go)

• Finish work on the day invitations
• Work on design for evening invitations
• Work on Hen Party details
• Work on secret bridesmaid gift project.
• Continue work on song choices for ceremony, wedding breakfast and reception

May (6 months to go)

• Look for rings
• Make enquiries into men's suit hire
• Help Mom start the search for her outfit
• Buy 2 more Martini vases for table centre pieces (One got broken and we need a spare), We also need to buy a few rolls of organza for decorating the ceremony room.
• Make up boxes for popcorn on candy table - I bought a stencil to make small popcorn shaped boxes. They will probably take a while to make but once they're done they'll be easy to stack and store.

We also have 2 weddings to attend in April and May, we've been to more weddings in the past 6 months than   we have in our entire lives!  I love it though, they make me so excited for our day!

I want to try and get as many of my DIY projects done as soon as possible, I really don't want to be working on them last minute.  I'm sure I'll probably end up with a few more items on that list but at least it gives me something to work from.

Magnolia Bakery

Made famous by Sex and the City, Magnolia Bakery has opened up a new stand in Grand Central Station.  When ever we've been to New York we always say we'll go to one of the stores but as of yet we still have not tried one of these famous little cupcakes!

from here, here and here

Seeing as we're usually based around Grand Central Station and tend to hop on and hop off the subway stop there we shall have no excuse not to drop in for a few cupcakes on our honeymoon!

Honolulu here we come!

The weak dollar has put a stop to our honeymoon flight shopping spree* but it hasn’t stopped me thinking about what we’ll be doing once we get there!

As well as Dallas our other 100% booked destination is Honolulu. It was touch and go as to whether we’d make it to the Hawaiian Island of Oahu for various reasons but we finally booked our flights from San Francisco a few weeks ago. By far the highlight of the honeymoon planning, I danced around the room singing “Oh we’re going to Oahu” in the style of the annoying Venga Boys “Ibiza” tune.

Hawaii and Alaska have always been two states I have always wanted to visit. When we first started planning our honeymoon New York, Alaska and Hawaii were the first ones mentioned.

I’d love to go back to Hawaii at some point in the future and visit the less touristy islands of Hawaii like Maui, Kauai and Lanai but for now I’m more than happy with Oahu. I think it will be a lovely introduction to Hawaii.

On of the first things I decided we should do was snorkel in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve. A protected marine cove formed within a volcanic crater. We will be able to snorkel with the Green Sea Turtle! The area is protected and guests are not allowed by law to touch or interfere with the marine animals or the coral. Funnily enough Has’ parents visited Hanauma Bay on their trip to Oahu some years ago! I think it will be such an amazing experience.

from here

Another thing to do which was high on my list was hiking Diamond Head. Part of the complex cones and peaks of the Honolulu Volcanic Series which makes up most of Oahu’s well known landmarks including Hanauma Bay. I’ve read quite a lot about the hike and most people suggest starting out quite early in the day to avoid the climb in midday heat. It has been said the hike is hard work but achievable and well worth it for the panoramic views of Honolulu.

I’ve always been interested in geology, especially volcanoes so to actually climb one has always been a goal of mine.

from here

One of the things Has wants to do is a movie tour. I’ve mentioned it before but Has is a huge film buff! Scenes from his favourite film, Jurassic Park, were filmed on Oahu as were parts of Lost, Mighty Joe Young and Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

We also want to visit Pearl Harbour, the site of the attack that brought the USA into World War II. The battleship USS Arizona sits on the ocean floor and is visible due to the clear shallow waters. Part of the tour of Pearl Harbour allows you to take a boat to a floating platform directly over the USS Arizona. I shall imagine it will be a very interesting tour.

There are loads of other things we'd love to do whilst we're in Oahu, but we also want to have time to relax and chill out on the World famous Waikiki Beach!  I don't think we'll plan to do too much in Honolulu we'll leave it quite open whilst still having a little plan so we make sure we do everything we want to do.  Perfect... hopefully!

* We usually buy our flights direct with the airline or with Travelocity.com in dollars.

First Stop Dallas

Other than Honolulu, Dallas is our only other definite honeymoon destination, our first stop in fact!

from here

We'll only be staying a few days in Dallas but we will cram as much as we can in to it!  One thing we both desperately want to do is visit the home of the NFL team Dallas Cowboys.  It was renovated in 2009 to the cost of $1.3 billion and is now the largest domed stadium in the world.  We'll be arriving in to Dallas on the Sunday afternoon (match day) so if the Cowboys are playing at home we won't be able to make the game in time, in which case it will be nice to do a stadium tour.

from here

We would also like the visit the Sixth Floor Museum.  Located in the Dallas County Administration Building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John F Kennedy.  It seems a little morbid but I think it could be interesting.

The top must see attraction on Trip Advisor is Dallas World Aquarium, it's also a zoo and an aviary.  We love things like this so I dare say we'll pop in for a visit!

from here

We'd love to see a traditional Texan Rodeo, but I don't think we are there when any are on, we really want to experience the real Texas and although we're limited on time we'll try our hardest.  

We're still looking into Dallas hotels, but as we don't consider this to be urgent we're concentrating all our efforts on sourcing the rest of our flights.  Flight prices seem to change all the time so we need to make sure we have them all booked up at the cheapest possible price.

The author of a blog I read, The Freckled Citizen lives in Dallas but is moving to Washington D.C.  She has listed all the restaurants in Dallas she will miss.  I'm sure this will come in really handy for me and Has.

After doing a little research on what the weather will be like it seems the only answer I get is "Unpredictable"   The advice is to layer clothes so you can add or remove clothes when the temperature changes.  

If anyone has ever been to Dallas and can offer us some recommendations or tips they'd be very welcome!

February? Already!

Wow!  Time is flying by!

I've been looking at my "to do" list I made at the start of the year to make sure I'm on track.  So far I'm doing pretty well.
I've made my hair appointment for the wedding day, looked at potential hair styles for me and my bridesmaids, I met Sarah from Blue Door Bakery and spoke extensively about cupcakes, emailed my friends about "Hen and the City" and booked our flights from San Francisco to Oahu!

Well today I crossed off two more things from my list.

First of all I registered our gift list with John Lewis, we don't have to decide on what we want yet but at least it's all set up ready for us to zap our way around the shop!

Has: "What does this do?"
Laura: "I have no idea?  Lets get it!"
Zap!

Also today I sent off our deposit to Sarah at Blue Door Bakery to confirm our booking for our yummy wedding cupcake tower!

This is the tower we saw at the wedding fayre at Stone Manor Hotel.  Ours will look really similar but with a giant cupcake on top!

I want to try and make the chalkboard placecards this month too, I now have all the things I need after buying 4 more packs of wooden hearts from Hobbycraft this weekend, so there's nothing really stopping me!

Last night Has found the flights for Honolulu to Anchorage, Anchorage to Seattle and Seattle to New York so we should be able to get those booked up soon too!  Full steam ahead!

Oh! We're going to Oahu!!

Aloha!

After all the problems we initially had with booking our flights to Oahu we thought that we might not make it.  Tonight we managed to book our flights from San Francisco to Honolulu! Yay!  We used Travelocity.com and managed to get the flights at a really reasonable price!

I'm so excited!

Mahalo Travelocity!

Laula & Hakana x

Our Hawaiian names!

Honeymoon Wardrobe

I bought two new tops today from Oasis my absolute favourite clothes shop.  I have had my eye on one of the tops for a while now and tried to ignore it.  However today my Oasis urge got the better of me and I walked out of the store a very happy lady, all be it with a lighter purse!

To rationalise these purchases I decided that they will be perfect for the honeymoon.  Of course I'll need to wear them beforehand just to "try them out!"

My Amazing Fiance!

This is honestly how he has spent most nights this week (and last week and the week before...) working out the best routes and prices for our honeymoon.

I love you Huna x

(Apologies for the slushy post!)

Trouble in Paradise...

I'm so disappointed.

Last night Has and I decided to book our flights from San Francisco to Hawaii.  These are probably the most expensive flights of the trip and seem to fluctuate in price every time we visit the website.  Over the last few days we noticed the price was at the lowest it has been and decided to go ahead and book.

We excitedly entered all our personal details but when we came to enter our card details we hit a rather large snag...  Hawaiian Airlines do not accept UK cards.

Instead we have to book through a UK tour operator.  Working in travel I know that the price with Hawaiian Airlines would double with a tour operator because they'd want to make a hefty profit, especially as it's the only option for UK customers.

I've already checked with other websites and it confirmed my thoughts, to fly to Hawaii from San Francisco would cost us over £500 per ticket.  Not going to happen!  I've emailed Hawaiian Airlines but I'm not holding out much hope.

It looks like we'll need to go back to the drawing board and rework another schedule. Sulk!

Oh I do hope we get to see this beautiful, beautiful view of Oahu!

Operation Hunamoon: Stage 1, Complete!

I've taken to calling our Honeymoon, Hunamoon as "Huna" as it's my pet name for Has and yes because I'm a little odd!
This morning (and afternoon)  Has and I booked the flights for the first and last leg of our honeymoon.  We leave Heathrow on the morning of Sunday 7th November for Dallas, Texas and on Sunday 28th November we leave New York via JFK for our return journey home to Heathrow.

I don't think it's sunk in yet that we've actually made a rather large step in realising our dream honeymoon!  It has taken hours and hours and spreadsheet after spreadsheet of planning to even get to this stage.

Our current plan is to get a coach from Dallas to San Antonio.  This takes around 4 hours to get there but i'm actually quite excited about driving through Texas!  From San Antonio we'll fly to San Francisco where we'll hopefully take in an NFL game.  After a few days there we'll fly to Honolulu for some relaxation in the sun. Although knowing us this will probably be as busy as the rest of the honeymoon!  Then it's on to Anchorage, where I'll be praying we see the Northern Lights!!  Then to rainy Seattle for a few days to take in the grunge scene before heading off to New York for Thanks Giving!

Exciting times ahead!!