Weddingbee

Okay, I know I never even finished telling you all about the second half of our actual honeymoon — there are just so many pictures of Disneyworld to get through, I haven’t even touched them! But I thought I’d post about our most recent trip together, just to prove that sometimes, a visit somewhere close to home can be just as exciting and meaningful as traveling far away.Our destination: beautiful San Luis Obispo and its surrounding cities, in California. This area is close to home both literally (about three-and-a-half hours’ drive away) and figuratively… Mr. Plumeria and I were both undergrads at Cal Poly University, SLO, and that’s where we first met and began dating. Needless to say, SLO is, and always will be, a special place for us to visit.

Most of the time, we were accustomed to crashing at friends’ places whenever we visited, but on our first trip to SLO since we were married, we decided to turn it into a minimoon. To the average person, SLO might seem pretty boring and uneventful, but it is surrounded by natural beauty and great places to go. For our brief stay, we chose to visit Pismo Beach, about ten minutes away. We used to walk the pier as a couple and sit on the beach on the weekends. A stroll away, downtown Pismo has a multitude of cute beach shops and places to eat, most notably the famous Splash Cafe, with super rich and fresh clam chowder bread bowls. The beach is absolutely gorgeous and a favorite hangout spot for college kids and families alike…

We spent time with friends and hit up a couple of our favorite local spots to eat, but we also spent a good amount of time at the hotel, due to its main attraction: mineral spring hot tubs. We stayed at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort, and we loved it! While the most basic rooms leave something to be desired for a luxurious, romantic vacation, the upgraded suites are truly havens of rest. Here’s a taste of the resort:

The entire resort is sort of nestled in a tree-filled area, so even just driving into the complex, one gets a sense of relaxation. Our room was in one of these buildings.

Inside the suite, the decorations were of good taste, and everything exuded cleanliness…

Mr. P.

And of course, the hot tub — a private one on a small patio right outside our bedroom. Every room at the Resort has one, mostly private. Instead of the normal, brominated water in public tubs, every tub stands empty upon the guests’ arrival, and a couple of taps above the tub allows the user to fill it up with piping hot mineral spring water. The smell of the water is a bit sulphuric and supposedly very cleansing, and Mr. Plumeria and I enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. These tubs were the reason why we wanted to stay there from the start — besides resort rooms, Sycamore Springs also has rent-by-the-hour large hot tubs, hidden in a maze through the forest, that we used to visit with friends during college.

I know it seems like too simple and too short of a vacation, but I think that’s the beauty of it. This trip was one of the nicest we’ve been on together — it was relaxing, because we are so familiar with the area and know where to go and what to do, and yet it was a luxurious vacation, as well. The concept of going on vacation definitely isn’t limited to going somewhere far away and spending a ton.. sometimes, that spark of romance and excitement that comes with “going away” is right in our backyards!

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