Weddingbee Blog

In case you missed the first installment of our honeymoon recap, we Guinea Pigs went to Amelia Island, FL for a week of sun, relaxation, and fun activities!

We hung out on the beach,

(Mr. Guinea Pig checking out the small creatures living on a sand bar)

relaxed by the poolside blinding ourselves with each others’ paleness,

(where I am embarrassed to admit I was happy to take this time to catch up on the latest Economist and Russian Life. I believe I’ve mentioned I’m a nerd? )

and had several fun adventures (keep reading for those stories) that let us see some wildlife!

(Gopher turtle hiding in the shade of his den)

(Gorgeous peacock - I’d never seen one that was white before)

Two of our most memorable ’activities’ happened on the same day, actually. Here’s a preview of Mr. Guinea Pig preparing for our first fun adventure:

(Sweet red helmet and Secret-Service like ear piece, Mr. GP!)

Any guesses as to what we were about to do?

???

Did you guess an off-road Segway tour of the Fort George State Park hiking/nature trails?! You were right! Which leads me to the aforementioned dorkiest photo ever taken of Mr. GP and me.

(Oh yes. We’re THAT cool)

I can’t lie, we might look like dorks, but this tour was awesome. No silly city tours on dinky Segways for us! Ours had knobby tires to better climb hills, overtake tree roots, and steer in dry leaves. The tour is in partnership with the Florida Park Service, and the headphones were used so that as we took to the trails, our guide could point out things like gopher turtles (see above), alligators (eep!) and other information about the ecological preserve. We also got to stop by the Kingsley Plantation, and on the way back our guide took us on the Advanced Trail because we had caught on so quick. It turns out the Guinea Pigs are natural Segway-ers. Awww yeah.

As soon as we got in the car after the tour, Mr. Guinea Pig turned to me and said, “So, if we sell your motorcycle, do you think we could afford to buy a Segway?” Um, no. First of all, Segways start at like $5,000 (I think). Secondly: N.O. They were reeeaaally fun to ride, though.

After that awesome adventure we thought our day couldn’t get any better, but it turns out Bill and Theresa (the innkeepers at the Fairbanks House Bed & Breakfast, where we were staying) had scored us reservations for a sunset horseback ride on the beach!

Now, my aunt owns a barn, so I have ridden plenty of horses in my day. But Mr. GP? He’s been on a horse all of one time in his life! I was pretty impressed with how willing he was to get on a giant horse named Journey.

(Mr. GP greeting Journey, and probably asking him to behave nicely)

We ambled along the water’s edge for a while comfortably chatting, taking in the ocean air, and watching the sun go down. After a little while, the guide (who took these photos, by the way) let me know that if I wanted to go faster for a bit, I could. So I took off!

(Bye bye Mr. GP. I love you!)

Turns out Journey (Mr. GP’s horse) likes to play follow the leader… can you guess where this is going? Luckily, Mr. GP turns out to be a champion rider and hung on quiet admirably as Journey took him into his first ever canter (= running). We spent the rest of the ride laughing about this, slowly trotting, letting kids pet the horses, and again just chatting in our own little honeymooners world.

(Love this photo in B & W)

We even managed to lean in for a kiss while walking!

(We were pretty pleased with ourselves, I must say)

That was a pretty spectacular day, but what we had in store for the next day was even more amazing in a different way. Way back when, I told you all about Mr. Guinea Pig’s first Best Man, who couldn’t attend our wedding because his wife was due to have their first baby the day after our wedding. Well it turned out that we got the happy news the morning of our wedding that their adorable baby girl was born at 7:12 AM the day we tied the knot!

As luck would have it, they live in Florida. We knew this would be our only chance for a while to see them, so we jumped at the opportunity to take the day and spend some time with them and their one-week-old cutie.

(her skin was so soft, I couldn’t stop running my finger along her arm!)

(all tuckered out, taking a quick nap on her mom)

(how sweet are they?)

It was absolutely wonderful to be able to see our friends - we loved recounting the wedding and showing them the photos people had sent us or put online, as well as hearing about their first week as a 3-person family. While we were all sad they couldn’t physically be at the wedding, K did make an appearance in the best man role that you’ll see when I recap our toasts, and little baby A was a happy reminder of such a joyous day for both our families.

On that wonderful note, our honeymoon was almost over. We spent the last full day relaxing, a little time at the beach, and sadly saying goodbye to all our favorite spots at the Fairbanks House.

(enjoying an evening of champagne on our porch)

The day we flew out of Jacksonville, FL (JAX is the closest airport and is about 30 minutes from Amelia Island), we did a quick detour to check out St. Augustine, FL - the oldest continuously occupied (European established) city in the United States. We didn’t have too much time there, but Mr. GP made sure we checked out the fort, where we confirmed that people in Ye Olden Days were shorter.

(Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine)

Ah yes, one last thing! In a very cute coincidence that kept the Weddingbee hive in my mind our whole honeymoon, these eco-friendly bath amenities were in our room!

(BeeKind!! Photo from here, because I used all the products before I remembered to take a photo!)

This was yet another thing we loved about the Fairbanks House Bed & Breakfast - they are making a concerted effort to be more environmentally conscious by using these toiletries that are made without petroleum products, come in biodegradable packages, and donate part of proceeds to honeybee research; they’ve re-landscaped to use only native, drought-tolerant, wildlife-friendly plants (with a butterfly garden!); and they joined Clean the World, an organization that recycles leftover soap and shampoo (like from hotels and inns) and distributes it to impoverished countries and domestic homeless shelters.

Mr. Guinea Pig and I loved our Florida honeymoon - we got to eat copious amounts of delicious food (there were so many great restaurants on Amelia Island, it seemed), see dolphins, a manatee, and wild horses (on the river tour cruise), turtles, peacocks and alligators (Segway tour), soak in the sun (responsibly with sunscreen!) at the beach and pool, catch up with old friends, ride horses, and take in some history in St. Augustine.

We could not have asked for anything more, and it was such a wonderful start to our marriage!