Weddingbee Blog

I’ve been married for several weeks now. According to the government, the bank, and my job, I’m Mrs. [New Name]. But I still have my old email address, and I sign my old name when I buy something because I don’t have my new ID yet. I’ve gotten a few pieces of mail with my new name on it. It’s so weird, I feel like I’m “in-between”. I’m sure the adjustment will become clearer in a week or so, when I start the new school year with my students and get to be called “Mrs. [New Name]” a few hundred times a day.

Anyway, while I adjust to marriage and wait for our professional photos, I’ll share with you some of my favorite images of our Hawaiian honeymoon.

It was wonderful to “escape” everything and run off to Kaua’i after we were married. The wedding and its accompanying celebrations were intense (in a good way), and some time to decompress was exactly what we needed. Mr. Oyster and I are kind of quiet by nature and I think we were looking for a beautiful place we could rest and relax, without feeling like it was so once-in-a-lifetime that we had to see everything (e.g., Europe, Brazil or any of the other “dream places” we want to go someday).

Upon arrival in Kaua’i, we picked up our car and headed to our rented condo, located on the north shore (in the suburb of Princeville). I was happy that we remembered our little friend…

… who worked remarkably well during our trip and which we couldn’t have done without. Plus, if you have your own and you bring it, you can save $15/day off the rental of one! How crazy. Rental car companies are nearly as bad as the airlines.

Our drive there was accompanied by a beautiful sunset.

We were exhausted from flying 6,000 miles through through 4 cities (thanks, United Airlines!)… so that’s all I remember of our arrival!

I think our first day in Kaua’i was my favorite. I’m not sure why, but it was a very slow, very nice day. We were incredibly tired. We started out by visiting the beautiful and serene Anini beach in the morning. We were camped out right at this spot under a tree, and we walked along the beach and listened to the waves, both of us too tired and happy to say much.

There is a big parking lot where everyone goes, but if you drive just a half mile past that, you can park on the street and have what is basically, if you’re early enough, your own private beach.

Mr. Oyster shows me a shell, and his new wedding band.

This beach, being so close to where we stayed, was our go-to spot. We usually came here in the mornings when we were not interested in driving a long way and wanted some quiet. We also went snorkeling here later on.

We also visited the town of Hanalei, which is small and has lots of eating/shopping opportunities in Ching Young Village. This picture is notable because we’d just found a nice little place to have our lunch outside, when this not-so-great live singer started. He sang the entire time we ate. The music was awkward and terrible, so bad it was funny. Luckily he was in a totally separate area, and could not see us. We still laugh about it. This is Mr. Oyster listening to this guy.

To conclude our nice first day, we had dinner at the Westin Princeville. The restaurant and the grounds are beautiful, and the food was excellent! We went back a couple of times. I didn’t take any photos while we were there, but here’s one:

Up next: A beautiful day in Hanapepe.

*Photo of the Westin from to-hawaii.com