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We had an amazing time on our honeymoon! In fact, it ended up being even cooler then we had ever planned. On top of exploring parts of Utah, the Beehive State, we flew over the Grand Canyon and tripled our money in Las Vegas. What can I say, we had some great layovers and quarter slot machines.
I pulled out my passport the other night to send it off for renewal and realized something a little sad. The last stamp in my book is from 2003. I studied two languages and went abroad three times in college. It’s a little startling to realize that I haven’t left the country in almost a decade. The sad fact is that despite telling myself that I wouldn’t let it happen, I’ve become a workaholic. I get to use technology and social media, which make my job pretty enjoyable. It’s not that I don’t travel. I do quite a bit of business travel (enough that I could trade in hotel points for the $200 Pottery Barn gift card I mentioned yesterday). I just haven’t done much leisure travel in recent years. Clearly, I’m really looking forward to our honeymoon.
Mr. Mink, on the other hand, has been to every sunny vacation destination you can think of. Name a tropical island and he’s probably been there. As a result, I told Mr. Mink that he could decide where we’d go, but I had two requests. First, there must be a beach. Second, I want to see dolphins. My response to the idea of swimming with dolphins is a lot like Kristen Bell’s reaction to the idea of meeting a sloth, which you may have seen on the Ellen show recently.
Via The EllenShow Channel on Youtube
For what it’s worth, as an animal lover, I also feel this way about the prospect of meeting a panda, elephant, sloth, sea otter, or seal pup.
Shortly after articulating my two requirements, I thought the dolphin request might be too limiting, so I retracted it, but Mr. Mink said that if I want dolphins, we’ll find dolphins.
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One of the things that has been most exciting to me about our upcoming honeymoon to Costa Rica is that it will be a totally different culture. A different language, even! While I have traveled, I’ve traveled from Canada to England and the USA. Yes, very different countries, and different cultures, but not different in the way I’m expecting Costa Rica to be different. It’s one of the reasons that when we decided to go somewhere tropical, Hawaii was never on the list. I want to try/see/experience totally different things!
Why then, do I find myself thinking thoughts like:
“Ooh, I should remember to pack some of our favourite tea bags!”
“Maybe a box or two of granola bars for snacks?”
Luckily, I hadn’t gotten as far as wondering if I should pack 3 weeks worth of cereal, but that isn’t too far off from those original thoughts.
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I thought February would be a good time to start sharing our honeymoon ideas since, well, who doesn’t like reading about vacations in the dead cold of winter?
Mother Nature seems to have different thoughts, as Philadelphia has experienced uncharacteristically warm weather lately. In fact, I’d take some of the recent weather days for our wedding day!
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| The last time the Turkeys wore their heavy winter coats—January 2 for the Winter Classic |
But back to the honeymoon.
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You might have noticed that throughout my wedding planning, there has been one (pretty huge, if I do say so myself) thing missing:
We are not going on a honeymoon. Not now, anyway. 
For some reason, this doesn’t bother me at all, and I am still super excited about our day. So why no tropical sun? There are a couple reasons, but this is the main one:
I told you about our honeymoon wish list. I told you about the unbelievably smooth booking process through our travel agent. But I have not told you about one minor detail…where are we going?
Since I have already made you wait this long I will not drag it out any longer… we… are…going…to…(ok, I lied, but I’m done now, hehe)…SECRETS MAROMA! It is an all-inclusive resort on Maroma Beach, just south of Cancun in Mexico.
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| Image via Google Maps |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
While I had casually browsed beautiful honeymoon destinations soon after we got engaged, it was a Sunday night when we decided it was time to kick our butts into gear and start making some decisions. By Tuesday night we had everything booked and ready to go. Yes, that’s right, in a mere 48 hours we were able to complete the entirely stress-free process of arranging everything that needed for an amazing honeymoon experience! How is this possible, you ask? The answer, my friends, is simple: A travel agent.
I had never used a travel agent before but we have a family friend who has planned many trips for many different members of my family, including MOH A’s honeymoon last May. So I decided to take a chance and shoot her a quick email. Best move ever. Here’s why:
They are all-knowing: We had no preference in terms of location other than that it be warm and sunny (see our honeymoon wish list). Even when narrowing it down to all-inclusive resorts, there are still about a bagillion options throughout the Caribbean and Mexico. You can do lots of browsing online, but the fact is they all have websites with photo galleries so appealing that you want to book immediately. And even if you find one with good reviews, how do you know that there isn’t one out there with better reviews? How do I know which one is the best? The fact is, I didn’t know. But our travel agent did!
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| Too many choices! Image via AstraMatch.com |
I realize that my posts lately have been a bit all over the place, but in all honesty, that is pretty much where I am in the planning process. We are getting close enough that I have transitioned from trying to think of things to add to my DIY project list to trying to cross things off of said list. But we are far enough out that we are still dealing with nailing down some of the bigger ticket items, including… THE HONEYMOON!
As I sit here on this cold January night wrapped in a fleece blanket, sporting a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up and using Echo as a 9-lb canine heater, I cannot think of a more appealing topic to discuss than our honeymoon plans.
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| Not my most attractive look, but a pretty typical scene here in our apartment. |
When Mr. Dalmatian and I discussed our honeymoon, it was a very quick and easy conversation - a welcomed anomaly in the wedding planning world! To sum up our want list:
1) A Vacation, Not a Trip: This has become an important distinction in our relationship when it comes to travel. The issue came about a few summers ago when we were on a cruise. I was forcing Mr. D to get out of bed to do things like go swimming with dolphins or take a walking tour of Key West. According to him, the presence of alarm clocks and itineraries contradicted the concept of a vacation.
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Now that we had narrowed down islands and the type of resort we were looking for, it was time for some research. We came across a ton of ah-mazing all-inclusive resorts, but unfortunately we had to choose just one. I personally love reading about different resorts, so I’m going to give you guys a bit of a breakdown on some of the places we looked into. I hope you find it helpful! If you’re just interested in seeing where we’re going, then scroll on down to the bottom of the page for the big reveal. 
Here were some of our favorites and why they did or didn’t make the cut:
Sandals, St. Lucia
Pros: My aunt (BM J) honeymooned here with her new hubby just a few years ago. They had nothing but amazing things to say about it. Honestly, that was enough of a selling point for me! There are three different Sandals resorts in St. Lucia, and a shuttle runs back and forth between them so you can enjoy the activities and restaurants at all three resorts. That means tons of variety and things to do. Add in the fact that it’s all-inclusive and adults only? Sign me up!
Image via Sandals Grande St. Lucian
I love me some Honey Moon.
Image via Beer Melodies
Of course I’m also looking forward to this kind of honeymoon:
I discussed the first part of our minimoon here.
We arrived at the Kingsley Inn a little early on our check-in day. We dropped off our bags and decided to head over to Saugatuck to see the town and see what was open. I’ve been to Saugatuck during the summer and it is hoppin’ with people, but on a Monday in January? Not so much. That didn’t matter one bit to us. We drove through the town and already started discussing the things we’d do when we came back in the warmer months.
Although most of the shops weren’t open, several restaurants were, so we decided on The Butler, situated right on the lake.
As the weather in Syracuse seems to have finally decided that it is in fact winter, I can’t help but dream wildly about the amazing time that awaits us on our warm honeymoon! Since I’m dreaming about it all day and night, I figured I should let you in on the details.
So last we talked about the honeymoon, I explained that while we had always thought we’d go to Greece, we just didn’t think it could reasonably happen. After many back and forth conversations that didn’t lead anywhere, we FINALLY agreed on Costa Rica! The decision was helped by a number of bees before me who have gone and only had amazing things to say.
Originally I was dead set on staying at Oxygen Jungle Villas—the place where Mrs. Brooch and Mrs. Lox both honeymooned. Their recaps looked out of this world, and the resort looks to die for!
Photo by Mrs. Lox on Weddingbee
While researching OJV, I came across another little resort in the same area of Costa Rica. TikiVillas Rainforest lodge is a small resort with just five Balinese-style raised bungalows in the heart of the jungle overlooking the ocean. It has been open for just over a year and has gotten some great reviews on TripAdvisor.
Being a tax accountant means that January through April, 15th are just a tad busy. Mr. Ball Cap and I didn’t want to squeeze in a honeymoon right after the wedding only to have me come home and start working insane hours. I wanted to enjoy our trip away and not worry about the stress I’d be coming home to. We still wanted to get away for a few days, so we went on a minimoon at a bed and breakfast in Michigan.
(See that snow? Where was it the day of the wedding?!)
You guys may remember that all our wedding talk stemmed from my planning of a trip to Europe. Though we are now planning a wedding, my dream of going to Europe after graduation is hopefully still going to come true. In my eyes, the trip (being my lifelong dream) was almost as important as the wedding, even if it meant scrimping and saving every last penny.
After the “formal” proposal we opened discussions about the possibility of having a European honeymoon. For me, this meant backpacking through little towns and sleeping on park benches, while Mr. Boa was thinking more along the lines of high-end hotels in strategic tourist locations. I wanted the adventure, while he wanted rest and relaxation. There was no way a backpacking trip on a shoestring budget would be relaxing, so other options had to be explored.
I researched guided tours of Europe like Contiki, Trafalgar, and Globus. This last one had really promising packages and fostered the adult environment we were craving. They had a lot of itinerary options to choose from and promised to show you many places in detail. Unfortunately for me, Mr. Boa shot down idea #2, stating he didn’t want to spend his honeymoon on a bus with a dozen strangers. So it was back to the drawing board.
San Antonio is a really fun place to have a honeymoon, or even a mini-moon for all the Texas bees out there. The sun is always shining and the people are always smiling. The weather is great most of the year, but it can get REALLY hot during the summer, so make sure to pack your swimsuit if you’re going to travel then. Mr. PF and I love to play tourist in our own city, but if we were going to do it up big, this is what we would do…
Eat
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