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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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The Sunday after our wedding, a mere 5 hours after we had fallen asleep, our friends and family gathered together for brunch before heading their separate ways. We said our goodbyes as people kept filing into our originally small gathering. We had planned for 60 people at brunch and ended up with over 100! I guess more people had decided to crash than originally expected, which was fantastic! It was so beautiful to see our friends and family making friends with each other.
After brunch, we went back to our room, gathered our belongings and headed home. I wanted to stay an extra evening in the city, or up in Boston before the honeymoon so that magic of our wedding wouldn’t fade, but budget constrictions sent us back to the luxury of our own home. We weren’t due to leave for Mexico until early Monday morning. It was a wise decision to wait a day before traveling, otherwise everything would have felt rushed.
We stood in our living room, piled with wedding paraphernalia, cards, and a few oddly shaped presents. I convinced Zeb to open our gifts before he settled into a nap. Our wonderful, beautiful, fantastic friends had gifted us a 6 pack of Smirnoff, individually wrapped, of course. We got iced. We got iced real bad. So friends, if you are reading, please be reminded of what a female dog revenge can be…sweet, sweet, revenge.
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Hey, hive! Hope you all had the happiest of holidays! I’m going to jump right into my last Hawaii post, because I am SO eager to start my wedding recaps now that I have our pro pics! I believe when we last left off, Sparks and I were on our way to Maui…
The flight over was soooo bumpy, and I’m not much of a flier. I *may* have treated myself to some liquid courage, Mai Tai style, on the way there.
Once we landed safely in Maui, I was eager to get to our resort. I’d been looking forward to staying there ever since we finalized our honeymoon plans, and this place did NOT disappoint!
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Hive! I’m losing a month of my engagement. A whole month. 30 days of crafting and DIY projects and prime-wedding-planning-time. Gone. Down the drain.
No, we aren’t moving up the wedding. I’m not pregnant.
Image via World Island Paradise
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We may not have splurged on videography at the wedding, but on the honeymoon we had all the time in the world to make a video ourselves. Mr. Funnel Cake planned on taking his new GoPro on the honeymoon to document the trip and try out some underwater filming when we went scuba diving. His filming captured perhaps the most amazing thing I have witnessed in my life—watching manta rays feeding underwater at night. I’m no videographer, but I’ve put together a quick cut of our trip to try and give you a taste of what our honeymoon was like while we basked in the warm glow of newlywed bliss.
Tech specs: Footage was shot on the HD Helmet HERO (Mr. FC bought it right before the new version came out… like a week later. You can imagine how annoyed he was!) in 960p = 1280×960 pixels (4:3), 30 fps, 12 Mbit/s data rate because Mr. FC’s computer doesn’t handle the 1080p HD footage very well. Edited to 640×360 (16:9) in iMovie ’11 because I’m a film newbie!
Of course, aside from the GoPro filming, we both had our cameras with us because we love travel photography. Hawaii had me waking up like a kid at Christmas every morning to race out and soak in the amazing scenery.
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Long ago, I revealed our Hawaiian rental treasures to the hive. I was pretty excited about staying at all three rental places, but I wasn’t expecting the awful amount of rain that we encountered during our stay in Hawaii. We made the best of the weather though, and here I am to report back about the quality of the rental homes in case you happen to be planning a honeymoon (or vacation) to the islands.
Nightly Rate: $98-110
When we arrived at the first house, the sun was setting and Mr. Funnel Cake raced out excitedly to see the ocean from the property.
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Before we even got engaged, Mr Elk and I were totally 100% on the same page about where we would be taking our honeymoon.
photo by Peter Phipp/ Available here for purchase as print
Oh Santorini, how I would love to bathe in the glory of your beauty! I fell in love with a Greek honeymoon after watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants one too many times, and for some reason Mr Elk agreed with me that Greece was the perfect place to relax after our nuptials. But then money woes struck the nation, and we began seeing visions of mobs and hearing stories of transportation strikes. It was all a little too much for us, plus we realized how expensive it was going to be. So I said goodbye to my dream honeymoon and started thinking of other places we could go.
{And, I’m back, with wedding recaps on the way after the new year!}
The last stop on our honeymoon was the one I was most looking forward to. Santorini. This island has been on my bucket list since 7th grade. I could not wait to get here.
After packing up in Mykonos, we hopped on the FlyingCat 4 for a quick boat ride to this volcanic island.
We were fortunate to arrive to our resort, Astra, just before sunset. And, since we had this outrageous view from outside our room we enjoyed a little champagne and the prettiest sunset I have ever seen in my life.
As I may have admitted a time or two before, I’m a pretty type-A girl. I crave organization and often require a wealth of information before making a big decision. Our honeymoon planning was no different. I originally asked Mr. Hawk to take charge and be the head planner for our honeymoon plans; however, when he didn’t seem to be doing a lot of research, I quickly stepped in (and pretty much took over).
I scoured Trip Advisor for reviews and rankings (all while taking copious notes, of course). After a few months of off and on research, Mr. Hawk and I finally sat down over the weekend to make some concrete decisions. We’ve decided to go to Punta Cana, DR. Woo hoo! We will be staying at an all-inclusive resort, in the adult-only club area. I have never stayed at an all-inclusive resort before, but I am really looking forward to it. I like the idea of knowing what we’re paying up-front, and I think knowing all our meals and drinks are taken care of will make for a less-stressful vacation.
After a six hour drive (with lots of stops for sight seeing along the way) we made it to Hotel Parador located between Quepos and Manuel Antonio. Once again, everyone was so nice and helpful. On our first morning, with no plans, we decided to explore the hotel grounds. There were trails all over the place.
It was probably not yet seven in the morning in these first two pictures. I should not that our sleep schedule went with the sun while on our honeymoon, so we were in bed around eight or nine and up by five.
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It’s hard to shop for swimsuits in December. A lot of retailers, online or otherwise, are still stocking heavy Fair Isle sweaters and fleece-lined jeans instead of bikinis and cover-ups. When I do find suits for sale, I also find that my blinding white skin tends to distract me from the cuteness of the pattern or style.
I did, however, have some luck finding a very important swim suit accessory on Amazon. I even picked up an extra one for Mr. Mole.
His and hers snorkeling kits
4. Take a tour
Hawaii offers SO many specialized tours. Helicopter, zip-line, kayaking, whale-watching… the list goes on-and-on. While you can definitely try to do all of those things on your own, I would suggest going with the pros at least once on your vacation. It’s nice to be in the hands of someone who does it every day!
Sparks and I went on a guided LOST tour (in a Hummer! Off road!), and it was hands-down the best thing we did in Oahu. The guide took us to places on the island that we would have NEVER found on our own, and I felt like we learned so much!
We went on a 5 hour LOST tour with KOS… it was amazing!
“We have to go back!”
5. Visit Pearl Harbor
Confession: We almost didn’t do this. I know, it’s terrible. But if anyone else out there is thinking about skipping it, I’m here to convince you not to! Here’s why:
Also, if you go on Wednesday or on the weekend, you can visit the flea market at Aloha Stadium on your way to the memorial. Sparks and I found so many unique and affordable gifts there. I definitely recommend stopping by!
Our tickets to the USS Arizona memorial
Inside the memorial
Tips and Tricks: You absolutely cannot bring ANYTHING but a camera into the Pearl Harbor grounds. Not even a camera bag. So travel light if you go.
The flea market at Aloha Stadium is freakin’ HUGE. Like insanely huge. Sparks and I walked from end-to-end, and take my word for it… everything for sale is pretty much the same on both sides. Don’t feel like you missed out if you didn’t make it through the entire thing.
Checking out the flea market
Fresh island soaps 
Next up: Maui! (Then it’s on to wedding recaps!!!)
There is something about the word mooning that makes me chuckle. Even the word “honey” in front of it cannot erase this image from my mind:
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| Fine, tasteful, art by yours truly. |
OK, maybe not that exact image, but one similar. However, I am going to (attempt) to put my third grade sense of humor aside to tell you about the very exciting honeymoon Mr. Aardvark has planned!
First let my say a HUMONGOUS thank you to my soon-to-be Aardvarks-in-law.
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Hive, I’ve talked about my honeymoon way waaay more than I ever intended. It’s like a bar joke that won’t ever die. “Two newlyweds walk into a bar on their honeymoon…” Or, you know, something more clever and memorable than that.
I have good news to share and then I won’t speak of the honeymoon again until recaps. Our honeymoon is booked! Woot!
It’s not at all the honeymoon I imagined and wrote about before. There were just too many obstacles in our way. Mr. Kettle has taught me so much about compromise since we’ve been together and that really came in handy when we were sorting out the details of our honeymoon.
To refresh your memory: I saw our honeymoon as a wonderful holiday triple threat. We were going to do Carnival, Valentine’s Day, and Mardi Gras. We were going to Panama and New Orleans and it was going to be wonderful.
The price ended up being more than I expected, so we waited to reassess our funds before we booked.
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It’s almost impossible to decide on my favorite thing about Oahu… Sparks and I loved pretty much everything we did! In fact, one of the things we loved most about the island was that there was SO much to do. Oahu is definitely #1 when it comes to having a wide range of activities to choose from. Buuuuut, if I HAD to choose, here are the top 5 things you shouldn’t miss if you visit Oahu (according to the Sparklers ):
1. Go Hiking
It’s so easy to spend all of your time in Hawaii lounging on the beach. I’ll admit, it was pretty hard to get me out of that beach chair once I plopped down. But if you don’t explore the hidden beauty of Oahu, you’re really missing something spectacular! There are so many hiking trails and paths winding through the island, you might have a hard time deciding which one to take (I recommend grabbing this book for help… it was a lifesaver). Sparks and I were lucky enough to have a local show us around. Our friend Matt moved to Hawaii about 3 years ago, and he was kind enough to lead us through the Hawaiian jungle on a hiking trip that he promised would be “easy.” Hmph. Maybe this is easy to the locals (our buddy hiked it BAREFOOT), but I was pretty exhausted by the time we made it back to the car. But, oh boy, was it worth it.
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