After that fabulous dinner at Ten 01, we headed back to the hotel and relaxed a bit before leaving for the concert. Of course, this was what our whole Minimoon was planned around, as we are huge Sigur Ros fans. Our awesome DJ, Brandon, had sent us the tour dates long ago during the wedding planning process, so Mr. Pomegranate had managed to snag us some pretty amazing seats.

A quick timed-shot before heading to the concert!
It was perfect Pacific Northwestern weather as we walked to the show, drizzling a bit of rain, but not pouring. We headed inside, stood in line for a local micro brew, and then went to take our seats. The opening band, Parachutes, had already begun to perform and I was blown away by our seats. We were super close!
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Our flight to Portland didn’t leave until 6:45 PM on Sunday, so we had plenty of time to relax at home for a few hours and pack (no, we hadn’t packed yet). We caught up on Project Runway, did a few loads of laundry and filled our suitcases to the brim. Of course, as soon as our booties hit the plane seats, I began to take pictures using my iPhone, digital camera - whatever I could get my hands on to document our trip.

Our wedding rings on the plane. There are many of these, so I’ll only bother you with one - we were just too excited!

6 months into our relationship, Mr. Meatball and I spent a month backpacking Europe together. It was one of the best times of our lives. It was also an amazing opportunity to get to know each other in a new way. Being together 24/7 for 31 days, navigating foreign countries in foreign languages, in the biggest heatwave of the decade was a true test of our strength. I really believe that traveling together should be a pre-requisite of marriage. There would probably be a lot less divorce that way.
As evidenced by our taste, we’re big fans of the cultural and artistic influences of Asia, but neither of us have been there and we’re desperate to remedy that situation. The honeymoon seems like a perfect excuse. But affording a trip like that on top of a wedding is…. laughable in our circumstances.
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We’ve chosen our Minimoon adventure: Big City Fun in Portland!

The Deluxe Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
Image via sweetdisasters on Flickr.
We’ll be staying at the Deluxe Hotel, a 1940’s Hollywood style boutique hotel in downtown Portland. It so happens to be situated right in front of Portland’s awesomely convenient Max Light Rail that will take us directly from airport to hotel. This means I will be able to shop like crazy without having to worry about lugging bags around, hailing cabs or renting a car.
Since Mr. CC and I don’t plan on taking our honeymoon to Italy until June ’09, we are highly considering taking a “minimoon” to Disney World for a couple of days during the holidays. My parents will be in Florida during the winter months and my brother will be visiting his in-laws in Florida for Christmas, so it seems like the perfect excuse to go to Disney World and be total tourists with my family (if they’re up for it, if not I can just ride Tower of Terror over and over with Mr. CC).
A friend recently sent me this YouTube video that made me laugh hysterically and develop a comedian crush on the very sassy Giulia Rozzi. Immediately after watching it, I started panicking and wondering if I’ll turn into one of those Mickey Mouse-earred newlyweds who forces her hubby to wear unfortunate mouse-related attire (not that there’s anything wrong with that, to quote Seinfeld).
I was planning on taking a few days before the wedding for prep and to welcome out of town family members as they arrived. Add that to the length of time needed to take our dream honeymoon in Europe and I’m outta’ vacation days! In order to make sure I have enough paid time off - in case I am paid a friendly visit from the flu bug this winter - we’ve decided to postpone our dream honeymoon until our first anniversary. Therefore, we’re currently planning a short trip after the wedding to unwind - a.k.a. our “Minimoon.”
Our first thought was to stay in California and enjoy our beautiful coastline. Then we were informed that my Pom-In-Laws would like to contribute to our Minimoon Fund, so we started dreaming of tropical variations on a beachy theme. Perhaps an all-inclusive in Mexico a la Mrs. Penguin? Lastly, my uber-awesome DJ emailed me to share the Sigur Ros tour dates (isn’t he an awesome DJ for thinking of me!?). It just so happens that Sigur Ros is playing a concert in Portland, Oregon on the Monday after our wedding - thus adding a third option to our list.
Option #1 - California Coastline
Image via Tickle Pink Inn.
Mr. Pineapple and I would love to go to Ireland for our honeymoon. We looked into several different trips to the emerald isle, but in the end decided to skip the honeymoon for the time being. Hopefully, next summer we will have enough saved for the trip or maybe next year we will buy a house. Either way, we’ll make it there eventually.We do want to do something after the wedding. Just to get away and be together for a couple of days. I know many couple do it, but I couldn’t imagine getting married on Saturday and going to work on Monday. So, Mr. Pineapple and I are going on a couple of mini-moons.
The first stop: Cleveland. That’s right, tropical and exotic Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland is just a hop, skip and a jump from Pittsburgh so it would be an easy get away. Mr. P and I love to watch Iron Chef America and their new chef Michael Symon. Symon owns two restaurants in Cleveland, Lola and Lolita. Dinner at one of the two locations was the starting point of our planning. For the rest of our plans we will scope out some of Mrs. Dahlia’s recommendations.

The Bubblegums have returned from Bar Harbor, equipped with all sorts of Bar Harbor minimooning advice*!!
Do: Stay Downtown – The main part of Bar Harbor is about, oh, I’d say… one… square foot? So there are really only a few hotels that are right there in the thick of it. Others are definitely walkable, but there’s something gratifying about walking out of your hotel room and onto the dock. The two big ones are The Bar Harbor Inn (where we stayed) and The Harborside Hotel. In addition, there are all sorts of cute little inns – a couple I remember seeing downtown were called the Ullikana Inns - like DOLLHOUSES.
Also, if you can find one, a room on the ocean is clutch. Here we are on our balcony, ocean at our backs:

There are only 11 days until the wedding and we haven’t booked our honeymoon yet. We’ve had endless amounts of discussions on where we should go. It started with Paris, Italy and there was mention of Disney, we talked about going down south… but we abandoned all those ideas.
As the wedding gets closer and closer I see the bills piling up and it’s stressing me out a little. Mr. Flamingo is in school full time and because we are paying for the majority of the wedding (with some help from my parents), a honeymoon done to our liking would be too expensive at the moment.
Because weddings are so garsh darn expensive, Mr. BG and I had made the decision a while back to forego the big honeymoon for the time being. The plan is to spend a couple weeks in Paris sometime next year. In the meantime, however, we had made no plans to honeymoon. Our wedding was Saturday, and I was at work on Tuesday. Let me tell you - not a good choice. I have been a zombie for a week and cannot believe I haven’t made myself unwind.
SO, last night, Mr. BG and I planned an impromptu mini-moon for this weekend. I am SUPER excited!! We’ll be travelling up to the beeeautiful Bar Harbor Inn:
The one thing that I find so so cool is that Bar Harbor is home to Cadillac Mountain. From the peak of Cadillac Mountain, you will be the first in the U.S. to see the sun rise. AND, supposedly, if you turn around, you will see the moon setting at the same time. Cameras will be brought!!
Has anyone else regretted not taking a honeymoon or minimoon right after the wedding?