Tag Archives: Honeymoon 2004

Quite possibly the most relaxing vacation we have ever been on, Emily and I enjoyed two weeks exploring California from Mendocino to Anaheim for our honeymoon.  After all the planning and excitement of our wedding in Orlando, we were ready for a peaceful and fun getaway (Emily needing more of a break than I after all her great wedding planning).  Below is an  overview of our travels with links to the individual journal pages for your enjoyment.  You can also scroll to the bottom of the page to access any or all of there 16 daily blog posts from our travels.  I created a video slideshow of the photo highlights of our trip below.

We made our way from Orlando to Sacramento, CA by plane on October 26th, 2004, rented a car and drove to our first destination of Mendocino, CA where we check into the beautiful Brewery Gulch Inn for a few days of exploration and relaxation.  As mentioned above, Mendocino provided the perfect location to start our honeymoon because it was beautiful but didn’t make you feel like you were missing anything if you wanted to just go back to the inn and relax.  There was just enough to see and do in Downtown Mendocino where we spent some time shopping, eating and getting our first eduction on wine.

Northern California is a beautiful place to hike and explore so we took a day to hike at the Russian Gulch State Park. We traveled one of the more mild trails but the foliage and views were incredible.  The hike was a nice reminder of just how out of shape we were.  During our time in Mendocino we had some good food but our favorite dinner by far was at the Albion River Inn where we enjoyed an breathtaking sunset over the Pacific Ocean.  It was the perfect end to our quiet and romantic stay in Mendocino.

We left Mendocino and traveled south en route to San Francisco.  Before leaving one of the locals recommended stopping at the Fort Ross State Historic Park to help break up the drive.  It was a great place to stretch our legs and learn a little history and snap some fun photographs.  We continued on our journey south and arrived in San Francisco at dinner time.

San Francisco was a beautiful city which we didn’t get to explore nearly enough.  We spent a day at Fisherman’s Wharf where we snapped a couple hundred photos of sea lions and we also checked out some of the local stores and fresh sea food shops.  Looking across the bay we spotted Alcatraz, agreeing that it was the perfect place for the tourists that we are to check out.  We took the guided tour and learned all about the criminals who called that place home.

It wouldn’t be a trip to California without spending at least one day in Napa.  We took the opportunity to escape San Francisco for the day and visited the Robert Mondavi Winery in Napa.  Not sure rubbing elbows with the wine aficionados was our cup of tea (or wine) but when in Rome I suppose.  After all of our drinking and eating we agreed that another day of the nature and hiking was in order.  We seized the opportunity to visit the majestic Muir Woods where we saw the incredible Red Wood trees.

Not hard to believe I am sure, but our most anticipated leg of our trip with the third and final, Disneyland in Anaheim.  I hadn’t been to Disneyland for many years, and being that we both met working for the Mouse, it was a place that we definitely wanted to go together.  We checked into the Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel which was absolutely magnificent.  The Cast Members at the hotel went above and beyond decorating our room with paper hearts and flower petals.  We couldn’t have asked for anything more.

We savored our experiences at the Disneyland Park as well as Disney’s California Adventure Park.  We were like two kids in a candy store the size of a small city.  We made sure that we properly charged our camera batteries because we gave them, as well as our feet, quite a working during our visit.  We ate great food including a couple visits to the Blue Bayou Restaurant at Disneyland.

Being that we are such huge Disney fans, we booked the a Walk in Walt’s Footsteps tour at Disneyland.  The tour was inspiring and educational as we learned more about the man who started it all.  We also got to see some of the exclusive parts of the park like Club 33.  Definitely worth the tour if you are ever out that way.

We did take one day away from Disneyland Resort to visit the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  Emily booked us a safari which I have to say was the best one I have ever been on.  We got up close to a lot of neat animals and also had the opportunity to feed giraffes and rhino.  Looking back at the photos I can’t believe how close we got to some of those animals.

We took our last day at Disneyland Resort to revisit our favorites and ensure that we captured photos of the things that we would be excited to see again on future trips to Disneyland.  The trip was the perfect combination or relaxation, nature, excitement and fun.

If you want to read more of our travels, check out the blog posts for each of the 16 days of our trip below.