Honeymoon Plans

Our honeymoon plans have been up in the air for our entire engagement. At first, while we were dating, Jeff told me that he wanted to take his wife - whoever she may be - to Seychelles in Africa. Intrigued by this, I decided to marry him. =) Unfortunately, round trip flights to Seychelles are upwards of $8,000, so we changed our focus to some place we could drive to. Jeff had a great time in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, and my family has a house on Sanibel Island, so our original plan was to drive to NC, spend 4 nights in a B-and-B, then drive to Sanibel, spend 7 days there, then drive home.

Then the Deepwater Horizon oil well started leaking.

At this point, no oil has touched the Sanibel Island. And when it does, I will be down there in galoshes, with a garbage bag, picking up tar balls off the beautiful beaches. However, spending our honeymoon worrying about hurricanes and oil spills does not sound like the relaxing vacation we were hoping for.

We looked into renting a house in North Carolina, but the starting cost is around $1000 for a week, which is reasonable, but leaves a lot of details to us, like buying food and entertaining ourselves. Knowing that Jeff has always wanted to go to Alaska, I mentioned the idea of taking a cruise last night and he was really receptive. My mom has a credit card with travel rewards and she gave me the go-ahead to see what kinds of deals I could get using her points. Here is what I found:

- A 7-day, 6-night cruise from Seattle to Juneau to Vancouver on The Norwegian Pearl
- Accommodations in a Balcony Stateroom
- Lots of Fun Things to Do and Excursions
- A complimentary 7-day stay at a Mexican Resort

While conversing with my mom, I went through the entire booking process and found out that the entire trip was going to be FREE. With her permission, I clicked purchase.

The entire process happened in about 30 minutes. When I got home from work on Friday, we were planning to go to North Carolina. Now, we are going to ALASKA!!!

So here's the current itinerary:


Weds, Sept 8 at 2pm: Leave Chicago via Amtrak
Thurs, Sept 9 : Travel through North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington
Fri, Sept 10: Arrive in Seattle, visit with cousins
Sat, Sept 11: Hike mountains and bike coastlines in Washington
Sun, Sept 12, 4pm: Disembark from Seattle
Sept 13-18: Go to these cities:

Sun Sept 19: Arrive in Vancouver
Mon, Sept 20: Day in Vancouver, get land-legs back
Tues, Sept 21: Leave for Chicago


We are EXTREMELY excited! We'll be visiting six states and two international cities. I can't wait to see whales, eat fresh salmon and King crab and sushi, swim in the pools, make friends, eat more sushi, fly in helicopters, ride bikes on glaciers and eat MORE FISH!!!




Again, thank you to everyone who supports us through this process. We love you!!!