Our Wedding: Our Honeymoon - SoCal

Here's the last installment of our honeymoon pictures! We decided to stop in CA on our way back from Hawaii. I had never been and I have always wanted to visit. Oddly enough, I've always wanted to live in California, even though I had never been. From movies, pictures I just felt like it would be a place I would like, could call home and love!

I had heard great things about San Diego and we decided that was the best place for us to stay for a couple nights. We flew into LAX at night, stayed in Redondo Beach for a night, and in San Diego -- Coronado Bay the next night.

We woke up early to get as much in as we could during our short visit. We were in Redondo Beach so we drove around a little. I loved the feel of this little beach town. It had a very laid back vibe. I freaked when I saw a Trader Joes (we don't have one here in Orlando) so naturally we stopped to check it out! Then we got coffee, and walked "The Strand" before heading to Huntington Beach.

Here's The Strand, a beautiful beach. There's a long sidewalk that goes all the way down the beach. I love the idea of the locals living a healthy, active lifestyle, and how lucky they are to have such beautiful scenery while they work out! :)

I'll take one of each :)

So pretty here...

After Redondo we explored Huntington Beach. We loved Huntington Beach too! It had such an awesome vibe. Daniel was in his element! We went in and out of the surf shops, watched surfers in the water, and walked around a lot after lunch.

Huntington Beach! The surf capital of the world...

Ohh so sexy--wearing a wedding band! :)

We decided to go to Duke's for lunch. It had a great view of the beach!

We walked the pier after lunch! We were there in early May and it was pretty chilly for us, especially being near the water it made it feel cooler. The weather was beautiful though, just needed to cover up a little :)

On our way back to our next stop, San Diego!

Here we were going over the bridge to Coronado Bay...

We stayed a night at the Lowes Coronado Bay Resort... our only regret was not staying longer. What a beautiful place! We felt so spoiled there!

Loving our "beachy themed" room, and relaxing before dinner. They upgraded our room after learning we were on our honeymoon... it couldn't have been any better.

Daniel thought it would be funny to test out the self timer, so we jumped on the bed! haha

I was SO excited to have the opportunity to meet up with my friend, Michelle who I met through blogging (she made most of our paper stuff and cake table runner for our wedding). She and her husband Damon were open to meeting up with us for dinner and they took us to Pizza Port in Ocean Beach! We had such a nice time eating yummy pizza, and drinking beer! What a neat place. I wish I had taken more pictures and had more time to spend with them. Since that trip, Michelle and I have become closer friends and I am so grateful for her friendship! We can't wait to visit them again sometime. We will definitely be back!

I had hoped to meet a couple more friends I met through blogging during our stay --Amy & Nicole, but it just didn't work out well with our schedules. If any of y'all are close to Orlando and ever want to meet up let me know! :)

We stopped at a beach near our hotel after breakfast...it was a little cool out, but sunny enough to lay out and get some sun!

My bedazzled "wifey" bikini bottoms! haha I bought a cheap white bikini from Target, and an iron on rhinestone transfer off Etsy.

Next up, checking out the pool at our resort. We loved it. We spent all day there before we had to pack up, and leave for the airport. After sunbathing, I got a quick mani & pedi at their spa which was great too!

Cheers!

Leaving :(

Overall thoughts of California... um, yes, I still want to live there (San Diego) someday! I loved the areas we visited (but would like to see more!), and we truly enjoyed our visit. It was all that I imagined it was and more. Daniel and I have had serious talks of moving there after I'm done with school, getting jobs there, and raising our kids there for a little while. We just love it that much! :) I can't wait for the opportunity to go back! It's kinda nice we'd already have some friends there too! :)

I forgot to share this in our Oahu pics... we bought a cute Christmas ornament from one of the shops at our hotel. Although, sadly I couldn't find it in time to hang on our Christmas tree this year! I was so sad I couldn't find it. It's somewhere in our messy, unorganized garage!

I LOVED coming home to lots of mail!!! lol

We had such a nice honeymoon! I had a little over two weeks off work which was just so liberating, made me so relaxed, and happy! I loved having all that quality time with my husband! Daniel kept saying throughout our whole honeymoon that he LOVED "vacation Nicole"! I was just so relaxed and happy!

After the honeymoon was over I had a couple days off to go to the Social Security office to start the name changing process. I'm happy to say I had everything changed within a few weeks... so happy to be a Mrs.!

**I realized I didn't post a whole lot of pics of Daniel by the pool, just know that he kept taking pics of me and we hardly got any of him! I'm not full of myself, promise. :)