Minimoon

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Well, it’s official, we tied the knot! And, couldn’t be happier! When we get our photos and video back from the photographer and videographer I will definitely be sharing all of that. But, I wanted to share now all about our minimoon!

The handsome hunk is in the US Navy, and for those of you who are familiar with military life know that it’s unpredictable to say the least.

We originally chose our wedding date a year in advance because it would likely be a slow time for Tom’s work schedule. We booked the photographer, the venue, and sent out save the dates. Then when we started thinking about planning our honeymoon Tom was told that some training he had coming up, had changed dates and he would be leaving, 10 days before our wedding.

Cue the panic. We put our honeymoon plans on hold, and tried to figure out what we were going to do about the wedding date.

Never a dull moment when your partner is in the military.

Turns out the panic was over nothing, because the dates got changed again, back and forth numerous times. So, while the wedding went off without a hitch, we decided to put off our honeymoon until next year, after he will be through with his training, and we could really make a plan.

But, I mean, you can’t really get married and then head back into work 36 hours later. So we decided to take a little minimoon!

Note: Okay, yes we could go right back to work. And yes, I know that so many people have to do that. We are lucky and blessed to be in a position where we don’t have to. I am incredibly grateful for that.

Since we are taking our big honeymoon next year, we wanted something smaller, low key, and local to do now. We also wanted it to be something we hadn’t done before. One thing I love about being a west coast girl is just how much there is to do out here. We take weekend and small week long trips on the west coast all the time, and we still came up with a dozen or so completely new ideas for things we had never done before.

We ended up settling on the North Umpqua area of Oregon!

I will be writing a detailed post of everything we did, what we loved, where we stayed, and what we ate. But, for right now, I will just say, it was amazing. If you’re on the west coast, plan your trip, and even if you are from further afield, it is worth a trip out to the west coast for it. In fact, one thing we noticed on our trip was the huge international travel presence. At one popular tourist spot there was just as many people speaking foreign languages as there were people speaking English.

The river, which is the area’s namesake, is impossibly beautiful. That deep teal which is so quintessential of the Pacific Northwest, with frigid cold water from snow melt in the surrounding mountains, and piercing green trees. The area is littered with waterfalls, secret swimming holes, and breathtaking trails. It is also prime wine country which also attracts a fantastic foodie crowd.

Since Portland was on the way, we also decided to take a couple days to spend some time in Portland, celebrating my brother’s birthday with his girlfriend and seeing my sister and her husband.

All in all, it was amazing! So let’s take a look in photos!