Wedding Wednesday: The Honeymoon

I'm carrying out Wedding Wednesday for one more week after this, and then I'll call it quits. But it's been fun looking back on one of the best times of my life!

Luke and I had a really hard time deciding on a honeymoon destination. First we wanted to go to Hawaii, then thought about a cruise, but changed our minds when we saw the price tags on those vacations. We decided to save a little bit of money, and go somewhere closer to home. We chose the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area of Tennessee. I found some beautiful cabins in the mountains online when I was browsing one day, and that's what sold me on the destination.

We stayed in an adorable little cabin called "Hawks Peak." It was very big for 2 people, and very romantic! We had our own hot tub on the second floor balcony, a huge jacuzzi bathtub, a fire place (we didn't use it in the middle of July, but it was still pretty!), a full kitchen, game room, 2 porches in addition to the balcony, etc. It was paradise for us!

On Sunday morning we drove to Tennessee...it only took about 7 or 8 hours. I remember the first thing we did when we got there was to go to Kroger to stock our fridge. We only bought breakfast food, because we ate most of our other meals at restaurants. But every morning we would sleep in late, and Luke would make a big breakfast for both of us. He was so sweet and romantic during the entire honeymoon!

During the days we explored Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We did a lot of shopping, walking, and eating. We went to Ripley's Aquarium, and a Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum one day. Another day we went putt-putting and to the Dixie Stampede. But alas, we were only in Tennessee until Wednesday. It was not enough time, and I'm dying to go back!

We spent the rest of our honeymoon in Cincinnati, a mere 3 or 4 hours from where we live. We stayed in a hotel there for 2 or 3 nights. We shopped a lot, and ate out a lot again. We even bought matching shirts at Bass Pro Shop. But the main reason we were in Cincinnati was to go to King's Island, an amusement park. I mentioned before that we are park junkies, and I meant it. We usually don't go on trips without stopping at an amusement park for a day. So we spent the last day of our honeymoon at King's Island. Unfortunately, I was not feeling well and had a stomachache all day. I rode all the rides anyway, because we had come all that way. I learned that day that just about all the rides at King's Island are the bumpiest, roughest rides in any theme park in the world. By my judgment of course, and I've really only been to 2 or 3 others. But they were bad. Especially the wooden ones. I literally felt at the end of the day like I had been beaten up. But it was fun anyway, because I was with my new hubby!

The next day we drove home to an apartment in shambles, because our wonderful friends had somehow made a copy of our apartment key, and completely trashed the place. More to come on that next week in my final Wedding Wednesday post. But anyway, we spent our first night at our apartment cleaning. I'm talking like 4 or 5 hours. But we were happy to be together, and I believe we were wearing our matching Bass Pro Shop shirts the day we got back, like the true nerds that we are. So all was right with the world :-)

And of course I have pictures of our wonderful getaway week! Here are some of the cabin:

Here is Hawk's Peak. I loved this place!! You can see the little shade on the second floor porch where our hot tub was.

Luke actually spent more time in this room than I did
And here's where we ate all of our yummy breakfasts. Bacon, eggs, cinnamon buns, french toast. Yum!!I WILL have one of these in my next house. So relaxing!How cute is the tiny loft?? Maybe we'll come back someday when we have kids who could sleep up there. I would have loved that when I was 8 years old with my little sister :-)
Here's the game room. There was also a pool table in thereAnd here is the beautiful view of the mountains. Our cabin was cheaper than most others, because the view wasn't as great. But the good thing was that we were kind of tucked away in our own little corner, away from all the other cabins. So we weren't scrunched in by the people next to us like the cabins shown are.And moving on from the cabin...here are some beautiful mountains I snapped a picture of during our drive to Gatlinburg. This is all you could see anywhere on the trip. Unless you were actually in town, and even then there were mountains in the background.This picture was taken in the underwater shark tunnel at Ripley's Aquarium. Luke LOVED this.And here's a funny one...me at Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum standing beside a lifesized statue of the tallest man ever. This guy even made Luke look short.
And here's the happy couple, enjoying a few quiet moments together before heading out on the town for the evening :-)We got these cute boot mugs at the Dixie Stampede. Filled with the best sweet tea I think we've ever had. And that's saying a lot, because we LOVE sweet iced tea, and drink it like it's goin' outta style ;-)
And here's a picture of our last full day before we left at King's Island. This ride looks fun, but I assure it was not. I think I know what it would feel like to be inside of a blender after this ride: Son of Beast. I believe it's the tallest, fastest wooden roller coaster in the world. Just in case you wanted to know :-) It's nothing compared to what we're used to at Cedar Point though. Now THOSE are some fun, smooth, thrilling rides!
Wow, this really makes me want to go back. Maybe someday!! Until then, I'll just be excited about our family trip to Virginia Beach. We will be there in exactly 1 month from today :-)