We brought cold with us everywhere we went. Seeing snow fall for the first time was an amazing experience for Sarah. (Click on the cities we visited to see pictures!)
The honeymoon started in Las Vegas, after enjoying breakfast with our family at our hotel in Downtown San Diego. We had this leg of our trip planned long before we decided to make it the start of our honeymoon. We stayed in a wonderful room facing the strip on the 27th floor of Treasure Island. (It helps to be honeymooners. People bent over backwards to upgrade our rooms, seats, and and to give us free drinks and desserts.) Our bed was turned down every night. They left a card that said "Sweet Dreams" and a small box of Godiva chocolates on the bed each night.
We saw Cirque du Soleil's newest Vegas show, O at the Bellagio hotel on Monday evening. We saw EFX with Tommy Tune at the MGM Grand Hotel on Wednesday evening. Sarah loved it. Paul wasn't nearly as impressed. On Thursday night we went to the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur. We both had a wonderful time. Eating with our fingers, and cheering on our knight was great fun!
It was very cold in Las Vegas. We had to ask Oin to mail us our heavy coats that we had forgotten. We didn't think we'd need them before New York, but we were wrong. We were very happy when they arrived.
We left Las Vegas on Friday morning to fly out to the Big Apple. We be stayed at the Holiday Inn Broadway. It was on the corner of 32nd and Broadway, like 3 blocks from Times Square! It was SO COLD!!! We were absolutely dumbstruck when we stepped outside the airport. It was 14 degrees, but with the wind chill, it was -9 degrees! Our hotel put us in one of the penthouses, and gave us access to the "executive suite" which had drinks and snacks available all day and night. Our room was beautiful and so spacious! (I found out later from Paul that it had a mouse... minor details)
We spent all day Saturday with some of Sarah's friends from her Wedding Discussion Board. Tricia and Brian took us to see the Statue of Liberty and Wall Street. We went to see their great apartment in New Jersey, and then drove down to Princeton, New Jersey to meet Amy and Brian, another couple from the Wedding Board. We all had dinner at an old pub in Princeton. It was great meeting everyone. Sarah spent most of dinner filling her friends in on details of the wedding, while Paul ate most of her dinner. It was a wonderful evening. After driving back to the City, Tricia and Brian drove us all around to see the sights of New York at night. They were wonderful tour guides!
On Sunday we went walking into the heart of New York City. We walked 23 blocks to Central Park, taking in all the sights along the way. We went into many of the electronics shops along 6th Avenue. Paul was like a kid in a candy store, checking out all the gadgets. We even stopped and got hot dogs from a sidewalk vendor. Once we got to Central Park, we took a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. It was a beautiful ride! The park was full of beautiful (leafless) trees. We took plenty of pictures of the New York skyline framed with trees. Then we walked all the way back to our hotel to get ready for our special evening.
We saw Lion King at the New Amsterdam theater on 42nd Street on Sunday evening. The show was amazing. Quite breathtaking. Our seats were dead center in the second row of the balcony. It was a lacking quite a bit for legroom, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We asked the ushers for a good place to go for dinner and were directed to Carmine's on 44th. We had a wonderful Italian dinner in a true "Theater District" restaurant. The portions were HUGE and very good. We took a taxi back to the hotel because the winds had picked up to over 25 miles an hour, and the temperature had dropped back below zero!
On Monday morning we took a cab to Penn Station to catch our train to Washington DC. The train ride was quite interesting. It took us through several cities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. We arrived at the beautifully restored Union Station early in the afternoon. After a meandering cab ride to our hotel, we settled in. We went out wandering about to get our bearings and to look for food. We toured the Old Post Office - the first headquarters for the United States Post Office.
The next day it snowed! It was very cold already, but as we came out of the metro at the Smithsonian, it started snowing very lightly. Sarah was thrilled to see what a snowflake actually looks like. We went into the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and spent most of the day there. Early in the afternoon, Sarah looked out the window to see that it had continued to snow, and now everything was covered in a thin blanket of the white stuff.
We went foraging for food and found a great restaurant called the District Chop House and Brewery. It was a wonderful discovery after 40 minutes of wandering crowded streets, trying to keep warm in the softly falling snow. We had a wonderful dinner of thick juicy steaks and delicious salads. We took the metro back to our hotel, since the snow had stopped. It was hard to tell that it had snowed at all as we walked the 6 blocks to our hotel from the metro stop.
On Wednesday we set out into the crisp cold to experience the National Holocaust Memorial. It was amazing and horrible at the same time. We didn't speak to each other for over 4 hours as we experienced actual artifacts and personal pieces from this most terrible time period. We emerged feeling very grateful for each other and the freedoms we take so much for granted here in America. Sarah thinks that every high school senior should experience the Holocaust Memorial. It was a life-altering afternoon.
Thursday morning greeted us with a blanket of snow. It snowed most of the night, covering everything with more than 6 inches of powder. We set out to see the National Archives. We saw everything there was to see there in 30 minutes. So we set off down the National Mall to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Paul was intrigued by the actual pieces of aviation history suspended from the atrium ceiling. Our bus tour of the Capitol was cancelled due to the snow, so we ended up wandering a very nice mall in Pentagon City, Virginia. How weird is it? We spent 4 days in Washington DC and never even saw the White House!
The final leg of our trip put us (the Happiest Couple on Earth) in the Happiest Place on Earth. We spent the last week of our honeymoon at Walt Disney World. We stayed at the Coronado Springs Hotel and Convention Center. We had a wonderful time exploring Epcot's Millennium celebration and the 11 countries showcased around the beautiful lake. We shopped and ate in many countries. The Millennium celebration parade was an amazing experience. The music was beautiful and the artistry of the characters in the parade was a joy to see. We had a wonderful dinner in Morocco, eating with our fingers while watching the beautiful belly dancers.
We had a wonderful time touring Disney's version of Hollywood at the MGM Studios. We rode the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster starring Areosmith (one of our all-time favorite bands) and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror a couple of times. The backlot tour and stage shows of "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Beauty and the Beast" were great fun. We laughed until our sides hurt at the Muppet Show. We ate at a restaurant that was an exact replica of the original Brown Derby restaurant in Hollywood. It was one of the top three dinners we had on our honeymoon.
The Magic Kingdom was an interesting experience. We started our day in the rain, but it didn't slow anyone or anything down. We rode every ride we cared to in 5 hours. We noticed many differences between Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. We think we like Disneyland better. We had a great dinner at a Character buffet restaurant. It was a great day.
We came home after almost 3 weeks touring the USA. We had a wonderful time, but we missed our friends and family (and Kitties!) It was an amazing experience to see so many new and exciting things with each other. We feel blessed to have been able to start off our marriage with such a wonderful trip together. We have memories that will last a lifetime.