Double the honeymoon

So as I mentionned yesterday, the green-card approval had us rethink or honeymoon plans.

Well there was one tiny issue though: I miss my home country and my family, and I miss them pretty bad. Even though some of them are coming to the wedding it's only a tiny part of my family. Not to mention that one of my grandmothers is not doing too well. So I want to go to France next year, I can't wait much longer. But I don't want to honeymoon in France either.
This might not seem like a big issue in itself, but the thing is I only get 10 paid days off per year, and a trip to France should be at least 2 weeks for us to see everyone. I didn't want our honeymoon to eat up all our vacation capital when France was my priority.

Last week-end, while hiking, Hubby brought up the subject of the honeymoon again. Well we know New-Zealand was out of the way, also with gas prices the way they are, the road trip did not seem like such a good idea anymore. So Hubby mentioned skiing in the Rocky Mountains. I was like great, but since I have the green-card, why not look into foreign country options. And that's when he mentioned British Columbia.
He was ready to go there and have me snick up without a green-card, to which I said no because it's not worth the risk, so I had forgotten about it.
But now, with the GC in hand, thing were completely different. As we walked up the mountain he told me about ski resort of Whistler, one of the best skiing/snowboarding in the world according to him. I liked the idea.
The next day I was looking at the B.C. tourism website, checking out B&B and completely in love with the idea.

Now the one thing is: he still wants to go to Hawaii and I still want to go to France, so we compromised. If things go according to program we would take 1 week off on honeymoon in B.C. at the end of winter, early spring. Maybe have his mom and step-dad meet us at the end of the trip somewhere on the west coast, and then take weeks off later on to go to France where one of my week would be unpaid.
And for Hawaii: we'll have an other "honeymoon" in 2010. Who said you have to honeymoon only once right? That way we can go to Kauai that I'm curious about and spend more time on Lanai too.

So now we need to plan things, decide on the dates and figure out all those little details. I'm very excited.

Images: http://www.verityjaneproductions.com & www.movingtofreedom.com

A road trip honeymoon?

When we got married last year, we didn't have any money to go on honeymoon. Also my little brother was visiting for a few weeks and that mattered more than anything else. We were however very lucky. His family offered us a mini-moon: two nights in a bed and breakfast. It wasn't very far (45mn away) but we didn't care. It was such a nice moment for the two of us. I think it also helped us realize a bit more than we were married after the speedy ceremony.

Now we still wanted to go on a real honeymoon. His parents wanted us to as well and they offered to pay for it. I won't tell you the budget they gave us, but it's very generous.
Our dream was to go to New-Zealand. We are both very much attracted by this country and wanted to go there to hike and discover its beauties. However even with his parents generous offer, the plane tickets only would have eaten a huge portion of the budget. Not to mention the time to fly there. We realized we had to give up on that dream.
There was an other issue: we didn't know when I would get my green card, and without it I could not leave the country.To me a honeymoon should be done in a place you can't go to easily and a foreign country was definitely my top choice, even though I haven't seen more than the South-East of the United States. I was ready to wait as long as necessary to go on a honeymoon, but he was not.

Months went by and we were still waiting for the green-card interview. One day, I remember we were watching a program about other US states and both of us had the same idea at the same time, one of those: "Are you thinking what I'm thinking moment".
Since I couldn't leave the states, well then why not do a Road Trip and get the opportunity to discover some American landscapes we didn't know.
It might not sound like the most romantic idea in the word, but we were both excited at the thought, not to mention I wanted to see the West.
Now an other thing came up. As a way to thank his parents for paying for our honeymoon, my husband wanted to take a trip to Hawaii at the same time.
Now my though was: heck no!
Sure I want to thank them, but visiting your in-laws on a honeymoon is not a honeymoon move I'm in for. Not to mention that we would have to either rent a car for the road trip and then take the plane. An other reason against it? We've been to Hawaii twice and his parents live here and will do so for the rest of their lives. We can go anytime we want, we don't need special occasions. They already invited us once and paid for the plane tickets too. No matter what I did he still wanted to do it.

Well then came June and the green-card interview notice and just one week ago the interview itself where we were approved. This means that I can leave the country. We can go anywhere we want. So were thought about it again...