Our Honeymoon, Trip Of A Lifetime To California: Laguna Beach
As the saying goes: I am not sad it’s over, just happy it happened, I look back at these photos and still can’t believe it! For our honeymoon, we did a ten day trip around some parts of South California, and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Originally we were going to do New Orleans and New York, but packing for two different climates (as the weather in the two locations is very different in October) seemed like a bit of a faff…a nice problem to have, but I am not a light packer and we didn’t want travelling to the airport to eat into our already limited time. My husband and I have both wanted to go to the West Coast of America, since forever. Being children of the 90s, I think all the films we watched were either set in NYC or LA, it was our time. A week in the Maldives sounds wonderful, but not quite my type of holiday, I love exploring and am not very good at sitting down on a sun lounger, although I would be very happy to test that theory out one day.
Our honeymoon was booked with Faraway , who sadly aren’t operating any more, but they helped us plan and book our itinerary. I should also mention at this point we used Patchwork as our wedding registry website, on our invites we put the URL of our Patchwork trip for people to contribute too. The whole page is completely customisable, I changed the images and text, and put some free contributions options, such as a playlist for our trip, plus denominations from £10 - £100. Our friends and family could then see what we had planned, and leave us messages on the page for us to see, which I didn’t realise until much later and then bawled by eyes out . The money goes straight to you via Stripe or PayPal after the wedding, in time for your honeymoon. I think Patchwork is really wonderful website, that I’d recommend to someone looking for a similar type of wedding present.
Faraway suggested, based on a questionnaire and Skype call that we had with them, about what we like to do and wanted to see. The first stop they suggested was Laguna Beach, for a couple of nights. It was to be our first holiday without June, and as it would be a week after the wedding they suggested we’d want to relax straight away. How right they were! Laguna Beach is so far removed from anywhere we have in the UK, it really switched us straight up into honeymoon / holiday mode. We arrived in the dark, quickly dumped our cases and got a few hours sleep before waking up to explore the next morning. We headed straight to the beach which was a ten minute walk from the hotel, we almost had the whole thing to ourselves as it was a week day, it was magical.
So many people when I got back commented on how much stuff we did, and how did we fit it all in?! I mostly woke up everyday at 4am because of jet lag, thankfully I got non on the return home as I didn’t adjust that body clock by a minute whilst I was there. I’d waited thirty three years to go to California I wanted to do as much as possible, plus I was in bed early every night, fast asleep by 9pm, I couldn’t really tell you what happens in California after dark I am afraid!
On our first morning after we’d gone to the beach, we headed to another to have a paddle boarding lesson with a lovely local also called Jack from LA Vida Laguna . It was a SUP tour, and Jack was able to tell us lots about the area as well as teach us Paddle Boarding and we also saw some sea lions whilst we were at all. Contrary to the photos, I did stand up, and it was much easier than I hoped it would be. Jack was a natural at it…look at that smug face. Needless to say, I’d definitely recommend it.
That afternoon we also drove to Fashion Island, ate a lot of Tacos at Wahoo’s and spent more money than I should’ve done at Anthropologie. It wasn’t particularly cultured, but we were just so happy to be on holiday and hanging out playing Duran Duran with the roof down in our car. If you want a big Anthropologie, definitely head here.
We stayed at Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa, and not going to lie, I picked it because of the interior. Turns out the interior design was done by Martyn Lawrence Bullard, who also designed the second hotel in Palm Springs which were going to stay at. I am nothing, if not, predictable! Once you get to know his style, it’s so obviously his signature, and turns out he’s not that much of a interior secret with the Kardashian’s using him to decorate their homes.
Our two night’s in Laguna Beach went by so quickly and soon it was time to pack up the convertible and drive the two hours to Palm Springs. We picked our rental up at the airport, and had it for the duration of our holiday. I’d love to say I drove, but I didn’t do one second of driving. I’m still unsure why, as I’ve driven to Norway and back with a friend one summer, but I’d lost my nerve a bit since having June. Also it was a black BMW, and just looked very expensive, even though we had insurance I just didn’t fancy it. We actually dented the bumper of the car whilst parking at Casa Laguna, but due to the extra insurance we took out at Sixt -airport we didn’t pay any extra. I’d recommend paying that extra bit, if you’re a nervy at all and want extra peace of mind. When renting our car at Sixt, they offered us the option of a sat nav at an extra cost, but there was one already in the car - so make sure you check before you say yes to the extra cost.
Whilst in this neck of the woods we also visited Balboa Beach but didn’t head over to the Island as we were too busy staring at the sunset, but looks like it’s worth the trip. I originally had included Palm Springs on this post but can you believe we are already at 1100 words? I’ll leave it here, and check back on Friday for pink midcentury wonder.
I’ll close this post, by letting you know that we did indeed visit In & Out Burger on the way from the airport to Casa Laguna, and I was distinctly underwhelmed. However learn from my mistakes and make sure you discover the hidden menu items before you go, those Animal Style Fries would’ve soon changed my thoughts.
Part 2 of my Californian trip is out on Friday so keep you eyes peeled!