That’s right. We had 3 honeymoons. Because of Dave’s accident, we had to push back our official honeymoon a month. But as we mentioned, we decided to make the most of it and stretch out the honeymoon over 3 trips. Here’s the rundown:
Trip 1: Since our wedding and reception was located at Harry T’s in Harborwalk Village, Rockie, Dave’s mom, hooked us up with a room at the Emerald Grande so we could have a good night sleep before we left for North Carolina the next day. We had the best view at the Emerald Grande. 11th floor overlooking the harbor. We do live in paradise! The next morning we headed out to Swannanoah, North Carolina to stay at a friend of the family’s house, Jim “Shag” & Pat Forst. They are two of the best hosts we’ve ever met. We had such a great time, ate the most amazing food, and discovered a new coffeeshop, The Dripolator. We stayed at their house for 2 nights and then got up very early that Tuesday morning to head to Augusta, Georgia, to go to a checkup appointment on Dave’s hand. His hand is what got the brunt of all the burns. His hand looked great. It’s amazing how quickly the body heals!
Trip 2: Our “official” honeymoon was finally here. We headed out on Friday, February 27, to North Carolina, where we again stayed at the Forst’s house, but this time for a bit longer. We had great food again and played Quarters. It’s a game that you will learn to both love and hate at the same time. We walked around Black Mountain and stopped in our new favorite coffeeshop, the Dripolator, and checked out some local shops. We went to Asheville that Sunday and checked out a church, then headed into downtown Asheville where it started to sleet. We then decided to go and check out the Biltmore Mansion…Amazing! When we left there, it had already dumped about 4-5 inches. The night before we left the Forst’s house, it ended up dumping a total of 15 inches of snow in Banner Elk, which was where we were going to spend the remaining portion of the honeymoon. We were so excited because looking back at when our trip was originally planned, we would not have been as lucky. Well we headed out to Banner Elk that Monday morning, but not before we had to UNFREEZE the locks to our car. That’s right, we didn’t think about not locking the car when it was going to be that cold. Needless to say that after an hour of trying to unfreeze the locks, we finally got the car open and headed out. So glad the drive was easy. We arrived at our little chalet which was perfect for the two of us. So quaint. The next day we headed out to Beech Mountain and picked up our gear and started the four days of skiing/snowboarding. We enjoyed the view and getting our legs used to skiing again and then headed to Sugar Mountain the next day. By the end of day three, the snow really had melted, but we decided to go ahead with the fourth day, which we are so glad we did. We were able to get the last bit of skiing in before the mountain became complete slush. After the fourth day, we were done skiing. Our bodies were so sore, so having the hot tub available to sit in and relax was so nice. After we had our fair share of skiing, the weather was so warm, that we were able to walk around with jeans and t-shirts on. We headed into Boone to eat dinner and we stopped by a saloon and played pool and listened to some bluegrass music for about 6 hours. Good times. The next day we just chilled out in Banner Elk and cleaned up the house to get ready to head back home….12 hours of driving. Yippee!! We had a great trip home and we were ready to be back in our home by the end of the trip.
Trip 3: The final installment our of honeymoon consisted of theme parks and family get-togethers. We headed to Orlando to stay at the Portofino Bay Hotel, courtesy of my sister Jeanna, and to go to both Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. We were so excited to go, especially since this was Dave’s first time going and riding upside-down roller coasters. We got to Orlando pretty late so getting up early was really hard, but we did and got to experience both parks and do everything we wanted to do. Dave’s favorite ride was The Mummy and The Hulk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Dave so giddy after a ride before. Awesome! Later that night, we had dinner reservations at Mamma Dellas. Oh my gosh was their food amazing and the atmosphere was perfect. We had opera singers and accordion players serenading us. After dinner we headed to Universal City Walk where we spent most of our time at Margaritaville. We just happened to go there when Jimmy Buffet’s band, The Coral Reefers, were there playing. It was a great concert and a great way to end the day. The next morning, we got up and headed over to Rockledge, which is where Esther’s family lives. It was there we celebrated Victoria’s birthday. That’s Esther’s niece, who was also the flower girl at our wedding. We enjoyed visiting with family and relaxing. We headed back home the next day reminiscing of the last few trips we had taken and relishing in the moments of relaxation we had. We knew those days were going to be over soon. It’s back to the day to day grind and now that we are heading into the summer season, that means we will both be extremely busy. Dave with work plus adding music gigs and Esther with being Dave’s personal roadie and church stuff. All in all, we have been so blessed to have been able to stretch out our honeymoon over three trips.
Here are some pictures from our trips….Enjoy!
The two of you have expressions on your faces that tell it all! I’m so happy you shared these pics with us! We love you both more than we could ever tell you. God has blest you both and He has you both in His hands!
Really, 3 honeymoons? Do you want to know how many we had? 0. But we had a blast staying home and spending all of the wedding money. We’ve also had some great vacations since.