Minimoon

This is part of my mini series about keeping things simple with our wedding.  The following is our personal take on a honeymoon and only reflects US.

At Katie and Billy’s wedding everyone was asking Nick and me where we are going on our honeymoon.  I guess it is a pretty common question to ask, but I had no idea so many people were that interested.

When it came to planning our honeymoon, which is really a minimoon, I sort of put it off to the side because the actual wedding is way more important to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good vacation, but Nick and I can have fun together anywhere (awwwww).  Nick also has a fear of flying but says he would get on a plane to any place we could not drive to.  I asked around to see what the hot stops were for couples and most people said some place in the Caribbean or overseas.

I’m not going to lie, going to Santorini Greece is one of my lifetime goals but at this point in our life it is an unrealistic destination if we want to put a nice chunk of change down on a house in a year.  House >>>> Vacation.  So, tropical island?  Most people tend to go to all inclusive resorts for their honeymoons to make things easier and they usually have “really good deals”.  Well the really good deals that I found were way out of our budget and we are not really all inclusive people (unless it is La Panacea in Costa Rica).  I am not a fan of over crowed pools and buffet dinners of food that is handpicked for Americans – give me local cuisine please!  It works for a lot of people and it would be really nice to not have to worry about a thing for a week after a hectic wedding day, but I don’t want to spend money on something that I only like 50% of the time.  We also looked into bed and breakfasts, but we felt like a honeymoon/minimoon should be spent enjoying each other and not other guests.

All this being said Nick and I decided to spend 3 night and 4 days in Lost River, WV for our minimoon.  Don’t know where that is?  That is because it isn’t on many maps and the road, the house we rented is located on, is made of gravel.  Perfect. 

The house is situated on the top of a hill overlooking the George Washington National Forest and includes a giant kitchen and fireplace.  We will be able to hike (you know we love to hike!) the forests and relax on our deck while enjoying each others company without 50 million other couples.  There are a bunch of rainy day options if we need them, but I would be more interested in having a fire and playing board games.  That is just how we roll – even if I am sore loser in monopoly every time

We are hoping to be able to take a bigger vacation for our one year anniversary or maybe summer 2012, but for now this is what works for us.  I am thinking RVing through Canada in the summer could be really fun!  We aren’t going to make any serious plans as of now because you never know where you will be in a year!

Where are you/did you go on your honeymoon and why did you pick that place?