Honeymoon Highlights

Thanks to booking early, a wonderful wedding gift, and saving our pennies, Ben and I were able to have an amazing honeymoon. We spent a night in Miami, Florida at our dream hotel and then ported on a cruise headed to Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico.

We stayed the Z Ocean Hotel in South Beach for our stay in Miami. Our hotel was beautiful and had tremendous views. For dinner that night we decided to live large and dropped a pretty penny on the best seafood and steak we've ever had at a restaurant called A Fish Called Avalon. I'd recommend it to any of my friends traveling to Miami in the future!

The next day we were lucky enough to have beautiful, 80 degree weather, so we got to take a walk on the beach. We naturally had to be cliche and write in the sand. It was our honeymoon, after all.

 

Here's a fun story: When Ben and I went to the car rental place at the airport on Sunday to get our car, we went expecting to get a basic, economy car because we paid for the cheapest gig possible. Well, they were "out" of those cars and wanted to give us a minivan... I ended up asking the representative helping us if there was ANYTHING ELSE we could drive because I didn't exactly picture myself cruising around Miami on my honeymoon in a minivan. With that, he told us he would "take care of us" for our honeymoon. So we got this beauty for the same price. Cruising with the top down was definitely a highlight of our trip!

Ben and me being Ben and me (foodies), we had to try out the sushi before we left for the cruise. We asked around and were told to try a place called Moshi Moshi. We were NOT disappointed.

Our cruise's first stop was Key West, Florida. It was actually kind of nice having the first port still in the US. We were able to do and see a lot, but had no trouble with currency or cell phone service.

A fun thing about Key West is that where we were, the mail street was named Duval street. Not quite our last name, BUT PRETTY DARN CLOSE. Obviously, we had to take pictures.

Overall, the cruise was great! They had delicious food available for every meal, fun shows (musical, comedic, and otherwise) to see every night, and we even found drinks we liked at the bar! :)

Ben was also able to snag some really cool shots while we were on the ship!

We also really enjoyed our time in Mexico even though it was shorter than we would have liked. We didn't get to make it to the ruins, so we would like to go back to do that someday. Something cool that we did do was buy a turquoise ring (or I should say Ben bought it for me). My grandmother was a huge fan of turquoise and when she passed away, I wasn't able to have any of those piece of her jewelry. Ben and I searched high and low for a ring that I loved, that we felt suited her too. It's a close third in the ranking of my favorite rings that he's ever bought me. ;) Check out all three here:

In the end, it was a wonderful trip aside from the fleeting seasickness we experienced on the boat. Ben and I are already planning a trip back to Florida for our one-year anniversary to do the things we weren't able to do these past couple of January's. Here's to many years of celebration and skipping out on the freezing temps that all of our loved ones at home were dealing with!