Honeymoon Destination: Northern California

We've planned a simple but fun driving adventure into northern California. We'll be checking out the Golden State's majestic coastline as we head up to wine country, hitting a few points of curiosity on the way there...and the way back – places we've heard about, seen pictures of, and wanted to visit...but never really had the chance to explore...right here within a day's drive of our very own Hollywood.

For our honeymoon, we will set out from Pasadena on Sunday, and drive northwest. We'll be having dinner for two in beautiful Santa Barbara. From there, our journey takes us to a hotel near the famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA. It sounds spooky. I guess I'm thinking "Hearse Castle." Like a hearse that drives around dead people...sorry, didn't mean to be morbid or weird. Anyway, we'll spend the night in San Simeon and wake up early (but not too early) to see the castle. After touring the site, we'll continue up the coast to the city of Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz will be our second stop. We'll spend the night here after crashing a wild UC Santa Cruz frat party. Just kidding. Sonia heard it's really pretty here. I took her word for it, because..well, here it is on our Honeyfund site. And you have the chance to help us pay for it.

Then we'll be cruising up to our northernmost destination, the Napa Valley. Here, we'll spend 3 relaxing, romantic evenings getting sloppy drunk on California's finest wines. Again, I kid. We've selected a bed and breakfast known for its picturesque location and mom-and-pop's style hospitality...and its chocolate truffles.

After that, we're going to San Francisco. And, yes, we'll be sure to wear some flowers in our hair. We'll spend 3 days checking out the city, doing touristy nonsense (I really want to see that street where they shot the exteriors for "Full House") and we'll spend our nights in a hotel overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

On our return trip, we stop at Big Sur. What is a "sur" anyway? Does anyone else think this might have been a type-o..."Big Surf" maybe? Anyway, aside from having a funny name, Big Sur supposedly has really cool rocks on the shore, and when the ocean hits these alleged cool rocks, really cool mist and spray and jets of water and things fly way up in the air...or something like that.

Then we'll go to Ventura Harbor, spend the night, and take an Island Packers ferry to Anacapa Island. This section of the Pacific is known to be on the migratory route of several species of whales! We'll take the ferry across this whale "freeway" (I bet the whale freeway is WAY less stressful than the 405) for a one hour journey until we get to the closest of the channel islands. There, we will hike and observe ocean birds and rare flowers...well, that's what the brochure says, but I'm not sure how many flowers will be in bloom in October...but it will be very nice, flowers or not...