2009 Trips

So being a commuting couple we have done a lot of travelling. I know I have previously mentioned some of our trips but I love reviewing them so much I am just gonna do a brief overview- and maybe it will help someone pick their next vacation spot :)

February Matt flew up to Rochester and we had a valentines day date in the apartment where I cooked and he had the most beautiful flowers delivered. Then we went out for valentines a few days later to beat the crowd. We ate at Pappa Joes a quaint but amazing italian restaurant on the outskirts of the city.

In March we went to Topsail, NC for the first time. And wow it is our favorite vacation spot now and we have already returned this year. It was march but we were able to take long walks on the beach - we just needed a sweatshirt it was amazing. We rented a condo because there are no hotels right there on the beach and we were able to walk down the stairs and be right on the beach. It was incredible. And we also had the most amazing chinese restaurant there - called Nikki's I believe.

April we travelled many places. We started off in Maryland to have Easter with my family and he met my extended family then we drove up to Saratoga to remeet each others familys since we hadn't ever really gotten to know the familys and had seen them maybe once back in highschool. And then we returned to rochester and had the rest of the week there while I worked and Matt studied for an exam.

In May we went to Brunswick, NC and Myrtle Beach, SC. And clearly you have read about this before ... since this is when we got ENGAGED :) We had a great time staying at the Brunswick Plantation Hotel and this again was a hotel but it was more of condos really on a golf course. With many local small beaches. And a lot of wonderful seafood restaruants.... yum!!!

June we had to skip :( because we had two trips coming up in July- we were suppose to go to Maryland to do our marriage counseling in Ocean City Maryland but Matt ended up being the on duty corpsman the weekend we were suppose to go and the weekend we tried to make it up - I ended up being too sick to travel. So we had a loooooooooooong time we didn't get to see each other.

But then... July we did 4th of July in Maryland with my extended family in order to do our marriage counseling and to do final touches on the wedding. And actually seeing the places we picked since we had done everything remotely up until this point. Then a few weeks later we went to Portland, OR to Colleen and Kevin's wedding. Their wedding was beautiful, it was 80's and sunny for the outside ceremony, with a traditional reception. The previous night I went out with the ladies while Matt got booted and ended up crashing the bachelor party going to the casino since he couldn't come with the ladies :) But we had found a karoke bar and for some reason there was a bunch of people out in a group that night dressed as pirates.... oregon was weird.... the wedding was nice but we did not enjoy portland- the city was dirty and the transportation system terrible. The bums and hippies sitting on the sidewalks everywhere I think is what did us in. But we were able to catch up with some west coast friends that we hadn't seen in a long time and that was really great and it helped the trip. We met up with Sarah, and Kristina and her husband Eric the day after Colleen's wedding and went hiking and sightseeing before taking the red eyes home.

Then in august unfortunetly due to the cost of a trip to the west coast combined with the cost of our own wedding, and not having enough time off to take in august if we wanted a full week off in september, we had to skip august too :( luckily the trips in July were at the beginning and almost at the end to try and make it happen. But it made seeing him the day before the wedding all the sweeter.

So I didn't see Matt again until the day before the wedding. I drove down the day before the wedding, dropped off everything at the hotel, then went and got my nails done, then Matt and I picked up all the flowers, then had something else- I forget what else we had to do then had the sort of rehearsal dinner. Then we had the wedding and honeymoon in Virginia. And we found we loved Jamestown the best. It was beautiful and relaxing. That was the best part of the honeymoon.

Post wedding we have had quite a few trips already. October we had 2 because it was such a long month. The beginning of october we returned to our beloved Topsail. It was much busier in Oct then it had been in March but it was still as wonderful as before. At the end of October we travelled to Raleigh, NC where we visited Duke, UNC and NCSU, and where we had a amazing dinner at a restaurant next to the hotel on halloween. And then we also were able to meet up with some high school friends, Chad and Amanda before we returned back to work again.

Then in November we had Thanksgiving with Matts family and Christmas we will have in Saratoga but those get their own blog entries :) So that is the sum of the travel for 2009....