The Speakeasy

Have you ever heard of the 1920s Speakeasy Bars? Well if you haven't, during the Prohibition Era the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages was illegal throughout the United States. Because of this, secret establishments were set up in order to sell alcohol. Typically you had to have some sort of password to even be let into the establishment and then it was in the backroom of a clock shop or something similar so it could be hidden.

Well, Branden and I discovered there is a Speakeasy that exists in San Francisco (ok Groupon informed us). We decided to take the bait and buy tickets to the show (it's an interactive show in a secret location). We were not informed of the location until the day before the event. At 5pm on Thursday I received a text message that said:

This is Joe from Joe's Clock Shop. Bring your watch in for repair tomorrow evening. Here's how to find me: (a website was listed after).

When I clicked on the website I was given the following directions:

Arrive at the front steps of the Asian Art Museum (across from City Hall). Be Prompt.

Find the person holding a yellow book and ask: "How does the story end?"

Do not approach if anyone else is near.

Friday night came and we were both ready for our adventure! We did our best to take pictures of each other but we still haven't quite mastered it yet.

Sorry for the blurry pictures!

 City Hall was decorated red and gold for the 49ers so we had to take pictures in front of it!

Once we found the man with the yellow book we were sent on our way to the secret location. We had to go a little more than a block and then go down an alley where we had to find Mickey. They led us inside and from then on we were able to enjoy the show!

Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures inside but I was able to take pictures of a few items they had available to take home.

We had a great time and really enjoyed being able to dress up!

Saturday Birthday Celebration

On Saturday Branden and I drove to Sacramento to celebrate my brother's birthday. Almost the whole family came to celebrate.

My grandmother decided to convince Bob to bring his swimsuit so when they arrived to my parents' house he decided to take a dip in the pool. The temperature was 3 degrees warmer then when I jumped in but I'm sure you really couldn't tell the difference between 52 and 55. Bob was a good sport and even swam a lap.

Then it was time for dinner! We had delicious appetizers and an amazing prime rib dinner. We all laughed and enjoyed spending time with everyone!

 Taylor shows lots of maturity :-)

Happy birthday to my amazing older brother!

Honeymoon Recap - Part 1

So I'm a little delayed in my honeymoon recap but life has been quite busy! Better late than never I suppose! I'm going to break up the honeymoon recap into a few different posts since we did so much and went to so many places.

Branden and I took a 12 day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale down to the Panama Canal. We had never been on a vacation together so I was looking forward to just being able to experience something new with him!

The vacation started off with a bit of a rough patch. We arrived to the Oakland airport only to find out our flight was delayed.

We had a connection to make in Austin so the first thing we did was make sure with the airline that we would be fine to make this connection. They assured us that everything would be fine and the plane would wait for our plane to land before it took off. When we got to Austin we were informed (along with 6 other people) that our plane had left. Southwest did an amazing job keeping our anger levels low and immediately compensated us $400 each for the inconvenience and re-routed our trips. However, because we had to catch the cruise the next day we didn't like the options they gave us.

The option Southwest gave us was to fly from Austin to Dallas to New Orleans, stay the night in New Orleans, then in the morning fly from New Orleans to Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale. This would have gotten us into the airport around 12:30 and we had to catch our ship by 3:30. If we had any delays in those flights we potentially would have had a huge problem. We asked about flying to Orlando and they were able to get us on a plane leaving in 5 minutes. However, they were able to find my luggage but not Branden's. We decided to bite the bullet and hope his luggage showed up before we left.

We flew into Orlando, rented a car, and drove down to Ft. Lauderdale.

We got into Ft. Lauderdale at 2am local time and found out we got upgraded to a suite! That was nice but we weren't really able to enjoy it since we got in so late and Branden's luggage was still lost.

After a short night's sleep we got up and went to the Ft. Lauderdale airport in hopes Branden's bags got there. Unfortunately they weren't there yet so we had to make a quick decision. We decided to go to Ross and buy him all new stuff. After our trip to Ross we went back to the airport to check one last time that his bag arrived...AND IT DID! It ended up being on the flight from Tampa so thankfully we had everything he needed. We went directly to the ship and got there just before 3. Once we got on the ship it was stress free from then on!

 First photo on the ship!

 Safety Drill

 We got ourselves settled, took the obligatory cruise life jacket photo, and then we were set to sail!

Leaving the port in Florida

Looking back at the coast

We sailed on the Coral Princess

After setting sail we explored the ship a little and then got ready for dinner. We were so happy we got a room with a balcony so we could enjoy some pre-dinner drinks and listen to the ocean.

 Enjoying a drink before dinner

  First night of dinner! We opted to go to the traditional dining and eat with the same people each evening.

 Our itinerary had us with 2 sea days right at the beginning so we were able to have some fun on the ship. We slept in, ate a bunch, and enjoyed many of the activities the ship had to offer. Some of our favorite activities were the trivia sessions, game sessions, and poolside activities. When we weren't participating in the Princess planned activities, you could usually find us by the pool or reading on the decks. Our first formal night was the second evening and we really enjoyed dressing up. Branden got a new suit just before the cruise (thanks Men's Warehouse for the great post-wedding deal) and I thought he looked dashing! We had some fun taking pictures in our room before we headed down to dinner.

Our first stop was in Aruba. We decided to take a tour of the entire island and we both really enjoyed it. We saw the main highlights and were able to walk around and do some shopping. We even found a local Starbucks that had free wi-fi so we could communicate with our family back home! Here are some of the highlights we saw:

 Inside the chapel

 Outside the chapel

 California Lighthouse

 California Lighthouse

 Natural Bridge

Natural Bridge

 The older natural bridge that collapsed

 The sea near the natural bridge

 Rock Formations

 Top of the rock formations

 Rock Formations

 We stopped at a supermarket for some local beer. The name was amusing

After doing our tour we headed back to the ship and hung out by the pool to watch some football! I snapped some pictures of Aruba from the ship and then settled in for a relaxing afternoon.

Continuing on to Colombia

The next stop on our itinerary was Colombia. This was our first time in South America. We didn't love Colombia but definitely enjoyed being able to experience a new country. Once again we decided to do a tour of the highlights of our port city, Cartagena.

This was our view of Colombia from our room as we were docked

An old fortress in Colombia

A museum dedicated to all the witchcraft from the old times.

One of our stops allowed us to take a photo of a sloth! It was adorable.

After our tour we headed back to the ship and we were on our way to our next destination. On the way out of port I decided to go to the front of the ship and take a few pictures.

Panama, here we come! Part 2 to follow in a few days :-).