I'm so over Winter

I was totally fine with a winter wedding that may have been snowed in because I was looking forward to my Caribbean honeymoon!  But the honeymoon was cancelled and life goes on as usual, but my beach craving hasn't been fulfilled!

After being snowed in this week, I went to the mall today and saw all the bright colors getting ready for spring so I thought I'd share some Pinterest finds for my perfect beach vacation!

First up: Neiman Marcus The Art of Travel Pinterest board

  

  

  

Then the more-in-my-price-range: Nordstrom's Nordstrom Catalog Pinterest board

 

  

  

and finally a mix of things I can and will buy as soon as possible:

Lilly Pulitzer has a Resort 2012 board up already!

 

 mod cloth is a new-to-me dress site that I love!

 

All found on Pinterest

 

 

and good ole' Roxy is just beachy fun!

 

 

Are you ready for summer?  How much of your wardrobe do you reuse/donate/buy new?

Bring on the sun and get me to a beach!!

Grits!

The Honeymoon that wasn't

The great thing about Texas is that we have it all: Mountains, lakes, rivers, snow, heat, international borders, oceans, ports, beaches, etc.  The Sunday morning following our wedding, after breakfast with the best friends in Dallas, we headed down to one of Texas' gems: Galveston, a coastal town in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Being Sunday we didn't want to miss out on our first Sunday mass as a married couple.  So we found a church with an evening mass we could make.  It was at St. Anthony of Padua (of course! this is J's patron saint) in the Woodlands.  It was the youth mass and it was an amazing experience.  The deacon's homily was about the role of a father in the house and how the faith life of all children comes from the father.  Pretty cool thing for my 1-day-old-husband to hear! 

After mass we pulled into Galveston and decided to stay at a beach front, but hole-in-the-wall motel.  The weather is cold and rainy, but we'll be on a cruise ship for the next week!  No need to spend money on luxury now.  And since we'll be eating fresh fish from the ocean all week, we decide to order a pizza.  J is acting weird and he hates this hotel (it costs $47/night).  He has a feeling we should stay in a fancy hotel.  But when I suggest pizza he lightens up.  We walk into our hotel room and think "This is the type of room people are murdered in".  But we suck it up and enjoy our pizza.  We picked this place because of the free wifi, but the wifi doesn't work on his new iPad.  Now J really wants a 5 star hotel. 

We flip on the TV and hear the news: A Carnival ship is stranded in the Gulf of Mexico and will be towed to shore within the next few days.  You know you heard the story... 

Source

With all the wedding commotion, travel and lodging decisions we hadn't been listening to news radio.  I hadn't been checking twitter.  We were relaxing and enjoying each other's company!  Now we sit on a cheap hotel bed with pizza we have no appetite for, and discover our honeymoon is no more.  J is so disappointed because he had a feeling we should have stayed 5 star.  And now it's 11pm and we're stuck in this dump.  Happy Honeymoon. 

At 10 am on Monday (the day we are supposed to board the ship at noon - in 2 hours) we get a call from Carnival saying they have important information regarding our trip.  Are you kidding?!  We called our booking agent at 8am!  By now he's on the ball telling us what to do and offering what little help he can give. 

Realizing we need to start heading home and not waste our vacation days in this misty, cold and windy town, we start packing up and checking out.  We do stop by Hotel Galvez for a mimosa and bloody mary. 

 

yay! for wedding rings!

He had huevos rancheros and I had lox and bagels. 

  

Love this display!

Then we bought some sad souvenirs to remember this fiasco. 

Of course we made the best of it by traveling through San Antonio and enjoying a night on the Riverwalk with dinner at Fogo de Chao.

  

 

and breakfast at our favorite taco place.  Taco Haven

As of now, we're back to Green Acres, still awaiting our full refund and travel expense reimbursement from Carnival.  We're exciting to book our next cruise with the 25% discount we'll receive!  This time we're flying to Miami and getting on the brand new ship!  Viva Mexico!

Grits,