Hotel Del Anniversary Trip

On our bucket list, Dan and I knew that staying at Hotel Del Coronado had to be on there. For Christmas we asked for gifts/gift cards to help us work on our Bucket List, and this past Christmas we received a gift card towards a stay at the iconic Hotel Del Coronado from my mom and step-dad. We already had plans for our February break, and so we decided to make the trip for our seven year anniversary. After the trip Dan commented that that anniversary trip and anniversary was out best anniversary yet, and I have to agree. Here is a glimpse into our best anniversary yet!



Yay for Hotel Del!



When we arrived at the hotel we were surprised to find out that we were able to check in early (score) and that we ended up with an ocean view room (double score). We proceeded to our room to take in the view...quite amazing!

Our view of the main hotel from our room.

Our view of the ocean from our room. So beautiful!



Our nighttime view of the water.

Our nighttime view of the main building.



We spent a few hours checking out the hotel grounds and relaxing before our big photo shoot! Yup, that's right we did a photo shoot. Another Bucket List item was to do a trash the dress photo shoot. Dan and I discussed various ideas for our trash the dress shoot, but since we knew we were going to Hotel Del, and would be at one of the country's top 10 most iconic beaches that we had to do the shoot there. I am going to save more details and all the pictures in a separate blog. If you want a sneak peak look at the pictures I shared on Facebook. Our friend Brian Jones did an amazing job!


After our shoot we went back to our hotel room to get cleaned up. Many was there sand everywhere! My dress and all of its layers were covered in sand, Dan's clothes and all of his pockets were full of sand, and our photographers bag was full of sand. All of that sand made its way to our beautiful hotel room. Our shower was covered in sand. We had not even been in the hotel room 6 hours and it was now quite sandy. Dan figured that we could call and request house cleaning to clean the room...and they did!

After getting clean we headed down to Eno Wine Bar which is a restaurant on the Del property. We had a wonderful dinner overlooking the pool with the ocean in the background. We ordered the charred brussel sprouts and a wood fired pizza. The sprouts left a little to be desired; they needed the bottoms cut off and needed to be cooked longer. After eating them we were a little nervous that the pizza would be a disappointment as well. But that was not the case. The pizza was so delicious!

Waiting for our pizza. This makeup was the leftover makeup from rolling
around in the ocean for the trash the dress shoot and then taking a shower.
MAC makeup is pretty heavy duty!

Seven years of wedded bliss with this guy!

Both of us! Yay to us and yay to 7 years....many more to come.

The fire pit at the end of our table. Such an incredible setting.

After dinner, since it was our anniversary they brought us their s'mores cheesecake. We originally planned to get ice cream from the creamery for dessert and get the cheesecake the next day, but what are you going to do when you get a gift of cheesecake...eat it! The cheesecake has a square base of graham cracker crust, cheesecake on top of the crust, Hersey chocolate ganache of the cheesecake, and then covered with a homemade marshmallow. The entire cheesecake is then topped off in the pizza oven. I usually do not post pictures of food...but this was too good to not post!

The cheesecake is delivered!

The cheesecake cut open and ready to be consumed in all of its glory!

We made reservations to go kayaking on our second day at the hotel. Last year we did a kayak tour but felt that we could have done more kayaking on our own, so this year we just rented kayaks and did some kayaking on our own. We had a great time on the open sea just the two of us. After kayaking we got some barbeque and some cupcakes and then headed back to the hotel to rest.

A pose with our kayak paddles after our kayak tour.

After kayaking, barbeque and cupcakes we relaxed at one of the many pools at the Hotel Del property. This particular pool was and adults only pool so it was quiet and calm...a nice place to relax. After relaxing at the pool we then headed to play in the ocean. One thing that surprised us while doing the trash the dress shoot and then again during this time was how warm the water was. I guess that is one of the benefits of the warm winter we had this past year.

After cleaning up from the kayaking, relaxing in the pool and then playing in the ocean we decided to head down for dinner. For some reason I had fish and chips or some sort of seafood. We went to one restaurant, but they had over an hour long wait. So we then went to a bar that had a similar menu, but after waiting for what seemed forever, with no one coming to take our order, we went back to Eno Wine Bar. We had another scrumptious dinner and intend to head back.

Our final morning at the hotel we again relaxed and then finally made our way to the creamery! It was a Coldstone type creamery, but with way more ice cream selections.

We really did have an amazing trip, and as Dan said, our best anniversary yet! Here are more pictures from our wonderful time celebrating 7 years of wedded bliss!

Out front of the hotel.

A panoramic view of the hotel.

A panoramic view of the ocean,

 

Eating our ice cream.