One Anniversary

this past weekend we celebrated our ONE year anniversary. I cannot believe how fast it just flew by, but it's been a dang good year together. to celebrate we knocked off a bucket list item, spent the day in the sunshine drinking champagne, and talked about our wedding and what we plan to do for the next 100 years together.  mike - i'm thankful always for the day i met you, the courage to ask you out, and the amazing time it's been together ever since.  i love you to the moon and back. 

(see more of our wedding and honeymoon ) 

**photo credits to our super fab wedding photographer and now friend - Jamieson Dean**

Honeymoon Part 3: Monaco

Now we are off to Monaco... If you've just started following you can check out part 1 and part 2 of our honeymoon trip. The purpose of hitting up Monaco on our trip was not just for luxury sun, fancy  and sand, but so we could enjoy one of the world's most popular races, the Monaco Grand Prix. Monaco is hands down a playground for the uber wealthy. Real estate is probably some of the most expensive this world has to offer and if you don't have a boat or  clothing that looks like it's been dipped in gold you might feel like you don't fit in. True natives to this country are few and far between, but they are there if you look hard enough. It is a stunningly beautiful place and if it was good enough for Grace Kelly, it is more than good enough for me. If you already read our honeymoon part 2 then you know we definitely couldn't afford to stay in Monaco, but we sure as heck made sure we made it for race day.

 My man is a die hard Ferrari fan, so as you can see we got ourselves some styling hats to show our team support ( i won't lie that i often cheer for whoever looks like they might win! yes i jump bandwagons!) We managed to score some super close seats so the rush as the cars passed and the noise level is more intense than words can describe. Thankfully i found those very fashion forward ear muffs you can see me sporting.

After a very long but beautiful race day by the water, we were preeeeeetty sun burnt, exhausted and ready to head back to our quiet and restful B & B oasis in La Turbie. While my husband would tell you the highlight was the race (and I won't lie having never seen an F1 race aside from on TV  it was pretty awesome), the highlight of this day for me might have just been seeing Ron Howard up close and personal chatting about his new movie Rush.

Honeymoon Part 2: La Turbie

the next stop on our honeymoon after we left the beautiful beaches in Nice was a small town situated just north of Monaco (literally, since it's straight up the mountain) called La Turbie. when we planned this vacation my husband-to-be mentioned in passing that the Grand Prix would be taking place at the same time in Monaco. seeing as he is a die hard fan of Ferrari & all things Forumula 1, come hell or high water I was determined to ensure that he/we weren't going to miss that once in a lifetime event (even if the tickets did cost an arm, and a leg, ok, or maybe two legs... ). once our race tickets were booked we began looking for a reasonable place to stay. now, clearly Monaco is a playground for the rich. consider it like cottage country for the uber stinky filthy rich and famous – with enormous boats. we knew from day one that we couldn't afford to stay in Monaco on our "reasonable" budget, so we started looking closer at small surrounding towns when we came across La Turbie and Sophie. literally a 10 min drive to Monaco (or a 1 euro and 20 min bus ride) this town was perfect. I won't lie and tell you it is a moderate size town. it is small. if you blink you will miss it, literally (that actually happened), and you definitely need to be good at walking up/driving up hills because it's a very, very steep town (but good for the buns). we loved this place and in a heart beat we would go back. if not for the peace and quiet in a rustic medieval town, then for the best bed and breakfast run by the sweetest lady named Sophie – who goes out of her way to ensure you have everything you need including, privacy, a cell phone (in case you get lost on day trips) & chilled champagne! La Turbie today is most famous for it's large Roman monument, the Trophy of Augustus. outside of that, it is home to some outstanding views of Monaco, great hiking trails, rich local wines, and a small selection of elegant local restaurants serving up traditional french dishes with new menu's daily. Travel Tip - ensure that you try a Nicose salad and Pistou, which originated from this part of the world. we did and it was well worth it. nom . nom. nom.

see! who couldn't fall in love with this ancient town. clearly the girl in these pictures is a few  drinks wines in on a lazy afternoon. give her a drink and she'll be silly for hours. i should also mention that on this leg of the trip we started our ritual of "amazing-mouth-watering-stone-oven-freshly-made-pizza" for lunch every day. i have officially concluded that a) I've unearthed a unbelievable obsession for stone oven pizza, and b) pizza really is better everywhere else in the world. let's get it together Canada.

Honeymoon Part 1 - Nice, France

during our year of wedding planning, we came to a point where we had to sit down and plan out our honeymoon ideas. Like most we started with a map, some markers and some resource books from which we made a list of all the places we would love to visit until we finally narrowed it down to the French Riviera and Tuscany. After all was said and done we  had a sweet honeymoon planned and long list of "other" anniversary trips we would tackle.

the day after our wedding we picked up our bags and boarded a plane to the beautiful and bright south of France. Nice was the city we decided to make our hub for the first week of our holiday. It's a central location that's easy to get to with many great small towns nearby. my husband LOVES the beach, and well, me not so much (not a huge fan of super hot weather), so this was the perfect combo actually. The air was warm with a nice breeze, stunning art deco architecture everywhere, an historic old town, beautiful but rocky beaches, and excellent food for sampling. We were lucky enough to have a rental car the whole trip, so we planned some day trips –  the beautiful medieval art down of Eze, Cannes for the film festival and the perfume capital Grasse. All in all, it was the perfect start to this honeymoon.

**new music on the player at the end of this post
*** all pictures shot with Sony NEX-3