California + French Polynesia Itinerary

When Mr. Strange proposed in the fall of 2016, we knew that we did not want a big wedding. We wanted most of our budget to go toward an amazing vacation, and there was one place we had talked about going as a dream locale: Bora Bora.

With that in mind, we soon developed a plan to get married in California. I don’t remember how we settled on the date of March 14 (pi day!) but I believe it had something to do with available dates for our original ceremony location: Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur. We were also planning around wanting to see a Predators away game, and they were playing San Jose on March 11.

However, in late February, less than three weeks before our wedding, a mudslide caused Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge to collapsing, blocking northern access to Big Sur, including access to Pfeiffer Beach and our wedding night hotel (Post Ranch Inn), so we had to scramble to find a new place to hold our ceremony (luckily, not too hard to find as we were just wanting a beach and our parents were the only guests invited) and a hotel for the night. This was a few months before the bigger Mud Creek landslide that ended up blocking access to Big Sur for more than a year. Thus, we ended up with the following itinerary:

Day 1 – Friday, March 10 – San Jose

Flight to San Jose
Pick up rental car
Winchester Mystery House tour (2-2.5 hours)
~~Optional: Computer History Museum~~ (open 10am – 8pm) – We ended up not having time for this.
Check into Fairmont Hotel San Jose

Day 2, Saturday, March 11 – San Jose

1:00 pm: San Jose Sharks vs Nashville Predators

Day 3, Sunday, March 12 – Drive to Carmel

Apple campus and store
Google campus
Santa Cruz Boardwalk
Check into Tradewinds Carmel
~~Optional: Carmel Wine Walk~~ – We did not end up doing this.

Day 4, Monday, March 13 – Carmel

Get marriage license in Salinas
17 Mile Drive
~~Monterey Bay Aquarium~~ – Ran out of time for this.
Monastery Beach – This was the beach we were getting married at, so we wanted to visit ahead of time to ensure we knew where to go.
Point Lobos State Park

Day 5, Tuesday, March 14 – Wedding Day!

11:30 am: Hair and nail appointment at La Coiffure in Carmel
3:00 pm: Arrive at Tickle Pink Inn
3:30 pm: Photographers arrive, flowers delivered
4:30 pm: Garrapata State Park for photos
6:00 pm: Wedding ceremony at Monastery Beach

Day 6, Wednesday, March 15 – Pacific Coast Highway

Our original plan on this day was to drive through Big Sur, but due to the rockslide, we had to take a detour around using Hwy 101 instead of Hwy 1, so had to skip most of what we had planned to do on our road trip. But I am leaving our original plan here for future reference.

Garrapata State Park – We enjoyed this place so much from having photos done here the day before that we returned to explore further.
Bixby Bridge
~~McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park~~ – inaccessible
~~Hearst Castle~~ – accessible but would require backtracking, which we didn’t have time for
~~San Simeon (elephant seals)~~ – accessible but would require backtracking
Morro Rock – We happened upon this while driving, noticing the giant rock in the distance and following it.
Check in to Inn at the Cove, Pismo Beach