The honeymoon that wasn't

Once we got our honeymoon thinkin' hats on, we made some important preliminary decisions.  We decided against Europe because travel would eat up too much of our time budget.  We had already nixed the Caribbean because we didn't want a hurricane third-wheeling it with us in paradise.  We ruled out Hawaii because of the prohibitively high cost of airfare and the jet lag/travel time consideration that applied to Europe (this elimination broke my heart a little bit, but I did get GG to propose that we visit Hawaii as our last hurrah before kids... success!)  Mexico was a maybe at best because we didn't really want to deal with the language, electricity, and currency translations, plus we're kind of weenies and scared by news reports of bad things south of the border.

With all of these things crossed off the list, we had pretty much decided that the continental US would be our focus area.  We also agreed that we wanted a beach-based vacation.  Long story short, my parents belong to a Disney-based timeshare organization that gives you access to properties all over the country.  One of which was the Hotel del Coronado, right outside of San Diego.

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Neither of us has ever been to San Diego before, so it seemed appropriately foreign and exotic for a once-in-a-lifetime trip.  The hotel is steeped in old glamor, giving off very regal and romantic vibes.  Just check out the lobby!

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We'd be on the beach so we could take surfing lessons, go fishing, and get a nice tan (or burn, in my case).   At the same time, we'd be still pretty close to the city, so we could do day trips for fabulous restaurants, great shopping, or maybe even pay a visit to the famous San Diego Zoo.  This trip met pretty much all of our pre-requisites, so what was the hold-up?

Well, for one, if we wanted to enjoy some nice meals, our budget would probably only allow us to have a basic room, as opposed to a gorgeous ocean-front room like this:

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I'm not really interested in shelling out big(ish) bucks to get close to the ocean and then sit in a room with a view of the parking lot.  On top of the accommodation issue, we also ran into a lot of hesitancy from friends and family, specifically those who had stayed in the Del or spent considerable time in San Diego.  The conversations usually went as follows:

Us: Have you ever been to San Diego or the Del?

Them: Oh, yeah!!

Us: Wow, so is it fair to say you liked it there?

Them: Oh, yeah!!

Us: Great, we're really thinking of honeymooning there!

Them: Um... I don't really know... I probably wouldn't....

No joke, we had this conversation about a half-dozen times with people we crossed paths with.  No one could really pinpoint why this destination wasn't right for a honeymoon or right for our honeymoon, but their complete transformation from rah-rah to nay-nay was enough to make us reconsider.  I wasn't quite ready to let the San Diego dream go away, so I tried to put my own spin on the honeymoon itinerary to try and salvage this plan... stay tuned!

How did you decide where to take your honeymoon?