Wow. It has been, like, two weeks since I last blogged. Where was I? I was living life, I suppose. I know this sounds Cracky McBonkers, but sometimes life happens offline. I KNOW RIGHT??? Here is where I do all my life and wedding planning, but I have to go OUT THERE to actually live it and do it. Something is not syncing up correctly. Perhaps I should reinstall my operating system.

Annnd… check. Weekly internet joke quota has been filled.

One of the things I was doing during all this time was looking at venues with the boy. In Monterey. Let me just say that I am in love with all of Monterey’s historical parks and buildings. It has a figurative sh*t ton of them. We were standing in a museum, being helped by a kind elderly docent. She whipped out a large map and circled our location and the location of another building we wanted to see. Then she just kept going. “You might want to stop here (circle), this is only two blocks down, and over here is the first house that was built in Monterey (circle), that’s just three blocks over, and while you’re there you might want to stop in and check out the first theatre in Monterey (circle), that’s across the street… “ And so on.

corner of the courtyard

corner of the courtyard

center of the courtyard

center of the courtyard

We did. We looked at all of them, and then some. The one that stood out above the rest was the Memory Garden. It’s a courtyard surrounded by adobe walls, with magnolia trees wrapped up in lights. It’s got a lot of built-in character, and it’s fairly inexpensive to rent, too.

A couple of guys were just starting to set up tables for a wedding reception when we first got there, and they said we could come back a couple hours later to check it out when it was closer to being done. We did, and it was awesome to see how it could potentially look for our own wedding in person.

As with everything, though, the Memory Garden has drawbacks. For one, the venue is located in a very touristy area surrounded by pricey hotels. For another, we didn’t find anywhere suitable to having an after party. Also, it’s right near the water and I’m kind of worried about the fog/cold element, even in the fall.

Not least is the fact that it’s run by the California State Parks, so… who knows if they might end up shutting it down or not.

So that’s that. We have one potential so far. Time to keep looking. Keep on keepin’ on.