govcampbell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
govcampbell) wrote2006-01-02 02:56 am
govcampbell) wrote2006-01-02 02:56 am
Home Again!
WE’RE BACK!
Before you click the links, be warned, this is a very long post. Click at your own risk!
It’s hard to believe that it finally happened, but it did. I’m married. To Sara. All is right with the world. As for the event itself, it went spectacularly. Everyone got to and from the wedding without any difficulty, praise the good Lord. There were only a few minor mishaps. (More in a bit)
Thursday, after the rehearsal, everybody (the whole bridal party + anybody who was already in town for the shindig) went out to the Ninety-Nine, and we had this big, massive, stag/hen party all in one. A few drinks were consumed but not a whole heck of a lot, since Sara had to drive herself home, and under no circumstances could I go home drunk. But everyone had a blast, and our friends got to meet each other for the first time, and it was great. Erin, the MoH, in particular, hit it off well with the groomsmen, and she had a blast.
Friday morning is a blur at this point, a sequence of shuttling people and cars around so they would be in the right place at the right time. I vaguely remember stopping for a while at the hotel room of one of my groomsmen, Quincy, and watching part of a movie before my cellphone started squawking again.
Now, we decided to get married at 5 pm, the Friday before Christmas, and while it was in the back of my mind, I didn’t quite realize how much of a problem traffic was going to be. The church is on the fringes of one of the busiest intersections in town. Traffic was terrible. I told the groomsmen to be at the church by 4:15, and I myself very nearly missed the mark.
Thomas, who is Sara’s (and now mine too) nephew, is 8, and was serving as a junior usher in the wedding party. Shortly after arriving at the church, cellphones starting ringing, and I found out that poor Thomas had fallen down the stairs at his house as they were leaving for the church and ripped open his tux pants. His father was bravely trying to get him over to the tux store, in the mall, at 4 o’clock the Friday before Christmas, to get him new pants. Believe it or not, he made it. Thomas didn’t get into any of the pre-wedding pictures, because he cut it so close, but he did get to walk his grandma down the aisle before the service started.
As for the ceremony itself, I remember the good part. I said “I do” in all the right places, and there was a pretty good kiss involved.
It had started raining during the service, so we hustled out to limo, and the driver took us around town for a while to give the guests a chance to get to the reception. We drove through the parking lot of our old High school, where we had started dating so long ago, and toasted the building with the champagne supplied. We never got out of the limo, but I think we broke a state law consuming alcohol on school property.
The reception was great. I didn’t get a chance to eat much food, but what I had was very good. I’ve been to events at this particular location before, so I know the rest must have been good too. We made the usual rounds, and gave out lots of hugs and kisses, and such and all. We danced our first dance to Clint and Lisa Hartman Black’s “When I Said I Do”. I danced with my Mum to “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler, and she barely avoided sobbing openly.
Speaking of tears, my groomsmen were awesome, and some of then openly admitted to crying, both at the wedding, and when they opened the letters I gave them that went with their gifts (I got them pocket watches to wear with their tuxes.). I’m touched that what I had to say meant that much to them, and it meant the world for me just to have them there.
They also performed their groomsmenly duty and decorated the car. It was actually rather subdued, all things considered. I was worried for a bit, but it wasn’t that bad in the end.
If I had to pick a favourite moment from the reception, it would have to be toward the end. Most everyone had gone home, and it was just bridal party folks left, for the most part, plus a few others (pretty much everyone who had travelled to come was milking it till the very end. Most of the locals had gone home). The DJ played Brad Paisley’s Alcohol, as per my request. Anderson, one of the groosmen, and a very, very, good friend, (He probably would have been Best Man if he hadn’t transferred to a new school during Sophomore year), looked over at me, eyes lighting up as the song came on, ran over and grabbed me, and we started swaying, and pretty soon, everybody had put their arms around each other’s shoulders and we were all swaying in a circle, singing along. The DJ was laughing his a$$ off, and the photographer thought it was great.
We got everyone back to airports/train stations on Christmas eve. Christmas day was different, waking up somewhere other than my house, but it was nice to be with Sara.
Our flight to Memphis left at 6:05 in the morning the day after Christmas. Dad took us to the airport. The flight from Boston to Memphis was smooth, and we made our connection easily after a brief moment of panic before we realized that, yes, we were actually on-time to Memphis, not an hour late, because we, oh, wait, lost an hour to a time zone change. (We hadn’t changed our watches). Flight from Memphis to Miami was similarly smooth. We were in our stateroom on the Majesty of the Seas by 2 pm.
The Majesty is one of the oldest in the Royal Caribbean fleet, and while the crew does a marvellous job, you can tell. Our stateroom was tiny, unlike the picture I saw in the cruise brochure. I later found out the picture was taken from a ship of the “Brilliance” class ships.
Describing each individual day would take up far too much space, so I’ll give you some highlights.
The food was spectacular. Food was all included, and we ate all the time. Room service was available 24 hours a day. One night we had cake, nachos, and 5 little cartons of milk delivered. I ate the beef entrée at dinner every night. I felt like I wasn’t cultured enough to eat dinner on the cruise, but I did the best I could.
On Monday night, the ship didn’t get ABC, so we were able to get the Monday Night Football game on ESPN Vivo. The game was broadcast in English, (it was the usual Michaels/Madden commentary) but the commercials were all in Spanish. It was the funniest football game I’ve ever watched.
Nassau, in the Bahamas, was a little sketchy. The city was dirty, and people were trying to sell you something on every corner. But we spent most of our time in Nassau participating in a Dolphin Encounter excursion. That’s Sara’s story, though, so you’ll have to wait for her to post that up [Bad username or site: ”arasnaem” @ livejournal.com].
I lost a little bit of money at the blackjack table. I don’t know when to walk away, really. I got greedy. I had doubled my money at one point, but I kept playing. I’m an idiot. Oh well. Moving on.
We went snorkaling in Coco Cay, which was great. We saw some really neat stuff. The cruise line owns the whole island, and they’ve staged a couple of nice wrecks out in the lagoon to attract fish. The plane was dumped there, I could tell, because it had been stripped: no instruments, no control wires, no tires, no engine, no gas tank. They also created a simulacrum of a ship wreck, complete with cannon. Except really, if they wanted us to believe that it was part of a ship that had been broken up and scattered in a hurricane, they wouldn’t have put in any cannon, because cannons sink, they don’t move around with pieces of hull.
Key West was neat, we went on a glass bottom boat tour, saw lots of fish, and even a couple turtles. Walked down Duval Street, and saw Margarittaville, which was really neat, since I’m a big Parrothead. Also walked the length of the island to see the sign at the Southermost Point. (90 miles to Cuba!)
Key West is still suffering though. The hurricanes did a lot of damage. Some of the piers haven’t been rebuilt yet. Everything is still in some state of disrepair. The water isn’t as clear either, since there’s still a lot of silt stirred up.
We had a great week. We made some wonderful memories.
So, it couldn’t last right?
We got to Miami, and waited to get a bus back to the airport. The airport was mobbed. We stood in line forever for the check in counter, and when we got their, we won the TSA lottery for extra special security check. Our bags went to be searched, while we had to show a bunch of idea to prove who we were. (I think it was because we’d booked our whole trip together, so they knew we’d been travelling internationally). We hadn’t eaten yet, Sara was getting hungry. The hot dog stand wasn’t open yet by the gate, and we hustled onto our plane.
We then sat on the runway for an hour while they chased down a cargo net clip. We were an hour late getting into Boston. And then we discovered that American Airlines had lost two of our bags. Oh man, were we pissed. Especially since we sat for so long on the runway.
They found one right away, and FedEx’ed it up to us, but the other one was still missing until just an hour or two ago, when it arrived via courier. We’re happy to have it back, but still very annoyed at the airline. Don’t fly American.
Okay, so that’s about it for now. Look for pictures coming up on Two Roads soon. I’ll post again when they’re up. Happy New Year Everyone!
Before you click the links, be warned, this is a very long post. Click at your own risk!
It’s hard to believe that it finally happened, but it did. I’m married. To Sara. All is right with the world. As for the event itself, it went spectacularly. Everyone got to and from the wedding without any difficulty, praise the good Lord. There were only a few minor mishaps. (More in a bit)
Thursday, after the rehearsal, everybody (the whole bridal party + anybody who was already in town for the shindig) went out to the Ninety-Nine, and we had this big, massive, stag/hen party all in one. A few drinks were consumed but not a whole heck of a lot, since Sara had to drive herself home, and under no circumstances could I go home drunk. But everyone had a blast, and our friends got to meet each other for the first time, and it was great. Erin, the MoH, in particular, hit it off well with the groomsmen, and she had a blast.
Friday morning is a blur at this point, a sequence of shuttling people and cars around so they would be in the right place at the right time. I vaguely remember stopping for a while at the hotel room of one of my groomsmen, Quincy, and watching part of a movie before my cellphone started squawking again.
Now, we decided to get married at 5 pm, the Friday before Christmas, and while it was in the back of my mind, I didn’t quite realize how much of a problem traffic was going to be. The church is on the fringes of one of the busiest intersections in town. Traffic was terrible. I told the groomsmen to be at the church by 4:15, and I myself very nearly missed the mark.
Thomas, who is Sara’s (and now mine too) nephew, is 8, and was serving as a junior usher in the wedding party. Shortly after arriving at the church, cellphones starting ringing, and I found out that poor Thomas had fallen down the stairs at his house as they were leaving for the church and ripped open his tux pants. His father was bravely trying to get him over to the tux store, in the mall, at 4 o’clock the Friday before Christmas, to get him new pants. Believe it or not, he made it. Thomas didn’t get into any of the pre-wedding pictures, because he cut it so close, but he did get to walk his grandma down the aisle before the service started.
As for the ceremony itself, I remember the good part. I said “I do” in all the right places, and there was a pretty good kiss involved.
It had started raining during the service, so we hustled out to limo, and the driver took us around town for a while to give the guests a chance to get to the reception. We drove through the parking lot of our old High school, where we had started dating so long ago, and toasted the building with the champagne supplied. We never got out of the limo, but I think we broke a state law consuming alcohol on school property.
The reception was great. I didn’t get a chance to eat much food, but what I had was very good. I’ve been to events at this particular location before, so I know the rest must have been good too. We made the usual rounds, and gave out lots of hugs and kisses, and such and all. We danced our first dance to Clint and Lisa Hartman Black’s “When I Said I Do”. I danced with my Mum to “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler, and she barely avoided sobbing openly.
Speaking of tears, my groomsmen were awesome, and some of then openly admitted to crying, both at the wedding, and when they opened the letters I gave them that went with their gifts (I got them pocket watches to wear with their tuxes.). I’m touched that what I had to say meant that much to them, and it meant the world for me just to have them there.
They also performed their groomsmenly duty and decorated the car. It was actually rather subdued, all things considered. I was worried for a bit, but it wasn’t that bad in the end.
If I had to pick a favourite moment from the reception, it would have to be toward the end. Most everyone had gone home, and it was just bridal party folks left, for the most part, plus a few others (pretty much everyone who had travelled to come was milking it till the very end. Most of the locals had gone home). The DJ played Brad Paisley’s Alcohol, as per my request. Anderson, one of the groosmen, and a very, very, good friend, (He probably would have been Best Man if he hadn’t transferred to a new school during Sophomore year), looked over at me, eyes lighting up as the song came on, ran over and grabbed me, and we started swaying, and pretty soon, everybody had put their arms around each other’s shoulders and we were all swaying in a circle, singing along. The DJ was laughing his a$$ off, and the photographer thought it was great.
We got everyone back to airports/train stations on Christmas eve. Christmas day was different, waking up somewhere other than my house, but it was nice to be with Sara.
Our flight to Memphis left at 6:05 in the morning the day after Christmas. Dad took us to the airport. The flight from Boston to Memphis was smooth, and we made our connection easily after a brief moment of panic before we realized that, yes, we were actually on-time to Memphis, not an hour late, because we, oh, wait, lost an hour to a time zone change. (We hadn’t changed our watches). Flight from Memphis to Miami was similarly smooth. We were in our stateroom on the Majesty of the Seas by 2 pm.
The Majesty is one of the oldest in the Royal Caribbean fleet, and while the crew does a marvellous job, you can tell. Our stateroom was tiny, unlike the picture I saw in the cruise brochure. I later found out the picture was taken from a ship of the “Brilliance” class ships.
Describing each individual day would take up far too much space, so I’ll give you some highlights.
The food was spectacular. Food was all included, and we ate all the time. Room service was available 24 hours a day. One night we had cake, nachos, and 5 little cartons of milk delivered. I ate the beef entrée at dinner every night. I felt like I wasn’t cultured enough to eat dinner on the cruise, but I did the best I could.
On Monday night, the ship didn’t get ABC, so we were able to get the Monday Night Football game on ESPN Vivo. The game was broadcast in English, (it was the usual Michaels/Madden commentary) but the commercials were all in Spanish. It was the funniest football game I’ve ever watched.
Nassau, in the Bahamas, was a little sketchy. The city was dirty, and people were trying to sell you something on every corner. But we spent most of our time in Nassau participating in a Dolphin Encounter excursion. That’s Sara’s story, though, so you’ll have to wait for her to post that up [Bad username or site: ”arasnaem” @ livejournal.com].
I lost a little bit of money at the blackjack table. I don’t know when to walk away, really. I got greedy. I had doubled my money at one point, but I kept playing. I’m an idiot. Oh well. Moving on.
We went snorkaling in Coco Cay, which was great. We saw some really neat stuff. The cruise line owns the whole island, and they’ve staged a couple of nice wrecks out in the lagoon to attract fish. The plane was dumped there, I could tell, because it had been stripped: no instruments, no control wires, no tires, no engine, no gas tank. They also created a simulacrum of a ship wreck, complete with cannon. Except really, if they wanted us to believe that it was part of a ship that had been broken up and scattered in a hurricane, they wouldn’t have put in any cannon, because cannons sink, they don’t move around with pieces of hull.
Key West was neat, we went on a glass bottom boat tour, saw lots of fish, and even a couple turtles. Walked down Duval Street, and saw Margarittaville, which was really neat, since I’m a big Parrothead. Also walked the length of the island to see the sign at the Southermost Point. (90 miles to Cuba!)
Key West is still suffering though. The hurricanes did a lot of damage. Some of the piers haven’t been rebuilt yet. Everything is still in some state of disrepair. The water isn’t as clear either, since there’s still a lot of silt stirred up.
We had a great week. We made some wonderful memories.
So, it couldn’t last right?
We got to Miami, and waited to get a bus back to the airport. The airport was mobbed. We stood in line forever for the check in counter, and when we got their, we won the TSA lottery for extra special security check. Our bags went to be searched, while we had to show a bunch of idea to prove who we were. (I think it was because we’d booked our whole trip together, so they knew we’d been travelling internationally). We hadn’t eaten yet, Sara was getting hungry. The hot dog stand wasn’t open yet by the gate, and we hustled onto our plane.
We then sat on the runway for an hour while they chased down a cargo net clip. We were an hour late getting into Boston. And then we discovered that American Airlines had lost two of our bags. Oh man, were we pissed. Especially since we sat for so long on the runway.
They found one right away, and FedEx’ed it up to us, but the other one was still missing until just an hour or two ago, when it arrived via courier. We’re happy to have it back, but still very annoyed at the airline. Don’t fly American.
Okay, so that’s about it for now. Look for pictures coming up on Two Roads soon. I’ll post again when they’re up. Happy New Year Everyone!