I had been planning my trip to Florida for over a year since my old work colleague told me he was getting married, he has done the right thing as far as i am concerned, he is getting off the road and this will mean less drinking and less smoking, a far more relaxing lifestyle and one more likely to lead to a long life and a long marriage. Anyhow i had told my bosses that i would be unavailable during this period and i had planned my flights and my hotels and my hire car, the time was now and i was off on an adventure to see my buddy who i had only kept in touch with by e-mail and picture and not seen or phones during this time since we drank the Texas roadhouse restaurant dry in the spring of 2002, 5 years past. I only took my wife with me and left the little girl at home as travelling and driving are not compatible with young children. we flew into Miami as the flights were $100 cheaper and then as we had to get a rental car we drove the 300 miles up to Tampa and went straight to Josh's house where i was met by a skinny guy at the door who looked shocked and finally let me in, he admitted he had forgotten that i was turning up to his house for a few beers in the evening. I shared a few jokes and then we all went into Tampa to see a few of the folks who were staying at the wedding hotel in the downtown area. The bar we went to was a fancy theme bar selling real ale, i had a pint of Rat Iron Stout. It was pretty good but i was worn out so after Josh went to the airport to pick up a few friends that had flown in from Italy i went to my hotel to crash out and try and sleep after the 6 hours of driving and all day travelling. The next day we had an appointment at his house to meet his relatives and do some day drinking and reminiscing. I arrived to find all his wife's to be relatives their and a few girls who were to be the bridesmaids. I was given the biggest Bloody Mary i have ever had and it was so strong it took me nearly 3 hours to drink, by that time another GE engineer had arrived and we all started that isn't life fun thing as we drank all that Vodka. Anyhow josh once again had to go and do things and we had to go and get changed for the evening eating and more drinking thing at the channel side, a free bar was announced and lots of fun was had by all, It was a Mexican place called Margarita Mamas.
The GE engineering group checking the Margarita Quality, it was the groom taking a shot, it was really nice.
The food was average but the free bar made everyone have lots of fun and we left there by 9 and went on a drinking spree, at a bar with live music and ritual humiliation of people who were likely to be getting married soon,
the beaming bride to be
it was OK and the humiliation was good for those trailer trash types that were there in large numbers, the herd safety in number thing. One of the GE engineers got very amorous with a bridesmaid that night, the atmosphere and the alcohol was playing its part, i got it all on photo.
the frolics of the GE team leader and bridesmaid
More frolics of the GE team leader and bridesmaid
Then we went on to another less noisy bar and talked about life and marriage and some other strange things like how to cook a thanks giving Turkey, and what other crazy things people do but that is how long days of alcohol abuse effect human physiology. We left and got lost on the inner road system of harbour island in Tampa bay and then luckily got onto I275 which goes directly to our cheap Motel 8 hotel, i slept very well that night,
Well the next morning we had a few hours to kill so we went to a wildlife park and i took lots of pics of the great birds and these tiny lizards. Afterwards we had this crazy full breakfast at Wafflehouse, it was silly but i did manage to eat everything but my waffle, i ate most of My wife's also as she was shocked at how much food we got. We arrived at the wedding early and found nobody about and was even a bit worried we had missed the event.
The people arrived and the wedding went off with a very happy bride and groom,
The mother of the bride with the bridesmaids
Josh and all the best men
Exploding Lantern
The Blushing Bride and Content Husband
Dancing in the moonlight
Wesley mesmerised by the blushing bride
The full support team
apart from some exploding lantern on the hotel, and i got it all on the camera. The after wedding activities were typical and the dancing and drinking were fantastic, apart from the DJ being too damned loud, i am almost deaf from my job but i don't want what i have left being taken from my by a asshole who cant understand what a wedding party is about. I kissed the bride and i even kissed the groom, i tried to kiss the best man and the other GE engineer, i finally kissed my wife when i found her. I shook the grooms hand and wished him farewell and said some unfortunately bad things on the wedding video and also walked about in front of him while he was taking shots of the wedding party leaving, i was an ass but it was all in good humour, i had a great time and would do it again sometime for him.
