First of all - I'm a little hopped up on meds trying to make it through the day. So you'll have to forgive if I'm a little spacey.
It was a super cool trip - one of my most fave so far. I was stressed Thurs, because I had to catch a 7:30am flight out of Charlotte - didn't get to bed until Midnight the night before and had to get up at 4:30am that morning! My flight from Charlotte to Philly blew, mostly because my seat wouldn't recline and partially due to the lack of sleep. Then I had a 1 hr layover in Philly. Just before I was about to board, I saw an old friend that I had heard was going to be at the wedding - Erin and her new hubby Brain who is an anchorman on the nightly News - pretty cool cat. Funny thing was I knew he looked real familiar but couldn't place it until I overheard him telling someone else the night after. I'm so clueless when it comes to TV people or celebs - I could be sitting right next to one and probably not recognize them and even then I don't know that I'd be that impressed, but this guy was pretty cool. Anyway, we chatted it up for a while on the way to the plane while we went through that whole awkward - "yea it's no longer P and S - just P" conversation. I knew there was going to be at least 3 people at this wedding that I used to hang out with about 8 to 10 years ago and just hadn't seen in a while. Turned out to be 4 people and another couple that we had mutual friends in common. On the flight from Philly to Bermuda, I ended up sitting in that same stupid seat that would not recline! This time I was sitting next to a women, talking to her about Bermuda - turns out she is the Aunt of the bride! And even better - she was throwing a 'welcome' party that night that I was debating on going to. Marie had told me about the 'welcome' party the night before, but knowing she was not going to get in until after the party Thursday night, I wasn't 100% sure I really wanted to go. Needless to say by the end of the flight, she had introduced me to half the wedding party from Lynchburg, VA (bride's hometown) and made sure I was going to the welcome party. Before I was debating on going because I knew Marie wasn't going to get there before 9pm and wouldn't make it to the party. So I went to the party and stopped next door by this chick Ducky's room (Marie's friend - was coming in early - I used to hang with her about 8 yr.s ago) on the way. I knocked on the door and she freaked out when she saw me, jumped up and down and was sooooo excited. I silently wondered to myself - did she get a boob job or have they always been that big (Double E) - it's amazing the things you don't notice when you are married. We went to this party and I just started walking around talking to people and introducing myself - dipping into the 'sauce' (Dark & Stormys - Bermuda Dark Rum and Bermuda Ginger Beer (root beer w/. ginger) w/ lemon). I met all kinds of people and was having a blast, then I took off around 9pm to go meet Marie at our Resort next door. Later, Marie told me that all the women were giving me MAJOR kudos for being able to walk into a room like that and make all kinds of friends and have people like me. :) Ducky and I walked down to the beach and took the beach to the resort next door - the Coco-Coco Beach Resort. We stopped at her room and decided to wait for her in the bar. As we were walking towards the bar I saw a van pull up - I told Ducky to grab some seats at the bar and went out front to meet what I thought was going to be Marie pulling up - it was, so I gave her big hugs and a kiss! Then I grabbed her bags and told her that Ducky was waiting in the bar, go grab a drink and I'd take her bags to her room. She did, and I came back and met them - got a drink and we all went down to the pool and had a couple drinks. Then we went back to the bar and ordered a 6 pack each and went back to the rooms to change into our bathing suits. Then we walked down to the beach for a couple of beers and all went for a midnight swim! The water was about 87 degrees - warmer than the air even and crystal clear! The moonlight was just enough to see clearly and even in the dark you could see your toes wiggling in that clear blue water! You don't have to worry about sharks there because of the reef that surrounds the Island! After a nice relaxing swim and playing in the waves, we made our way back to our rooms - Ducky went to hers and we spent the next few hours drying one another off and getting to know one another again under the pale moonlight of a Bermuda night!
Friday morning, we rousted out of bed in time to catch the free breakfast at the resort, looking out over a slightly overcast morning with scattered bouts of what the locals were selling as 'liquid sunshine' or what we like to call rain. :) All the locals on the Island were super nice - British colonies and I don't think we met one single person that wasn't thrilled to see us! Marie and Ducky had to go to a bridal luncheon at the Elbow resort - right next door. So while they did that I went for a run on the Bermuda Railways Trails - where they had pulled up the old rail road that went all across the Island and converted it to a nature trail. The railroad actually covered about 26 miles worth of Island at one point and now was home to waves of green ferns cascading over 20 foot walls of carved out volcanic Island. It was a super cool little 5 mile run that ended up being about 6 miles. Our resort was in Paget Parish - about the middle of the Island on the South side - one of the closest resorts to the beach, except for one that is actually built on stilts in a bay - Bora Bora Style. So I got on the trails where they begin in Padget Parish and ran South West towards the West end of the Island. Along the way, I saw a sign on the trail that said 'this way to Elbow Beach'. So on the way back, I had already completed my 5 miles, so I decided to maybe check out this trail head and finish up on a cool down walk along the beach. Well - I had read several things on the internet that highly discouraged running on any of the roads on the Island as the roads are all very narrow (and of course they drive on the opposite side as us). Well after running straight up a giant hill, feeling like I was about to die, I ran out of trail and had to get on the main road. I could see the Ocean, so I knew I didn't have far to run - or so I thought. I must have run about a mile wide open as fast as I could, dodging into driveways and small niches in the wall to avoid getting creamed by cars!! Cars would see me running and would start honking from several blocks down the road. It was like playing a real live game of Frogger! I was exhausted by the time I made it to the beach, but did have a nice pleasant walk along the beach back to the Hotel. So glad I brought a big PowerAde on my run with me! After my run, I had time to go grab some lunch at the hotel bar and a swim down at the beach before I got up with Marie. She came walking down the beach while I was exploring around the rocks checking out some really large Angel fish swimming in the surf looking for some handouts. We walked a little ways down the beach, holding hands and chatting, discussing each other's days. We went back up to the hotel and showered for the rehearsal dinner that night back up at the Elbow Resort. When we got there, I left her and Ducky to the rehearsal (both were bridesmaids - 10 total bridesmaids I think). I went over to Brain's room and hung out with him and Ryan while they got ready for the dinner. They were both in pretty rough shape from going to bar hopping in downtown - Hamilton the night before. The dinner was great - good food - there was some fresh fish - Mahi and Wahoo caught by the groomsmen earlier that day. After dinner we all went to the Bride's brother's cottage on resort properties for the after party. Good times and a long drunken walk back to our resort around 1am with all the women since their men had bailed earlier in the evening! The last time I looked at the clock this night, it was 4am, so needless to say we had a lot to catch up on since last we had some time alone!!
Saturday was a beautiful day - we scarfed down breakfast to get out on the beach as soon as possible. We stayed out there and played in the Ocean all day - by this point Ducky's boyfriend had shown up too and hung out with us. We snorkeled and swam most of the day stopping just for short breaks to bask back in the sun. The waves were surprisingly big right at the break on the beach - reminded me of the Outer Banks. At one point I was teaching Marie how to use the snorkel and mask - we were standing just outside the break in the Ocean and a huge wave came unexpected. I felt the water line dip low on my waist and turned in time to see the wave and immediately made a dive towards it. As I did I made a glance back to make sure Marie was following suit. Instead what I saw was Marie just standing there, in about knee deep water at this point, with snorkel and mask and heard a murmured "Uh-oh", before my head plowed into the wave. As I came up, I turned quickly towards the shore realizing Marie must have been absolutely creamed by that wave. What I saw was nothing but ass and elbows bouncing along the sandy bottom as she got tumbled up on shore. I ran towards her and helped her up and made sure she wasn't hurt before explaining that there was nothing magical about the mask and snorkel - it would not prevent a pummeling by the Ocean. We laughed for a long time about that! We had a late lunch back up at the resort, Marie had to leave to go get her hair done for the wedding, and I went back down on the beach by myself for a couple hours to relax and read in the sun taking the occasional dip in the light blue ocean water!
The wedding was very cool! It was a 5ish wedding right on the beach in front of the resort, everyone was dressed all kinds of different ways from Hawaiian print shirts to suit and tie, so I fit right in even though I didn't bring my tie. Must say, it was the first time I had ever walked down the beach barefoot in suit pants and a starched white button down. Got quite a few looks. Carried my shoes in hand - good call on the shoes btw - would have been WAAAY over dressed in dress shoes! After the wedding, everyone headed back up to the terrace for a cocktail hour. I stayed down on the beach to take a couple extra pics and went and shuttled some drinks to all the grooms and bridesmaids to their delight (minus the photographer's) who looked quite parched in their sunny photo shoot! The cocktail hour on the terrace was super cool, watching the sun go down while we grabbed a table for dinner with all the new and old friends we'd met. Another good meal with some funny speeches and dancing on the terrace under the moonlight bouncing all over the Ocean! After the reception started closing down, we all headed up to the bar of the hotel at the top of the resort overlooking the rest of the resort and the Ocean. At one point I walked out of the bar on to the porch where the bide was giving me big time props to Marie - said I had quite a few fans there for someone most had only met a couple days ago! :) There we danced to live jazz and blues, and shut down the bar and then some - we ordered several bottles of liquor and mixers before the bar closed and sat on the back patio of the bar overlooking the Ocean mixing our own drinks and jamming to an iPOD with nice speakers that someone brought. Things got pretty wild there - there was a whole lot of smooching and dancing on top of tables and chairs going on! And of course another nice walk on the beach back to our resort with another long session of rolling around the room till the wee hours of the morning! We got back to the room that night around 2am, got to bed around 5am and Marie had to get up at 6:30am to catch her flight! About 30 min later, I heard a knock on the door and low and behold it was sweet Marie, looking a little frustrated but glad to be back - her flight was delayed till Noon - so we rolled around the room a little more getting our morning workout and took a little nap before she had to take off again. My flight didn't leave till 3:30, so I got up went and had a muffin and coffee - bout all I could handle as I seemed to have drank quite a bit the night before and managed to stick to liquor ALL NIGHT! I got all lubed up for the sun and realized I only had about 15 min. on the beach, so I opted for a little reading on the deck overlooking the Ocean instead. I ended up sharing a taxi to the airport around 1:30pm with a nice couple from Jacksonville that was at the wedding. They had gotten engaged the night of the wedding - very discreetly so as to not take anything away from the wedding. Earlier in the night that same couple had given Marie and I 'the cutest couple' award for the weekend! It was really funny at the airport, because it seemed like half the people in there were at the wedding the night before! I had several people wanting to check out the pictures I took at the bar that night! The flight back to Philly was fairly uneventful, I read and reflected. I had really missed Marie a lot when she left - to the point where I had to try hard not to let it get me down that she was gone. I had asked her if she would like to come back here again one day with me and she said she would love to - maybe Spring Break this year. :) After a 2 hour layover in Philly, I finally was on my way back to Charlotte and finally got home about 11:15pm! While I was in Philly, I couldn't help but notice, how relaxed my whole body was and how at peace I felt with the world. I would love to figure out how to capture that feeling and use it any time! It just doesn't seem to happen near enough - about 3 hours back to work on Monday with my cold I picked up on my way out of Bermuda, my shoulders and back were all tight as a spring board as if I had never gone anywhere, with the only remnants of vacation being the hurried glances in the mirror in the bathroom at a really tan face and the occasional flashback of a wonderful weekend with a girl that I've become quite fond of! :)
The End
It was a super cool trip - one of my most fave so far. I was stressed Thurs, because I had to catch a 7:30am flight out of Charlotte - didn't get to bed until Midnight the night before and had to get up at 4:30am that morning! My flight from Charlotte to Philly blew, mostly because my seat wouldn't recline and partially due to the lack of sleep. Then I had a 1 hr layover in Philly. Just before I was about to board, I saw an old friend that I had heard was going to be at the wedding - Erin and her new hubby Brain who is an anchorman on the nightly News - pretty cool cat. Funny thing was I knew he looked real familiar but couldn't place it until I overheard him telling someone else the night after. I'm so clueless when it comes to TV people or celebs - I could be sitting right next to one and probably not recognize them and even then I don't know that I'd be that impressed, but this guy was pretty cool. Anyway, we chatted it up for a while on the way to the plane while we went through that whole awkward - "yea it's no longer P and S - just P" conversation. I knew there was going to be at least 3 people at this wedding that I used to hang out with about 8 to 10 years ago and just hadn't seen in a while. Turned out to be 4 people and another couple that we had mutual friends in common. On the flight from Philly to Bermuda, I ended up sitting in that same stupid seat that would not recline! This time I was sitting next to a women, talking to her about Bermuda - turns out she is the Aunt of the bride! And even better - she was throwing a 'welcome' party that night that I was debating on going to. Marie had told me about the 'welcome' party the night before, but knowing she was not going to get in until after the party Thursday night, I wasn't 100% sure I really wanted to go. Needless to say by the end of the flight, she had introduced me to half the wedding party from Lynchburg, VA (bride's hometown) and made sure I was going to the welcome party. Before I was debating on going because I knew Marie wasn't going to get there before 9pm and wouldn't make it to the party. So I went to the party and stopped next door by this chick Ducky's room (Marie's friend - was coming in early - I used to hang with her about 8 yr.s ago) on the way. I knocked on the door and she freaked out when she saw me, jumped up and down and was sooooo excited. I silently wondered to myself - did she get a boob job or have they always been that big (Double E) - it's amazing the things you don't notice when you are married. We went to this party and I just started walking around talking to people and introducing myself - dipping into the 'sauce' (Dark & Stormys - Bermuda Dark Rum and Bermuda Ginger Beer (root beer w/. ginger) w/ lemon). I met all kinds of people and was having a blast, then I took off around 9pm to go meet Marie at our Resort next door. Later, Marie told me that all the women were giving me MAJOR kudos for being able to walk into a room like that and make all kinds of friends and have people like me. :) Ducky and I walked down to the beach and took the beach to the resort next door - the Coco-Coco Beach Resort. We stopped at her room and decided to wait for her in the bar. As we were walking towards the bar I saw a van pull up - I told Ducky to grab some seats at the bar and went out front to meet what I thought was going to be Marie pulling up - it was, so I gave her big hugs and a kiss! Then I grabbed her bags and told her that Ducky was waiting in the bar, go grab a drink and I'd take her bags to her room. She did, and I came back and met them - got a drink and we all went down to the pool and had a couple drinks. Then we went back to the bar and ordered a 6 pack each and went back to the rooms to change into our bathing suits. Then we walked down to the beach for a couple of beers and all went for a midnight swim! The water was about 87 degrees - warmer than the air even and crystal clear! The moonlight was just enough to see clearly and even in the dark you could see your toes wiggling in that clear blue water! You don't have to worry about sharks there because of the reef that surrounds the Island! After a nice relaxing swim and playing in the waves, we made our way back to our rooms - Ducky went to hers and we spent the next few hours drying one another off and getting to know one another again under the pale moonlight of a Bermuda night!
Friday morning, we rousted out of bed in time to catch the free breakfast at the resort, looking out over a slightly overcast morning with scattered bouts of what the locals were selling as 'liquid sunshine' or what we like to call rain. :) All the locals on the Island were super nice - British colonies and I don't think we met one single person that wasn't thrilled to see us! Marie and Ducky had to go to a bridal luncheon at the Elbow resort - right next door. So while they did that I went for a run on the Bermuda Railways Trails - where they had pulled up the old rail road that went all across the Island and converted it to a nature trail. The railroad actually covered about 26 miles worth of Island at one point and now was home to waves of green ferns cascading over 20 foot walls of carved out volcanic Island. It was a super cool little 5 mile run that ended up being about 6 miles. Our resort was in Paget Parish - about the middle of the Island on the South side - one of the closest resorts to the beach, except for one that is actually built on stilts in a bay - Bora Bora Style. So I got on the trails where they begin in Padget Parish and ran South West towards the West end of the Island. Along the way, I saw a sign on the trail that said 'this way to Elbow Beach'. So on the way back, I had already completed my 5 miles, so I decided to maybe check out this trail head and finish up on a cool down walk along the beach. Well - I had read several things on the internet that highly discouraged running on any of the roads on the Island as the roads are all very narrow (and of course they drive on the opposite side as us). Well after running straight up a giant hill, feeling like I was about to die, I ran out of trail and had to get on the main road. I could see the Ocean, so I knew I didn't have far to run - or so I thought. I must have run about a mile wide open as fast as I could, dodging into driveways and small niches in the wall to avoid getting creamed by cars!! Cars would see me running and would start honking from several blocks down the road. It was like playing a real live game of Frogger! I was exhausted by the time I made it to the beach, but did have a nice pleasant walk along the beach back to the Hotel. So glad I brought a big PowerAde on my run with me! After my run, I had time to go grab some lunch at the hotel bar and a swim down at the beach before I got up with Marie. She came walking down the beach while I was exploring around the rocks checking out some really large Angel fish swimming in the surf looking for some handouts. We walked a little ways down the beach, holding hands and chatting, discussing each other's days. We went back up to the hotel and showered for the rehearsal dinner that night back up at the Elbow Resort. When we got there, I left her and Ducky to the rehearsal (both were bridesmaids - 10 total bridesmaids I think). I went over to Brain's room and hung out with him and Ryan while they got ready for the dinner. They were both in pretty rough shape from going to bar hopping in downtown - Hamilton the night before. The dinner was great - good food - there was some fresh fish - Mahi and Wahoo caught by the groomsmen earlier that day. After dinner we all went to the Bride's brother's cottage on resort properties for the after party. Good times and a long drunken walk back to our resort around 1am with all the women since their men had bailed earlier in the evening! The last time I looked at the clock this night, it was 4am, so needless to say we had a lot to catch up on since last we had some time alone!!
Saturday was a beautiful day - we scarfed down breakfast to get out on the beach as soon as possible. We stayed out there and played in the Ocean all day - by this point Ducky's boyfriend had shown up too and hung out with us. We snorkeled and swam most of the day stopping just for short breaks to bask back in the sun. The waves were surprisingly big right at the break on the beach - reminded me of the Outer Banks. At one point I was teaching Marie how to use the snorkel and mask - we were standing just outside the break in the Ocean and a huge wave came unexpected. I felt the water line dip low on my waist and turned in time to see the wave and immediately made a dive towards it. As I did I made a glance back to make sure Marie was following suit. Instead what I saw was Marie just standing there, in about knee deep water at this point, with snorkel and mask and heard a murmured "Uh-oh", before my head plowed into the wave. As I came up, I turned quickly towards the shore realizing Marie must have been absolutely creamed by that wave. What I saw was nothing but ass and elbows bouncing along the sandy bottom as she got tumbled up on shore. I ran towards her and helped her up and made sure she wasn't hurt before explaining that there was nothing magical about the mask and snorkel - it would not prevent a pummeling by the Ocean. We laughed for a long time about that! We had a late lunch back up at the resort, Marie had to leave to go get her hair done for the wedding, and I went back down on the beach by myself for a couple hours to relax and read in the sun taking the occasional dip in the light blue ocean water!
The wedding was very cool! It was a 5ish wedding right on the beach in front of the resort, everyone was dressed all kinds of different ways from Hawaiian print shirts to suit and tie, so I fit right in even though I didn't bring my tie. Must say, it was the first time I had ever walked down the beach barefoot in suit pants and a starched white button down. Got quite a few looks. Carried my shoes in hand - good call on the shoes btw - would have been WAAAY over dressed in dress shoes! After the wedding, everyone headed back up to the terrace for a cocktail hour. I stayed down on the beach to take a couple extra pics and went and shuttled some drinks to all the grooms and bridesmaids to their delight (minus the photographer's) who looked quite parched in their sunny photo shoot! The cocktail hour on the terrace was super cool, watching the sun go down while we grabbed a table for dinner with all the new and old friends we'd met. Another good meal with some funny speeches and dancing on the terrace under the moonlight bouncing all over the Ocean! After the reception started closing down, we all headed up to the bar of the hotel at the top of the resort overlooking the rest of the resort and the Ocean. At one point I walked out of the bar on to the porch where the bide was giving me big time props to Marie - said I had quite a few fans there for someone most had only met a couple days ago! :) There we danced to live jazz and blues, and shut down the bar and then some - we ordered several bottles of liquor and mixers before the bar closed and sat on the back patio of the bar overlooking the Ocean mixing our own drinks and jamming to an iPOD with nice speakers that someone brought. Things got pretty wild there - there was a whole lot of smooching and dancing on top of tables and chairs going on! And of course another nice walk on the beach back to our resort with another long session of rolling around the room till the wee hours of the morning! We got back to the room that night around 2am, got to bed around 5am and Marie had to get up at 6:30am to catch her flight! About 30 min later, I heard a knock on the door and low and behold it was sweet Marie, looking a little frustrated but glad to be back - her flight was delayed till Noon - so we rolled around the room a little more getting our morning workout and took a little nap before she had to take off again. My flight didn't leave till 3:30, so I got up went and had a muffin and coffee - bout all I could handle as I seemed to have drank quite a bit the night before and managed to stick to liquor ALL NIGHT! I got all lubed up for the sun and realized I only had about 15 min. on the beach, so I opted for a little reading on the deck overlooking the Ocean instead. I ended up sharing a taxi to the airport around 1:30pm with a nice couple from Jacksonville that was at the wedding. They had gotten engaged the night of the wedding - very discreetly so as to not take anything away from the wedding. Earlier in the night that same couple had given Marie and I 'the cutest couple' award for the weekend! It was really funny at the airport, because it seemed like half the people in there were at the wedding the night before! I had several people wanting to check out the pictures I took at the bar that night! The flight back to Philly was fairly uneventful, I read and reflected. I had really missed Marie a lot when she left - to the point where I had to try hard not to let it get me down that she was gone. I had asked her if she would like to come back here again one day with me and she said she would love to - maybe Spring Break this year. :) After a 2 hour layover in Philly, I finally was on my way back to Charlotte and finally got home about 11:15pm! While I was in Philly, I couldn't help but notice, how relaxed my whole body was and how at peace I felt with the world. I would love to figure out how to capture that feeling and use it any time! It just doesn't seem to happen near enough - about 3 hours back to work on Monday with my cold I picked up on my way out of Bermuda, my shoulders and back were all tight as a spring board as if I had never gone anywhere, with the only remnants of vacation being the hurried glances in the mirror in the bathroom at a really tan face and the occasional flashback of a wonderful weekend with a girl that I've become quite fond of! :)
The End
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