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A Wedding, A Vaction, A Wedcation


Amy and I have have had the extreme pleasure of doing some pretty amazing things this summer. First, we spent a week in Paris, France. The trip of a lifetime. Second, we spent three days hiking Mt. Rainer near Seattle, Washington. Breathtaking. Third, we took the month of June and sailed around the world. I can not find the words to describe it. And we were finally able to finish decorating the living room with the installation of that plasma TV. Wow, what a summer. Of all the things we have done, however, nothing comes close to the three days and three nights that we had in Ft. Worth, Texas, on the occasion of Neill Bryant's wedding. We were not alone...

No, these guys were there too. Ben Shaw (far left, behind the good looking one), made quite a gracious traveling companion for my lovely wife and I. We set out on Thursday, July 19th early in the morning. We drove to Monroe, LA to have breakfast with Ben's mom and then we were quickly on the road to Ft. Worth. We made a few stops on the way for various reasons... all of them necessary, none of them planned. We arrived in Ft. Worth a little after 3 in the afternoon at our final resting place: Shaw Hotel to Amy and I, but Ben's Dad's home to Ben. Ben was gracious enough to secure a place for us to stay at his dad's home for the weekend. Ben's Dad and step-mom proved to be gracious hosts for the duration of the time that we were there, though we hardly saw them... We took full advantage of their pool, hot tub, refrigerator, hot tub, pool, showers, bed, TVs, and pool. Seriously, from the moment we arrived Amy and I relaxed.

Ben's dad was gracious enough to give us tickets to the Rangers game that night as well, which gave us access to free valet parking and a wonderful view of the game. We sat on the third base side, as close to action as I would like to get. It was a great night. And that was just the first night that we were there.

The second night, Friday, July 20th for those who are keeping track, we had the rehearsal and dinner. It was quite an experience. It was held in historic downtown Ft. Worth at "the Bullring". The attire was "western casual". Ben brought the "casual" while Amy and I brought the "western". We ate "Texas" bar-b-Que, which as Ben explained is different than "Mississippi" bar-b-Que because there is more beef. And, while it is true that no-one from that night was left asking the question, "where's the beef?" i failed to see any drastic difference between the two, especially since we had brisket from a cow and ribs from a pig. We ate and ate and ate and ate. We ended the night with a quick dip in the HOT tub. And i mean QUICK and HOT. There is nothing worse on a hot Texas night than a dip in a hot Texas hot tub.

Saturday, July 21st, someone, i can't remember who, threw a brunch for the happy couple in an old historic church in old historic downtown Ft. Worth. It was traditional Mexican breakfast food, which looked weird but tasted great. I would go into detail, but i can't remember what everything we ate was called. Just take my word for it, it was good.

Friends, Tony (groomsman featured in the above photo, to the far right) and his wife, Lindsay joined us at Ben's dad pool for the afternoon. We had a fun time and we were glad to share Ben's dad's pool with others. It was the least we could do.
That night, this happened...


The wedding was beautiful. I was the best man, a few groomsman down the line. Ok, I was holding up the end of the line, barely straddling the fence between "groomsman" and "usher". But at least I wasn't a reader. Oh yeah, Ben was a reader. After the ceremony, the reception was held at the Ft. Worth Club, which is not in historic downtown, but is in non-historic downtown Ft. Worth. The wedding party was carried there by a bus. And it was a party. The Ft. Worth club was huge, which was nice because we never felt crowded. It was the first wedding that I have been too where there was never a line for the food or drinks. There was a wonderful band that played all the great wedding/dancing songs. Amy and I danced and danced. When Amy didn't want to dance, i dance by myself, or with a passing British person (Tony is British, his aunt and mother were visiting from, well, Britain. At one point, Ben and I danced with them). We really had just the most fantastic time. Really.

That ended Saturday night.

Sunday, July 22nd, Amy and I met my brother at the Cracker Barrel in Arlington, TX for breakfast. We had a good time visiting with him. We went back to collect Ben and ended up watching the end of the British Open. We left and met up with Ben's family in Ruston, LA for dinner. Ben family included Ben's brother Tim and his wife , Ben's cousin, Jenny and her husband Patrick and Ben's Mom, Helen. Amy introduced herself to Patrick as "Patrick", Patrick was confused. Amy quickly corrected herself by saying, "you're Patrick, I'm Amy". It was funny. Ben's mom graciously paid for everyone. We all agreed that she was too nice.

We finally rolled into Jackson around 9:30 that night, thus ending a wonderful trip. I leave you with this image as a reminder of the good times...
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Comments

Nikki said…
So it's been awhile. Both since we've seen each other and since you've posted. We should remedy both of those situations.
Saturday, October 27, 2007 9:17:00 PM
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