Honeymoon

We spent our first honeymoon in Port Aransas. Our next honeymoon was in Quebec, followed by a seven month get away in France. But before I get ahead of myself, Port Aransas.


As a wedding gift, Melanie and I were given four days and five nights in this condo. It could comfortably house ten college kids (they typically don't mind sleeping on a couch), so the size of the place was a bit excessive.


Here is the view for our balcony.


This is a small coffee shop that makes the best patries. When they run out, they are out for the day. Given the place's popularity, I got there early each morning. However, they choose to be closed on Tuesdays, which sort of put a damper on the day. The other restaurants in town are equally as good. Our most surprising meal came from a small place called "The Crazy Cajun". It is both good and inexpensive, a combination that is hard to beat.


Here is an example of Beemans' craftsmanship. That is enough icing to put you into a diabetic coma.


Taking a break from the afternoon sun, Melanie watched copious amounts of TLC.


Melanie and I out on the beach. I was surprised by the disregard that vacationers treated the beaches. There were countless cigarette butts strewn about, and sundry other debris polluted the coastline. The utter lack of respect that people show towards nature is saddening.


One of Melanie's aunts and uncles decided to make the most of their Texas vacation by vising the coast. After realizing the Corpus Cristi is nothing to write home about, they ventured on to Port A. They figured that the odds that they would run into us would be small. Oddly enough, they stayed at the same condo. It really was not that big of a deal as we only saw them three times. The last of which was on purpose so that we could take this pic. I had a wonderful time, and was sad to leave.

Wedding Reception

The reception was held at the Hilton.


Our first dance was to "Something" by the Beatles.


Melanie and her father.


My mother and I.


With an open bar, tasty refreshments were had by all (especially by my friends).


A ridiculously large wedding cake given the number of people in attendance. Upon closer inspection, the groomscake bears a striking resemblance to...


a baseball. In all honesty, I did not request this, and did not know about it until the reception itself. It was also carrot cake, and there were NO leftovers.


The chocolate fountain was also a big hit. So much so that almost all of Melanie's guests flocked there in migratory patterns.


Danielle (that's right, the coolest one you know) "won" the bouquet toss by a large margin. She was, in many respects, a man on a mission.


Somehow Lina ended up with the garter. Go figure.


With our undergraduate careers behind us, weddings are the only opportunities for my college friends to get together. However, this time I could not join them in their ritual partaking of said libations. Sigh.

Wedding Ceremony

Here are some pics about the ceremony itself. Enjoy.


We were married at the Little Church at La Villita.


Here is a pic of the outside of the church.


Followed by a panoramic view of the inside of the church.


Since the church is nothing more than one room, we (myself and the groomsmen) had to wait outside so we would not see Melanie before the ceremony.


Dapper Dan!


Brian, Father John, and myself waiting out back until all of the guests are seated.


Melanie and her father entering the church.


The newlyweds leaving the church.


After the ceremony, we went to the River Walk to take some pictures. This is my favorite.


I could not help but post this pic again.

Rehersal And Rehersal Dinner

The rehersal was just like any other wedding rehersal, that is, quick and to the point. The only entertaining thing about it was the fact that Melanie had no faith the the guys (myself included) would get there on time. She told me to be there at 5:00, which turned out to be 30 minutes early. Naturally, we show up at 5:00 wondering why there are other people in the church, and why we are the only ones from our wedding. It turns out that Melanie and her friends were late. Here are some photos of the rehersal and rehersal dinner.


This is what most rehersal's entail, standing around.


Hooray, we are fake married!


On the thought of being married to me, Melanie envokes her latest coping mechanism.


Melanie and I enjoy a hearty laugh at our witty dialogue, because that is what sophisticated couples do.


Here is Brian giving the Best Man's toast.


Melanie and her cousin Katie.


My sister Audrey, Chelley (bridesmaid), and Danielle (probably the coolest Danielle you know, also a bridesmaid).


Danny (groomsman), his date Janet, and Mike D (groomsman).


The flower girl Lina.

After the reception, we decided to head back to the hotel bar, that way nobody would have to drive. It was a good thing too. Pabst Blue Ribbon Lite was on special for $1 a can. My fondness for Pabst and its derivatives (including Old English 40's) can be found here. During my night of debauchery, Mark and I decided to hit on the local clientele.


If you will note the gin and tonic in my hand, Mike D had a penchant for buying rounds of these for everybody. Needless to say, he fell of his barstool during the course of the evening (if only I had a pic). After several more rounds of gin and tonic, Pabst, and one large bar tab, we were quickly ushered out of the bar promptly at 2:00. However, the hotel did not care if we brought our remaining provisions with us. We parked ourselves out side the main entrance for smoking purposes. Also located out there were several vets from a Marine Corps reunion. Being a vet himself, Mark struck up a lively conversation. When the last of us (myself and Danny) decided to call it a night/morning, the vets were still going strong with a bottle of 151 and Jack. A tip of the hat to the marines and their livers of steel.

Welcome To Atlanta

Welcome to Atlanta, home of CNN, Coca-Cola, and two very unhappy newlyweds.

It has been awhile since my last post, and before I get into the wedding stuff, I have to rant about our flight to Montreal first. After our honeymoon, Melanie and I went to Montreal for a second reception for her family that could not make it to the wedding. We left Dallas at 12:20, 16 August, and were to get into Montreal around 9:00 that same day.


Melanie passed the time writing thank you notes for the wedding gifts. Soon we heard an announcement that said due to storms in the Atlanta area, our flight was delayed.


So our flight was now leaving at 3:50. Well, it was delayed again. Once we boarded the plane, we were told that another delay was in effect. We finally left Dallas at 5:30. What I don't understand is that Melanie's mother left San Antonio around the same time we were to originally leave Dallas. She arrived in Atlanta on time. Unbeknownst to us, her Mrs. Charette purchased the seat next to Melanie and myself from Atlanta to Montreal.

As you can imagine, we missed our fligt to Montreal. Once we landed, Melanie and I went to see about the next flight. It was about 8:30 pm local time. The lady quickly got us new tickets for a flight that was leaving at 8:45 just a few gates down. We could not have been more lucky.


Notice anything odd about the ticket? Neither did I, however Melanie noticed that the ticket said, "8:45A". That's right, the flight left the next morning, 17 August. Needless to say, we were not happy. So we get in line to see what can be done. Much to our chagrin, there are no flights to Montreal on any other carriers until the next morning. We were told that we could recieve a hotel voucher and a meal voucher once we talked to somebody at the counter. However, once we got to the counter we were told that Delta does not provide hotel or meal vouchers for air traffic control delays. Instead we got this...


We get to pay a discounted rate of $51.50 at some hotel. Seeing as how somebody else mentioned a meal voucher, she gave us $7.00 a piece. Here is a copy of our reciept at a mediocre chinese restaurant.


If you look at our reciept, you will notice that we had enough to buy two meals and one soft drink. The meal vouchers could have also been used at the hotel had we wished, but we later found out there was no restaurant at the hotel, so it was good we used them at the food court. Here are some pics of us tired and angery in the food court.




Back to our encounter with the voucher lady; I asked her if we could have our luggage for our stay at the hotel. She told us that the luggage was to stay at the airport. Upset, I pointed out that we did not have a change of clothes, let alone a tooth brush. She went to another room, and came back with this...


This kit inluded a tooth brush, tooth paste, hair brush, deodorant, two q-tips, two cotton balls, and detergent. Notice the sentence inscribed on the kit, "Caring More About You." What a crock.

When we decided to catch the shuttle to the hotel, we could not find the shuttle to the exact Courtyard Hotel mentioned on our reduced rate coupon. We walked up and down the shuttle area and asked for help several times, yet still had no luck. We were instructed to catch the shuttle to an Econo Lodge as they would honor the coupon.


It turns out the Econo Lodge was about $10.00 bucks cheaper, and had a complementary breakfast. However, we soon realized that the free breakfast was nothing more than a box of Krispy Kremes purchased from the gas station across the street. After a night's sleep, we were no longer angry, but were tired, smelly, and ready to get the hell out of Atlanta.


I hate you Delta. I hope you go bankrupt.

Finally Married

Well, I am finally married, and this is my wife, Melanie. We just returned from our honeymoon in Port Aransas, and will leave for Montreal in a few days. I will add photographs when I have time, so please be patient. If you cannot wait, click here .

Tastes Like Memphis

It is the day before the wedding, and I am really excited about all of this. Last night I went out with some of the groomsmen who are already in town and my sister. We went to dinner, and then grabbed some beer and watched TV. I couldn't believe that they had Pabst Blue Ribbon, which was my drink of choice during my stay in Memphis over Spring Break. Not suprisingly, I had to buy a six pack.

Here is Lina, the flower girl. I figured I would add some wedding pics in accordance with the big day, but this is all I have. Given the fuss she made just to put on the dress, I wonder if she will even walk down the aisle?

And just for fun, this is Travis circa Spring 2003...

...and this is Travis 5 August 2005. Some things never change.