Fresh back from the beginning of our honeymoon in South Padre Island. We're married. Wow. Feels good. The trip was awesome. The motel was perfectly aligned with every place we would possibly want to go on the island. We found us: a private dance floor at the biggest club in town, a private beach front for our viewing pleasure and a private swimming pool attached to a private hot tub. We pretty much owned the island.
However, before I get to all that, I need to go back to this: the wedding. I have yet to give any feelings and/or details about it. So here goes...
Loved it. The house - and subsuquent pictures we have seen of the ceremony and festivities - turned out gorgeous. We had an amazing turnout of friends and family. Turned out several people had to stand up. Standing room only! For our wedding. Pretty cool.
The food was amazing. Several people asked me who catered? Who brought this? Who cooked that? Everything was great.
I'd like to thank...My mom who hooked up some amazing fajita chicken from Pasado's (a place rapidly becoming A and my fave Tex-Mex establishment.) She also had the groom's cake brought it that could possibly have served a cool hundred people. Easy. That thing took over a four foot table without skipping a beat.
...A's mom for bringing in the queso that makes any Mexican dish that much better. As well as the rice and beans that seemed to be gobbled up fairly quickly. So...having not tasted them, we can assume maximum tastiness. Oh, and the beautiful veil A "borrowed" from her (that she wore on her own wedding day.)
...my sis-in-law's mom for making an amazing brisket for our fajitas! It was so good there was none left for us to take home! I saw people having thirds of it. So good!
...I'd love to extend a huge, super huge, thanks to Aunt D for her ridiculously good wedding cake she made for us. That thing was awesome. We have the top in our fridge and it's taking quite a bit of will power not to rip that door off it's hinges to take a plateful. That, and the fact that A would rip my arms off their own hinges should I touch that cake top before our 1st anniversary. Nonetheless, we know you worked very hard on that cake and it showed. Big time.
...Thanks to everyone who brought anything else, including yourselves. We felt so blessed to have you all there to watch us come before God and authenticate what He put together.
And the pictures. We have seen several, but like 98% are still yet to be perused. That 2%? Wow. I even look good in some of those and my photogenic prowess falls somewhere less that desirable in many pictures. But, tap the brakes. This isn't me fishing for compliments. I look good, I think, in several of these ones. Hallelulah! A makes me look good! (Which is actually what a man told us at a restaurant in South Padre.) Yep. And wait until you see some of the honeymoon snapshots. I gotta say, we're a snazzy couple...
Which leads me back to...South Padre. We rode horses on the beach! And it ruled. Horses are pretty awesome. And not to take away from dogs, cats or fish in bowls, but I want one. Actually, we want two. Not that I should've been a cowboy, but maybe I could've been one. While we rode, at first I remarked that driving a car is easier than driving a horse, but once they get a feel for you - and you get a feel for them! - and they see that you aren't a total idiot, they're a smooth ride.
Horses aside, the rest of the adventure was everything I could ask for. Pretty much closing my eyes and pointing to a map, I chose the best motel location for our festive needs. That being said, you could probably walk the island strip in an hour...but who'd want to? We had our car, although we used a cab for the first night. Went to a place called Louie's Backyard where we found us a private dance floor overlooking the ocean (or is it Gulf?) Either way, it was pretty sweet...even with the security guard/maintenance guy/barback? standing about twenty yards away casting glances every so often. That part was weird.
We found a great restaurant called The Big Donkey that served up yummy fajitas and had a one-man-band that did not know any Rob Thomas. So 1 for 2 there, but the food was so good we went back for lunch the next day. And the bonus was that it was right next door to our motel. So, 2 for 3.
Having a car paid off because as we cruised the strip to find various un-Springbreaker-filled beaches, as well as see how far north we could go on South Padre, we found our private beach and the horse place. We loved the fact that most people that ever come here have never gone that north into the sandy wasteland of nothingness as we have. I mean, there's sand banks taking over half the road up there. The only people we saw were campers in tents, construction workers building new places for some future year and a brownish-clear sand crab scuttling across the beach. He was pretty fast for a little dude.
Our cabbie from the first night told us a local tidbit about breakfast tacos at a gas station near our place. Thank you, cabbie. Those things were delicious enough for two breakfast visits even when our motel offered up free morning grub.
My fave place was probably this low-key Irish pub we found where they offered darts, pool, mega low drink prices and a juke box with our song "Someday" by Rob Thomas. We danced in the back by the billiard's table as he serenaded us. That was pretty cool of him. Thanks, Rob.
I also liked our hot tub with a bottle of bubbly. A crescent moon playing hide-and-seek behind some night clouds and a palm tree while I held my wife in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other...that was bliss.
So the summary of this story is we had an amazing first part of our never-ending honeymoon. I'm sure I am forgetting to mention several things we experienced along the way. Or, am I simply choosing not to divulge them?
PS: Thanks to A's brother and sis-n-law for watching Kami while we were gone. Hope our girl was well-behaved!
