pity party of one cancelled

Jesse and I went down to South Florida for a wedding this weekend. My friend Jackie was marrying her boo of very many years, Andrew in Naples on the beach. I was very, very happy for Jackie. For as long as I’ve known her, Jackie has been happily with Andrew. They bought a house together about a year ago and it was no surprise that Andrew proposed shortly after that.
Before the wedding, I was afraid that I wouldn’t enjoy myself. This was mostly because of what has been going on with Jesse and me regarding the marriage issue. Although we’ve made some progress, the pain of his indecision is still fresh in my mind. However, I didn’t want it to ruin the happy occasion that was my friend’s wedding.

Since most of our time off from work this year seems to be wedding related, I wanted our trip to Florida to seem more like a vacation for us. We booked flights into Ft. Lauderdale and drove through the Everglades to Naples. As we were traveling through there, Jesse and I got to experience the Everglades wildlife, including the most random bugs I’ve ever seen, a turtle, and gators! Jesse and I were most excited about seeing the gators and we got to see them from the safe haven that was our rental car (I wasn’t going to lose any limbs on this trip).

After a couple of hours of driving across the state, Jesse and I settled into our Naples hotel and checked out the night life. I wasn’t really impressed. Naples seems to be more of a retirement community than a party destination. That’s not to say that it isn’t beautiful (because it’s actually breathtakingly gorgeous). It’s just not very young.

The next day, Jesse and I spent exploring the Gulf Coast. We went to Naples Beach and hung out at Naples Pier with all the fisherman. To my delight and surprise, dolphins frolicked literally just a few feet away from the pier. It was awesome. I tried to capture their jumping in and out of the water on camera, but the little suckers were too quick.

The wedding itself was really cool. The requested attire was beach chic so everyone was nicely dressed but it wasn’t formal at all. In fact, the wedding was the opposite of stuffy, which was so refreshing. None of the guys were wearing suits, including the groom and the groomsmen. The bride herself was wearing a traditional wedding gown but her hair was long and flowing and very beachy looking. The sun was setting behind them as the ceremony went on and it was an amazing background. I’m sure their wedding pictures will be incredible.

The Gulf of Mexico

If you enlarge the photo, you can see two dolphin fins peaking out of the water.

The Naples Coast




Dolphins!!

That shadowy grey figure in the water is a dolphin. Darn thing couldn’t stay above the water long enough for me to snap a pic.


It’s a dolphin fin not a shark, I swear!

Here I am in my beachy chic wedding attire


Here’s my favorite camera subject in his beachy chic wedding attire


And here we are at the wedding reception

Is it just me or does my hair look a little red in that pic?

So, all in all, it was a fun experience. No self pity on my part, thank goodness.