As best as I can remember, here’s how things went..

Monday 6/16
Ian took us to the airport and dropped us off for our flights from Nashville to Charlotte and then from Charlotte to Miami. The flights were okay and we arrived without any issues. We got our luggage, loaded up with other cruisers on a bus, and headed to port. Customs was easy and we had no problem getting onboard. After the muster drill, we searched the boat for a while (probably walking a total of a few miles) before crashing for a nap. We woke up and had completely missed dinner, so we had to go to the Carnival equivalent of Golden Corral — The Coconut Lounge. The food wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad, either. I would up visiting the sandwich/panini guy at least once a day to get smoked salmon on a bagel with cream cheese. Yum! After dinner, we read some in our books and fell asleep.

Tuesday 6/17
We docked in Key West for the morning and early afternoon. Amy and I woke up and got ready for our short day in America’s southernmost city. We took a short trolly ride from the ship to the northern end of Duval Street. Immediately, we headed south for our favorite spot of our previous Key West vacation–Square One Restaurant. They didn’t have the turkey, avocado, and sprouts sandwich or the deep-fried raspberry french toast that we came back for but what we had was still pretty good. Amy had a B.L.A.S.T. (bacon, lettuce, avocado, sprouts, and turkey) sandwich with really good french fries, and I had a Belgian waffle with strawberries and strawberry butter.

After eating, we went a few blocks down the street to the Butterfly Conservatory and took blurry pictures of birds and butterflies. Even though our digital camera has an up-close (<28") setting, it doesn't automatically use the setting like it will automatically adjust for other settings (night, landscape, city, indoors, etc), so most of them came out kinda blurry.

When we left the Butterfly Conservatory, we headed just a block south to visit the southernmost point in the USA. From there, we headed back north on Duval and hit Key West Aloe toward the north end of the strip. Amy bought some new smelly stuff and we headed back to the ship.

We finished out the day reading and once again ate at the Coconut Lounge. We didn't eat in the main dining room because it was formal night, and we had enough formalities being in a wedding dress and a tux for several hours on Saturday. We just wanted to take it easy. So that we did and went to bed.

Wednesday 6/18
The ship didn’t get to Cozumel until early afternoon. We spent the morning reading, getting breakfast at the Coconut Lounge, and reading some more. It took a while for the ship to get clearance to open the gangway, but when it did, we were one of the first in line to get soaked. We had booked a 7-hour shore excursion to explore Mayan ruins since Cozumel sucks for everything else. As soon as we stepped one foot onto the pier, it was pouring down rain. At first it was okay with an umbrella. Then it just started coming down sideways. It was about a 1/4 mile walk from the ship to a little shack with minimal covering. By that time, we were already drenched to the bone. We found a guy for our tour who told us to go to another boat. So, we ran through the rain some more to a much smaller boat (still held a couple hundred people, though–not that small) that was tossing in the waves. We were on the smaller boat for about 15 minutes until they told us that the tour was cancelled and that we needed to go back to the cruise ship. WHAT?! We began our 1/4-mile trek pushing through strong wind and rain and sea spray to make it back to the ship. Miserable! We got to the room and took off all the cold, wet clothes and got into a nice, warm shower. By the time we were out of the shower, the rain had passed and the sun was already peaking out. Figures.

We put on dry clothes and headed back out to Cozumel in search of something to do. However, unless you rented a car or took a taxi, there wasn’t much to do. There was a small shopping area full of people with crappy wares that were way over-priced. Even haggling them down wasn’t worth the time or money. We made 3 passes around that area and gave up. More reading! It was nice, though, as everyone else was in Cozumel.

At 8:00, we decided that we were going to finally make it to a normal dinner. We were seated at a table for four, awaiting the other two cruisers who had probably been wondering where we had been! They came up to the table, surprised to see somebody else there, but we had a great time with them. We talked about work, life, kids, marriage, and avocados. They were great people and even offered us a free place to stay if we ever visit Fresno, CA. They even bought us a bottle of white wine that I have no idea how to pronounce, much less spell. We each had about 2 glasses and went back to our room and fell asleep.

Thursday 6/19
This was our fun day at sea. However, with the rain and wine on Wednesday, it was not Amy’s fun day at all. She had started out with a mild sore throat at Butterfly Hollow that seemed to bother her just a little bit more each day, but not too bad. Not until Thursday. That’s when it all came crashing in on her. She had a pretty crappy cold. Coughing, snot, sore throat, miserable, the works. We stayed in the room most of the day and either napped or read. She did make it to dinner for some real food. After dinner, we went back to the room, started packing, and went to bed.

Friday 6/20
We woke up a little late back in Miami. We showered, got dressed, and finished packing our things. Customs, despite being slow for a few thousand people, was easy. After customs, we waited by a sign that said “Miami Airport” for a while until someone came up and asked us what we were doing. She not-so-kindly informed us that we needed to be elsewhere for the bus. We found the bus, got loaded, and waited for 30 minutes for more passengers to show up. Our bus driver was a grumpy Italian (I think) and spoke 80% in Italian with the 20% garbled English being almost as bad to translate as the language we didn’t know. And, no, that’s not an exaggeration. He spoke to us mostly in his native tongue. WTF?! We made it to the airport with time to spare. Everyone who spoke English was rude, and the people that didn’t speak English were trying to ring up our crappy lunch at a crappy cart. The airport was crappy, the people were crappy, the food was crappy, and the flight in the 737 prototype that we were in (it was a 737 but old as dirt) was extra crappy. Air pressurization sucked which really bothered Amy’s sinuses on descent. It also shook violently whenever we hit the slightest turbulence. And on descent, we were pretty sure that if the plane didn’t just peel apart in mid-air, we were just going to plummet to the earth below. We vowed to never fly through Miami again.

However, once in Charlotte, we found peace. A nice airport, with nice people and nice things, and not to forget our flight to Nashville! We flew in a smaller “express” jet that was comfortable, smooth, and quick!

We landed in Nashville and Ian picked us up. After only eating half of the crappy sandwich and wrap that we got in Miami, we were starved. We had dinner at Ian and Susan’s house with them and Matt and Richell (and Olivia!). Shortly after dinner, we made the long drive home and crashed!

We have decided that our trip to Disney in December will serve as a second honeymoon since we had problems finishing out the first (with colds, allergies to detergents, and rain).

Click here to view the pictures we took.

[UPDATE] Pictures from Butterfly Hollow have been uploaded. Click here to check them out. [/UPDATE] (Sorry they aren’t in the usual Flickr format. I had to do a search on multiple tags to single out just the new pictures!)

I’m going to try to remember as much as I can but may miss some things. Here goes…

Friday 6/13
Since Bonnaroo was going on, we had to take an alternate route to Butterfly Hollow. The alternate route took us through Cookeville, so we called up and harassed Dizer to show us his house and take us out to dinner. We had a lot of fun exploring his place and playing with his daughter’s toys. It turns out that he got his reception invitation in the mail that day, too! Had we known, we could have just saved that postage. After exploring and hanging out at his place, we went to Puleo’s Grille (or something along those lines). It was all quite tasty and we’re hoping to see one pop up in Chattanooga soon.

We left Puleo’s as it was getting dark and started heading west on I-40 to try to make it to Butterfly Hollow before it got too dark. Unfortunately, it was too late. It was completely dark by the time we made it to the exit. After some confusion after which way to turn off the exit, we finally made out way through the 1.5-lane, gravelly country roads to the hollow. We played one game of Catan and went to bed.

Saturday 6/14
Everybody woke up for a fantastic breakfast. Mulberry french toast, potatoes with herbs from the garden, and the world’s best turkey bacon! And not to forget Bartley Beans coffee! After breakfast, we went over the general plan for the wedding. Nice and easy. Amy got a little choked up and Geni bragged about never crying at a wedding. We cleaned up after breakfast and played several games of Catan to pass the time. After who knows how many games, we started walking around the grounds while Amy went to shower. Susan (my new sister-in-law) appeared at some point and immediately disappeared to start the briding process. Adam and I continued playing Catan until around 4:00 until it was time for me to get dressed.

By 5:00, all the guests had arrived and we were ready to get started. It was pretty simple. Everybody (except the bride and the father of the bride) gathered at the top of the hill around the gazebo. Amy and her father came out of the house and began their trek up the hill, picking up a hitchhiking grasshopper somewhere along the way. Once they made it to the gazebo, we did the whole formalities and wedding thing. I think the only person to cry was Geni!

After the ceremony, the guests went to relax at the house while David and Sharon (the owners) took us on a photo shoot around the grounds. We wrapped up after about 30 minutes of pictures with some family photos. Finally it was safe to take off my jacket and eat! The catering was all organic with bacon-wrapped fillet mignon, spring rolls, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Once everyone was sufficiently stuffed, people started doing toasts. Geni only got a few words into her toast before she got choked up and couldn’t finish. Even Ian got a little teary eyed when he gave his toast. In all, though, it was a blast. But when the last of the guests left, we crashed in bed and slept like rocks.

Sunday 6/15
We woke up and had a simple breakfast of blueberry muffins and fresh fruits. After breakfast, we packed everything up and sat around talking to David and Sharon for a couple of hours. It was sad that we had to leave, but we said our goodbyes and headed west down I-40 for Nashville.

We got to Nashville and just made a lazy day of it. I took a little bit of a nap and woke up hungry. I thought that since we were in Nashville, we could try to meet an online friend and his wife for dinner. It was the first time we had met face-to-face, but we were all geeks and Predators fans, so it’s not like it really mattered that we hadn’t. It was kinda funny to be the out-of-towner introducing Nashville locals to each other, though. And they all lived in the same neighborhood! After dinner, we re-packed our bags, taking out all the wedding stuff and things we wouldn’t need for the cruise to try to the lighten the load. Then, we slept.

Links ‘n stuff

• [My] Mom’s Wedding Photos
• Ian and Susan’s Wedding Photos
• Wedding photos taken with our camera
• Geni’s Blog: Amy and Garrett’s Wedding
• Geni’s Blog: Amy and Garrett’s Wedding – Part II: Genimar and Sandy get back to Chattanooga
• Geni’s Wedding Pictures (You have to be a friend of hers on MySpace to view them. Sorry :-/)
• Wedding video shot by Christopher
• Pictures by David and Sharon of Butterfly Hollow — The password is “bartley”.

Amy and Geni doing a little dancing while playing Catan:

Animoto slideshow by my mom: