First Adventure

 I originally posted the story of our honeymoon on my Facebook profile on September 7, 2008.  So this is a slightly edited version of that.  This is 2 weeks after our wedding, so the newlywedness is oozing off the page.  Enjoy! 

Definitely one to tell the kids about. I know people tell you marriage is not a destination but an adventure, but I didn't think I'd be experiencing one during our honeymoon. Our adventures ranged from being evacuated out of our first destination to watching a lady die on the interstate.

On Saturday, August 30th, we got down to Gulf Shores around 4:30 p.m. We managed to have dinner, watch the Auburn game, and eat breakfast before our realty agent called us at 9:00 a.m. the next day to tell us we needed to evacuate immediately because of Hurricane Gustav. I was totally ticked off because I didn't want to leave. I was rather looking forward to being in the middle of a Cat 3 storm during my honeymoon. So, as we were packing to leave the condo, Trey was in the kitchen packing and I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. I very calmly proceeded to walk across the condo, through the kitchen and living room, opened the balcony and screamed, "You suck!" to Gustav. Then, very calmly walked back to the bathroom. Trey was laughing so hard he almost cried.

We stopped for lunch at Lambert's, Home of Throwed Rolls, because no one can be in Foley, Alabama and not eat at Lambert's. Luckily, my parents only lived 2.5 hours away; however, since everyone and their Labor Day holiday dog were trying to evacuate, it took us 5 hours to get there.

Monday, Labor Day, we just hung out at my parents' house and let Gustav do his thing to the Gulf coast. We looked for condos in Panama City Beach (PCB) for the rest of the week since it is only 90 miles from my parents' house.

We left on Tuesday morning headed to PCB, and I used to go there all the time as a kid. But ever since PCB got MTVed, we stopped going. So, I haven't been there in years and it has really changed! The condo at Honeymoon Destination #2 was brand new; the complex itself was so new that they were still painting the stairs in the lobby! The weather was perfect the whole time we were there and the waves were just big enough to have fun! I couldn't ask for anything better, so perhaps it was best that we left Gulf Shores (which experienced multiple tornado warnings during Gustav, eek).

The only thing bad about PCB was for about 18 hours I experienced some stomach problems (I'm never eating oysters again, thanks for nothing SHUCKUMS!!!)

Anypoo . . .

We went to fabulous places to eat like Angelo's Steakhouse and Margaritaville and shopped at Pier Park and unfortunately had to leave Friday morning. However, the night before we left Trey surprised me with tickets to the Auburn/Southern Mississippi game!

So, we made the trip back up to my parents house where we spent one night before going to Auburn the next day. I think we repacked my car so many times we had it down to a science.

We all got up and went to Auburn for the game and I was like a kid at Disney World. I had the best time ever at a game! We had tickets 30 rows up on the 45 yard line, and Tiger flew right over our heads during the pregame festivities. It couldn't have been more perfect. Not to mention we got drenched on during the 3rd quarter; we only had 3 ponchos so Trey and I attempted to share one, which didn't work very well but I didn't mind getting cozy with my hubby during a thunderstorm. ;-)

On the way back towards Montgomery we stopped at the first rest area to use the restroom and get drinks. As we were parking I saw a very large lady on her side in front of the entrance. My mom is a registered public health nurse, so she jumps out of the car to go check on her. The lady was talking and still breathing, so mom and I went into the bathroom. By the time we came out she was unresponsive. Mom rolled her on her back and proceeded to administer CPR to her. My dad knows CPR also, so he, my mom, and another physician were rotating giving CPR to her lifeless body until the ambulance got there. She had about 4 other friends/family members there with her who were inconsolable at this point.

Trey got to the point where he couldn't take it anymore, so we walked off together. He told me that he had the same feeling of helplessness when I was in the hospital. It kind of put things into perspective when I saw how other people were responding to this lady.

They did CPR for 30 minutes until the ambulance finally got there. The put her in the van and went to a hospital in Opelika. Mom and Dad told me that they have to continue CPR until someone gets there, but she had probably been dead for the last 20 minutes. It was a total bummer. I couldn't do anything except pray for her and her family.  After that we drove back to Montgomery to retrieve our car.  

I told Trey I hope our honeymoon is not a foreshadowing of how adventurous the rest of our family vacations will be, he just laughed and said, "Probably . . . ". We made the final trek home to Huntsville, and I was so glad to be home and see my kitties (Roscoe and Missy hadn't joined our family yet).

There were some great parts of our honeymoon like connecting to the person who means the most to me in this world, and we definitely got closer as a couple through the whole experience.

Hurricane Gustav

 

And that, ladies and gentleman, was our honeymoon.  We are planning to go down to Cocoa Beach in September, and we're already calling it our 2nd honeymoon because . . . well . . . we need a redo.