In the year of our Lord, 2006, it came to past that the daughter of my sister Vicki, my niece Amanda, to be referred to as 'Mandy', and Tom, to be referred to as 'Tom', would get married in Key West, Florida. During my last visit to Tennessee, where they all lived, I had volunteered to do the video taping of the ceremony. So, when I received a call that the nuptials would be taking place near the end of March, over the weekend of the 25th, I began to assemble my equipment. This particular time of the year was right in the middle of 'Spring Break', which meant that Key West would have an abundance of college students, which further meant that accommodations would be at a premium. I made a few calls and found a room at the Lime Tree Inn.This was just a few blocks from where the wedding would take place.
The wedding would be taking place at the Hemingway House, one of the many places that Ernest Hemingway called home at one time in his life. It was located 8 or so Key West blocks up Whitehead St, from the action around Mallory Square. The house was built in 1871, and Hemingway moved in around 1931. While he was away as a war correspondent, covering the Spanish Civil War, his wife Pauline finished the swimming pool in1938, that they had started a few years earlier. It was and still is the largest pool in Key West. The wedding would take place around the pool.
The Northcutt family had arrived in Miami and Tom and Mandy would be spending the night at my house on the 23rd of March. I took them to a place called 'The Grotto' over on Coral Way for dinner and a drink or two. Mandy had something called an 'Angry Pirate', that was still causing distress the next morning.
The check-in time at the Lime Tree was 3 PM, so I timed my departure accordingly. I loaded up my stuff and left Miami around 11 AM. The traffic was heavy all the way down the Overseas Highway, south to Key West. I arrived and checked in to the Lime Tree right at 3 PM. I called my sister on my cell phone to see where they were.They had planned on leaving Homestead and Wayne's World at 9:30 AM, which should have put them in Key West several hours before me. After a late start, they were just approaching the 7 Mile Bridge, which is 47 mile north of Key West. That meant it would be a while before they arrived.
Having some time to kill, and being very familiar with Key West, having visited many times since my 1st visit in 1960, I knew that Bogart's Irish Pub was just around the corner on Duval St. I also knew they had Guinness. So away I went. Despite the fact that Spring Break was in full swing, Bogart's was not crowded. I guessed that the youngsters were down in the Sloppy Joe's- Capt. Tony's area getting wasted. I found a window seat where I could watch for the Northcutt Convoy to proceed down Duval St. After a couple of hours and four pints of the good stuff, I decided they must have come in the back way, so I went back to the Lime Tree. Shortly after I returned, my sister called and said they were eating in, and they would see me tomorrow. Since I was staying at one end of Duval Street, and they were at the other, a little over a mile away, I would find a place nearby for dinner. Just down the street was Duffy's Steak & Seafood House. The meal was so-so, but filling. I went back to the room, broke open a bottle of Ballentine's 12 year old Scotch and sat by the pool for a while. As the sun went down, so did I.
I woke up at 5:30 AM, and decided to go video the sunrise. Everything in Key West focuses on the sunset, so I thought the sunrise would make a good background for the opening titles of the wedding video. Since parking in Key West is at a premium, even in the parking lot of the motel, I was hoping that my space would still be there if I was back in an hour. It was. It seems a cold front was passing over the island, so the sunrise was obscured by massive clouds. The wind was blowing, the temperature was falling, and road construction prevented me from getting to the beach. So, I returned to the room to regroup. The Lime Tree provided a Continental breakfast every morning, so while waiting for this to happen, I sat by the pool and rechecked all of my video equipment.When the breakfast appeared, I had some coffee and a muffin. I was going to walk around Key West while it was quiet, down past the light house to Mallory Square and back, in order to video as many landmarks and bars as I could before the town woke up. I would put this at the end of the wedding part as a travelogue feature. I also needed to visit Kino's Sandal Shop to pick up some sandal requests from the folks back in Miami. So around 8:30, I began walking.
The streets were fairly empty, as I had suspected. By the time I had taped my way to Mallory Square and over toward the Pier House, it was 10:30. Real time is not usually valid in Key West, as I passed Sloppy Joe's, I found it to be open and serving the early risers, eye-opener's as needed. Well, my eyes had been open for 5 hours, and a beer sounded pretty good. A local brew, Key West Ale, hit the spot and fueled me for the walk back to the Lime Tree. It was time took don the wedding attire need for a proper Key West wedding. So I put on my Hawaiian shirt. My shorts and sandals were good to go.
I had packed all of my video stuff in to a Plano rolling work case. I had 2 tripods strapped to the top. I hit the street pulling the Plano behind me and headed for the Hemingway House, five blocks away.I arrived at half past noon, introduced myself to the ticket sellers, and was waved on in. I was first to arrive, it seemed, but Linda, the Notary who worked for the House and would be performing the wedding services, introduced herself and showed me the area to be used. I walked around and found what I thought would be the optimum location for the camera I would set up and just let run. I would take the other camera and walk around getting shots from various angles.
Finally, people began to arrive. Most I didn't know. Bobby and Vicki arrived, but no one knew where the bride was. By 1:30, everyone was accounted for and the ceremony began. I felt it went well. I moved around to capture as much of the ceremony and attendees as possible. After the ceremony, champagne and Key Lime Pie were served. Folks began to leave. I saw my sister Vicki and her husband, Bobby hop on their bicycles and ride back towards the Galleon, where they were staying and where a semi-reception was being held. After taking my stuff back to the Lime Tree, I hiked down to the Galleon for drinks and snacks. I met up with some of my other relatives and eventually ended up at Mallory Square to watch the daily Sunset festivities. As I went back to the Lime Tree, I passed Bogart's and went in to have a fish and chips dinner with Guinness of course.
I woke up early again, so as soon as the office opened, I checked out and went back to Miami. Now, all I had to do was make a movie.
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