Wedding weekend in Florida

DH, Moe and I spent last weekend in Jacksonville FL attending a family wedding.

A typical FL wedding - folks in shorts and flip flops

It was a quick trip - we weren't there 48 hours. DH's neice married a nice young man at a lovely location, Kingsley Plantation, on the banks of the St. John's River. Kingsley Plantation is a National Park service site, the location of an old plantation (built in late 1700s) with an interesting history. The plantation owner married one of his slaves, a Senegalese woman names Ante Madgigine Jai, or Ma'am Anna.  Ma'am Anna was later freed and ran the plantation herself until the laws regarding freed slaves changed. She hightailed it to Haiti in 1837. The plantation is carved right out of the jungle (which still comes up to the narrow road), and somehow they cultivated Sea Island cotton and sugar cane there.

Anyhow, the wedding was held outside the main house, right on the river. Yes, that's outside in mid-August in Jacksonville, at 4 pm, with no shelter from the sun. I broke out my umbrella. It was absolutely sweltering with very high humidity. The wedding was blessedly short and sweet, and after a few pics were taken below the adjacent live oaks, we headed out to the reception, some 45 minutes away. (We had to catch a ferry get to the reception.)

Fortunately, the reception was heavily air conditioned. It was a nice big room, tastefully decorated. I was surprised to see that they were serving a meal (not a given here in the South). As the bride and groom were footing the bill, I had expected cake and punch, which makes for a nice reception. But they had a great little buffet and wine on all the tables.

Moe hung out with his cousin D (the bride's youngest brother) and played bartender, which only involved opening beer bottles and getting tea refills. We made him dance with the bride a one point, and I got funny pictures to use as blackmail at a later date. I am so bad.

These darling little boys were blowing bubbles and having a blast at the reception. It was a lovely event, good especially since DH's brother, the father of the bride, has been very ill lately. He and his family all had a great time, and we're very happy for them.

Sunday, Moe and I drove the 380 miles back in time for me to go the the grocery, get some laundry done, and drop with exhaustion.

 
While driving, I tried (and failed) to get a picture to the Big Peanut, a local roadside attraction on I-75. It is not to be confused with the Big Peach. But it's still kind of awful.

In other news, Curly is having major issues. He got sorta screwed by one of his part time jobs, which caused him to lose another PT job. Plus, he's really messed up with his landlord and is having to move out ASAP. And he's off his meds, which has made him mess up with me in a big way. We aren't really talking, and he can't live with us. If he does again what he did to me this week, I'll have to get authorities involved. I pray he gets it together.

This week I treated myself to some new thread, and I got these cool shuttles to add to my collection. You like?