the Perreault Family: A Weary Traveler

Jamie and I made our last summer trip this past weekend up to Tallahassee to attend a college friend of Jamie's wedding. We also added a detour on the way home to visit Memere and Aunt Odette in Jax. It was great to celebrate with our friends and to see our family however; I am over the novelty of travel. Two and a half weeks is the longest period of time that we have been at home during this summer. And let me tell you, 2 1/2 weeks is just long enough to enjoy your bed, feel like you might actually get caught up on everything at the house (but you don't), throw in a little work and then pack again. My head is spinning literally, and my summer was officially over on Monday. I keep looking around our house and twitching when I see all of the unfinished projects that surround me. However, that is another post.

On Saturday, Jamie and I got up really early and hopped in the car to head up to Tally; we left in plenty of time to make the 2:30 wedding after cleaning up at the hotel when we got into town. The roads were great and we arrived two hours before the wedding. Sounds great doesn't it? Not the reality, due to the poor service at the LaQuinta in Tallahassee. We rolled into their parking lot at 12:30, two hours before we needed to be at the wedding, and went up to the front desk (which we called the day before to verify the 1:00 or before check-in time) and were told that we couldn't get in until 3. 3?!?! The wedding was at 2:30! Surely the woman would understand our predicament and see what she could do for us. However, the lady at the front counter was being a beast! She made no effort to help us despite the fact that we had seen rooms that were cleaned while we were waiting in the parking lot trying to figure out this mess. I think she may be bitter for never having attended a wedding herself, I mean one must have to have friends to be invited in the first place.

So let me paint the picture for you, the two of us were standing in the hotel parking lot in our gym clothes (during FSU & FAMU graduation weekend, i.e. there were no last minute hotels to be heard of), me with my hair piled on my head in desperate need of a shower and somewhere to change, with no hotel room and well no one that we could think of to call. Crap was the only thing that I could say before visions of "showering" in a gas station bathroom filed my head. Needless to say, Jamie didn't immediately go to the same place as I did (that's why I love him) and thought to call a colleague of his that lives in Tallahassee (the only other person we know in the city that wasn’t the bride or groom and isn’t home for the summer). Ed (Jamie’s colleague) lives 8 miles outside of town, which was not too close to where we were or to the wedding, but they had a shower that we could use and they were home- I was sold. So, we jumped into the truck headed over there at a safe lightening speed and took what was the fastest showers imaginable only to be late to the ceremony. Side note: do you know how terrible it feels to arrive a few minutes late a wedding? Well it is horrible, and I won't ever criticize late wedding guests again.

Moral of the story, don't ever think that traveling to an out of town wedding the day of and having plenty of time to change when you get there is a good idea. Also, never, never ever book a night at the LaQuinta. On another side note, the wedding was beautiful! I attached a few pictures for you all to enjoy.