I only stayed in Pompano for a day. Sean came by on Tuesday and picked me up. Justin was with him too and it was nice to have a little bit of a reunion before heading off.
The drive itself wasn’t all that bad. Maybe four or five hours from Pompano to Key West. Compared to the distances I was driving earlier in the year, this was nothing. The drive down is really nice. All along the water like you would have expected. And the weather was clear and sunny.
We got into town early in the afternoon, checked into the hostel, and then we were off to meet everyone at the pier in the early evening. The bachelor party was that night and Sean organized a two hour boat cruise.
It was really great just seeing everyone. It’s been over a year. And it wasn’t just me that was having the reunion. It seemed that everyone hadn’t seen each other because of COVID.
The boat tour itself was pretty standard. We brought a bunch a beer and liquor and we had a few drinks while the crew brought us around to a few of the nicer spots in Key West. We passed by some mega yachts, saw a few dolphins, and then finished it off with a sunset on the water.
Afterward, we stopped by for dinner at one of the places I remember going as a child. That was pretty cool, to reminisce. Hunter’s wife, Vanessa, and her friends stopped by for a bit but we didn’t do all too much after that.
The next day was meant to be a chill day and Dio and I decided to golf at the only course in Key West. Again, a beautiful day for it, and we got paired up with a really good group. One of the guys had just gotten married a few days earlier and he was on his honeymoon. His wife went with him to the golf course and was riding around with him while he played!
I didn’t shoot all that great but it was my first round in over a year. I don’t count the round I had in Coober Pedy because there wasn’t even grass on that course.
That evening we just chilled. Grabbed some dinner and then a few drinks and went back to the AirBnB and jumped in the hot tub. Nothing crazy. I didn’t get much sleep the night before because the neighbors were yelling until 4 o’clock in the morning. So I was pretty tired.
The next day was the wedding and actually, everything went extremely well. I think everyone was expecting it to be a bit disorganized but I actually thought the ceremony was wonderful. Hunter is Jewish and there were various prayers and other traditions throughout the ceremony. One of Vanessa’s friends sang all of the prayers and she did beautifully. I’m not sure if she knows how to speak Hebrew but it sure sounded like she did.
I was really glad I came to be honest. Hunter and I are not as close as we used to be. I think maybe six or seven years ago we were really hanging out a lot. At that point, most of our friends had left NY and we were one of the few that were left there. So we kind of just bonded and saw each other a lot.
But it was good to be there and show support. You have to be there for your friends and focus on the good aspects of your relationships. When I was younger I always felt that I didn’t have that many reliable friends. Mostly because I didn’t really have any friends that were early childhood friends.
But I definitely have a good group of reliable friends now. It doesn’t matter that I met most of these people in college or even after that. I am good to them and they are good to me. And that’s all that matters.