Kayaking and a random cattle show

I found some pictures that I took in May when we went to the Miami Cattle Show and kayaking in the Florida Keys.

Kayaking through the Keys

As a wedding present, our then branch president gave us a kayaking trip (click on pic to see album) and dinner at an excellent all-you-can-eat seafood place. Patricia and I used his two-man, which means that I kayaked two people. Patricia helped every once in while. The kayaks had an interesting design; they had fins underneath that were leg powered. One can row, too, but the leg-powered rowing alone was very fast. We both really enjoyed the trip, and now a sea kayak is on our special list. You know that special list of things we would like to some day buy when we actually have money.


A little Florida Keys history
Our branch president is a Florida history buff, so he picked keys to kayak to that had historical value. On one key we saw an old village that was there until 100 years ago. Then we went to another key where there was an old village established by a wealthy ship wrecker. Ship wreckers were the people who would salvage ships that wrecked in the shallow waters around the Keys. They would take the crew ashore and then gut the ship. This was completely legal activity, and ship wrecking made Key West the wealthiest city per capita in the world.

A rich man's son Jacob Houseman from New York stole one of his Dad's ships and ship wrecked in the Keys. He soon saw that shipwrecking could be a lucrative business. He convinced the ship wrecker who salvaged his ship to hire him. He then sent out fliers all along the East coast, saying that anyone wrecked in the Keys should let Captain Jacob Houseman wreck their ship because he would give the captain 50% of the wreck. This was important to the captain of the wrecked ship because after wrecking a ship he would never have another job opportunity again. The owner of the cargo was covered by insurance, but the captain was out of a job for life. Half the cargo was a good retirement fund.

Jacob Houseman quickly became the wealthiest ship wrecker in the Keys. He bought and settled on Indian Key. During the Seminole Wars he became very worried about Indian attacks, so he employed a rather costly private army. After exhausting much of his financial resources on the private garrison, he decided to take a cheaper route of paying a bounty on Indian scalps. However, that which appears cheapest sometimes turns out to be the most expensive. The Seminoles became infuriated with the bounty and attacked the key. Most people on the key were killed, though Jacob Houseman and his family escaped. In the attack Houseman lost everything and soon after lost his life, too. He went to work for a ship wrecker and fell (probably pushed) between 2 ships and was crushed to death.

Pig racing and bovines
On the way home one day I saw an advertisement for a cattle show (click on pic to see album) close to our apartment with free admission. Free and close, I couldn't resist. Because Patricia was with me, she was dragged along as well. Patricia had almost no experience with animals outside of her dog, so this was all rather new for her. For instance, she had never been close to a cow, let alone touched one. She finally got up the courage to touch this Maine Anjou bull (thank goodness it humored her).

The cattle show had a pot-bellied pig race that was pretty funny. The announcer was excellent and made it sound like these pot-bellied pigs were the most elite racing animals in the race of races. In reality, the pigs jogged for the first 10 feet then dawdled around the back stretch.
All of a sudden one pig took off running as fast as its fat little legs could carry it. It was a good 40 yards ahead of the other pig when he stopped (no joking) six inches in front of the finish line. He stayed there until another pig almost crossed the line in front of him. Nothing more exciting than seeing pig win by only a snout.

It was interesting to see what Patricia found most interesting. One cow as we walked by started peeing, Patricia just looked at it wide-eyed, amazed. She could not believe that so much urine could leave any animal at one time. Afterwords she wanted to photograph a cow peeing, but unfortunately cows don't pee on cue.

Part III: The honeymoon

Our honeymoon was fabulous. We spent a one week in Itacaré in the state of Bahia. We spent the entire time going to beaches, hiking trails, looking at animals and plants, and eating excellent by Bahiana food. The Bahiano lifestyle is a slower chilled out lifestyle than São Paulo or the United States. They believe in relaxing, not working too hard, and enjoying the beach, or sleeping away the hot afternoon in a hammock. The climate has too seasons and warm and hot. Since it was winter, the weather was warm. Of course, Patricia was the only person in the Bahia that was cold. She would wear long-sleeved shirts at night because it was barely 80°F. She got spoiled having mild weather her whole life without the Arizona hot or the Colorado cold.

We both loved the place and rued the day we had to leave. It was so nice to spend some time there experimenting the local food, seeing beautiful places and nature, and meeting new people. We ate so much good food. Bahian food is very spicy unlike the rest of Brazil that does not know what chili or peppers are. However, their hot food does not hold a candle to some serious Mexican food, though it can light up the average tourist. All the food had local fruits, palm nuts, and fish or shrimp. Excellent stuff.

Here are the links to the pictures of the beaches and trails that we visited and animals that we saw.

Beaches

Honeymoon critters

Honeymoon general pics

Patricia's pics - For all you people who think that I am a crazy biologist. Now you need to see the types of pictures that Patricia takes.

Monkeys

Arvorismo - walkways through the trees

Rafting and cliff jumping

I'll put up a video or two once I get one ready. Patricia took numerous videos of beaches, people, and capoeira (Brazilian martial art and dance). I think that you all would like to see some serious Bahian capoeira.

Part II: The wedding

Throughout the week prior to the wedding we were finishing the final aspects of the wedding planning, while Patricia's cousin (the wedding planner) was organizing the wedding. Two days before the wedding that tents that were set up outside where the wedding was going to take place had not been constructed, though they were supposed to be set up three days before. Marlene (Patricia’s mother) was so worried and, of course, she let the owners of the wedding place know about it. They still were promising her that everything would be set up on time, but she wanted results when they're supposed to occur.

Patricia and I went to the place for hours before the wedding, to give the table assignments to Patricia's cousin. The tents tankfully were in place, and the tables were set up. Hovere, nothing was on the tables, and the decorations weren't finished. I must say I was pretty concerned. When we got there about 30 minutes before the wedding was supposed to start, everything was organized and the final workers were leaving. I was so surprised. I was so sure that they would still be frantically trying to finish the preparations. In the end everything was very beautiful.

As a time arrived we all waited in a room downstairs for this final instructions from the ceremony planner. I first entered alone to my music, which was a piece, which accented the two trumpets in the band. The Dad and Patricia's mother entered with their music. Afterwards the madrinhas and padrinhos (like best men and bride’s maids) and the flower girl entered. Finally Patricia and her dad entered to the music “the wedding march”. Patricia and her dad took a while to enter, and I whispered to her cousin (one of the padrinhos) that she was taking forever to enter. He told me that he had to wait an hour and a half for his bride to come because she's hadn't even arrived at the church yet. I decided having to wait 10 minutes was not too bad.

When Patricia entered, they had closed the curtains prior. As she approached the curtains, the curtains were opened. That was supposed to be the first time I see her in her wedding dress. However, I didn't see her for another minute when she was already about 15 feet away because there is three cameramen and another person taking photos in front of her constantly taking pictures. At this point I led her to the altar where our branch president performed the ceremony. The ceremony was more like a talk on the responsibilities of husband and wife and mother and father. He did an excellent job, though he was very nervous.

We sat in front while he conducted the ceremony. My toes fell asleep because tux shoes are horribly uncomfortable. I fidgeted as little as possible, but I could not help moving a little to try to restore feeling to my toes.

After the ceremony we had the waltz. This was the worst part of the whole wedding because I did not want to dance. At the last reception that I was at a told on of my friends that there would be no dancing at my wedding. If anyone started to dance, they would be kicked out of the reception. Look how things changed, I danced the waltz at my own wedding ... in a tux no less. It went well I guess, though Emily said I looked quite nervous and uncomfortable. At least I did not step on her dress. I was sure that I would step on her dress, she would fall down and rip her dress, and I would have to live with for the rest of my life. Thank goodness that nightmare didn’t happen!

There were ~270 guests at our wedding, and we said hi, hugged and kissed them all, a process that took four hours. I was so tired by the end. It was good to meet her side of the family - people that I wouldn't have an opportunity to meet any other way. Then as people left, they felt it appropriate to come and say goodbye to us, which meant we had to hug kiss and say goodbye to 270 people again I've never hugged, kissed and greeted so many people in my life. But that is a Latin wedding and par for the course.

In the end it was an absolutely gorgeous wedding with absolutely gorgeous bride, a very happy mother-in-law, and many excellent memories.

(I don't have any pictures of the wedding of course because I did not have my camera, but everybody's seen pictures of the wedding already so it's okay)