The lowdown of what's-a-happenin'

Hey, the photo above was taken at The Dry Tortugas, and it's Tina and Patrik watching the sun go down!

Our wedding is Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 6:30pm.
The wedding will be held at The Garden at West Martello Fort, Key West.
To check out our wedding site, click "Garden Club" under "links" on the upper right corner of this page.
RSVP for the wedding by simply calling me on my cell at (206) 257-8074.
I can help you with EVERYTHING.
This wedding is purposely being kept small so that Patrik and I can have quality time with our visitors.
We are hoping that this is an experience for you to vacation, relax, unwind, soak up the sun, and just have a great time.
All of the plans we make are flexible and we're open to hearing and partipating in any activities that our guests get excited about and want to try, from snorkeling and sight seeing to partying.
The link that you can click on in the upper right hand corner that says "Key West" is supposedly the official website of Key West, and has numerous links for additional information on the town we call home.

The game plan so far...

Friday night will be respective boys' and girls' nights (slightly bachelor/bachelorette shin digs), with boys and girls separating for lodging as well. Tina wants a girls' slumber party--all ages--everyone who's in town.

Saturday, everyone should be nursing hang overs and just doing their own "thangs".
Doors open for guests at West Martello at 6pm.
The wedding will begin at 6:30pm, and will be followed with music, champagne, white and red wine, beer, sodas/water, Slovakian Food samplings, and cake. Guests will mingle until the sun sets at 7:40pm.
Following, guests will go out for a drink if they like, and then people are welcome to call it a night or stay out a bit longer. DO NOT GO CRAZY THIS NIGHT...BECAUSE...

Sunday, we will report at 6:30am to the Harbor/Marina and load our gear on up to go Camping overnight at the Dry Tortugas! Please RSVP for Camping and Day Trips by March 13th. Tina has reserved all 12 spots available for camping on the island (the island is OURS!), and has reserved 5 Day Trip spots as well, for those who don't wish to camp overnight. Click on the link in the upper right hand corner of this page, on "Dry Tortugas", and you'll see why Tina and Patrik fell in love while camping there.
The boat leaves at 8am, and takes 2 hours to arrive at the Dry Tortugas. The boat provides breakfast and lunch, and Tina and Patrik are putting together dinner for that night, and breakfast the next day. The next day, we may again enjoy the "boat lunch", and the boat will depart at 3:00pm, putting us back into Key West at 5pm on Monday.
I'm going to add a post that will live on the right side of this page called "The Skinny on Dry Tortugas" under "The lowdown of whats-a-happenin'" and "Yeah we're gettin Married", that will break down the costs, etc.

Monday night, Tuesday, and forever after...RELAXING Key West style!

Because we are having a destination wedding, and realize the great expense involved for guests, Patrik and Tina don't want any gifts. All that we hope is that when you take photos during our wedding, that you let us burn or make copies. We are not hiring a wedding photographer, because wedding photographers are strangers that are often scary and weird and Tina doesn't like them. :)

If you're wondering other guests' travel plans, check out "comments" on the "Yeah we're getting married" page. Tina's mother is getting in Thursday and staying for a week, and has rented a condo in Truman Annex. I just walked by it two days ago, and it is in a PRIME location, right off Duval, and also right next to Fort Zachary Taylor Park (Which is where Patrik and I took our photos for the Wedding Invitations). There is another condo right next door to me mum's that is two bedroom, one bath, and when you break down the cost it's excellent. Just ring me up if you'd like more details, or check out the link that directs you right to it that my mom posted in comments. Her condo is called "Key Lime". The one available right next door is called "Breezy Sunset". Give Tina a call if you want help booking it. :)

Accommodations are crazy expensive, so if you want somewhere free to crash, Tina and Patrik can happily ( We adore house guests!) accommodate 5 people at their apartment, for as long or as short as anyone desires. Tina's friend, Julie, also has offered her apartment for people to stay at as well (Julie's going to go out of town the week after the wedding, and so it'd be your own place to stay--One bedroom, adorable balcony, located 4 blocks from my place, queen bed and sofa and even has a dog named Sage that will keep you company whilst lodging there :) ).

This blog, as well as our wedding plans, are a "work in progress", so just call Tina with your questions and feedback!

The Skinny on the Dry Tortugas

Ok, so I deeply encourage you to click on "Dry Tortugas" on the top right of the main page. It's SUPER. It's got history stuff, a page on camping, and "Park News" which is the best in gorgeous color.
Anyhoo, I put most of the info on the "Lowdown" page, and wrote down all the stuff on Dry Tortugas like a month ago, so let's see if I remember...I'm totally going to just spew all of the info..

There are only two boats which go to The Dry Tortugas. Despite what the Dry Tortugas website said about camping for groups of 10 to 30, due to impact on the island only 6 spots for camping are available per boat, per day, by law. If you're scared about seasickness, I got the hookup on the Seaplane company that flies there too (which I'm tempted to take and to leave all the gear with Patrik and people who don't get seasick). The seaplane company, "Sea Planes of Key West" (305) 294-0709 ($199/person), said that both of the boats that go to The Dry Tortugas are equipped to carry 200 passengers to the island, but a couple years ago the National Park said the impact on the island was too great from too many visitors, so each boat may only carry 100 passengers. Therefore, if you fly over on the Sea Plane, you can totally jump on a boat coming back and they'll definitely have 100 extra seats that they're forbidden to sell. Hwa ha ha (This also would explain the hefty cost of tickets because they can only sell half the seats to make up their cost of operation).

The two boats that travel to the Dry Tortugas are called "Yankee Freedom II" and "Sunny Days Catamarans". The customer service at Sunny Days is way, way nicer than Yankee Freedom. I vowed to never take Yankee Freedom again because of a mean lady that worked there a year ago, but this time they were just O.K. Sunny Days let me speak to the manager and everything and her name is Lynn and she's from Oregon and she's just superb and helpful. She cut me deals and everything. The Yankee Freedom manager never called me back, but I reserved spots anyways.
Camping rules are pretty strict on the island and it's a primitive form of camping (find out the info for Camping do's and don'ts on Yankeefreedom.com), but OH MY GOSH it's doesn't matter at all because it is DIVINE to be there. So amazing. The beach, it's white sand, the turquoise crystal clear water (it's really this color!), the snorkeling, the vivid coral and sealife (nothing scary-I promise you, except for how you skip a breath when you see something new), the fish of so many tropical colors, the awesome, awesome Fort itself--the obvious aesthetic care by the stone masons--beautiful brick arches and the layout itself with grassy courtyard, the stars, WAKING up and taking your coffee up to the ramparts overlooking everything and everything so quiet, still and fresh! The daytrippers are only on the island from 10am until 3pm and then it's just quiet and peaceful. Just you and the other 11 campers (unless there are a couple who stayed over from the previous night, and those campers are equally awed and humbled and respectful).
The best part of it all is that you can get away from the group easily if you desire sanctitude, but it will be a great way for Patrik and I to have quality time with our guests, who are of course only our closest friends and family, and thus pretty quality people in and unto themselves. :) We're going to have such a great time!

Money
For Yankee Freedom II (Yankee Fleet, 305.294.7009), I reserved 6 spots for campers, at $169 each for roundtrip. I reserved the spots with my credit card and there is a 24 hour cancellation period.

For Sunny Days Catamarans (305.292.6100), the company with which we will try to do most of our business with, I reserved 6 spots for campers at $155 each for roundtrip with a 72 hour cancellation period.
With locals I.D. (me, Patrik, Julie, etc.) it's $125/person/roundtrip.
With Sunny Days I also reserved 5 spots for Daytrippers, for those who don't want to stay overnight (My parents said they didn't want to stay overnight, so I saved a few extra spots for others, too, and they'll leave at 3pm on the same day).
Lynn gave me the off-season rate for the daytrippers (it will be high season when we go), which might be $125 per person as well, I think, she cut us a deal is what I remember.
Lynn wanted me to make a deposit on these spots by March 15th (that's why I'm asking for an RSVP for camping and day trips to The Tortugas), because she knows that the days we are going will be sold out. Please just let me know if you're going to the Dry Tortugas by March 13th, and then the morning we go, we can pay separately at the booth or you can slip me cash or check sometime during the week--no pressure at all.
Call me, and I will post comments to this page to let ya'll know who has RSVP'd, etc. Or you can post comments yourself to this page to let me know that you RSVP, etc. I just realized that I can access this page at work, so it's like a slice of heaven to pull up when I get a chance. Everyone, everywhere keeps saying that the week of my wedding everything should be sold out, so they're hesitant to make deals with me. As it gets closer to the actual date and when it appears things won't be sold out, that's when I should be able to make deals, they say, but what a catch 22 that is!

What I'm hoping, and what you need:
I would love if a few of you, if you had tents or sleeping bags, could you check them? Each of you gets one carry on and gets to check two bags. Could one of them be a tent or sleeping bag? What you can't bring, Patrik and I are going to beg, borrow, or buy from K-Mart real cheap-like. It'll all work out if you can't check anything.
You hardly need to bring any clothes with you to Key West--seriously. For camping, all that you need is a swimsuit and one change of clothes (shorts, tank top, t-shirt for if you get burnt on your shoulders easily), sunscreen, mosquito repellant (I don't remember them being bad, but mosquitoes LOVE the fresh blood of tourists!), I brought one pair of old crusty jeans for at night if the mosquitoes were bad, and a sarong to lay on and use for a towel. You might want a hat if your face starts to burn or you want to keep the sun off your head (I'll be bringing my good ol' "Hank" hat). Sarongs are good to use as a light jacket as well, you non-locals will be sweating probably, but count on a nice, light breeze on the island.

The boats allow us to bring 40 pounds of gear per person, not including the weight of water or tents. There isn't running water on the island. There are marvelously clean self-composting toilets that are fully stocked with hand sanitizer. The self-composting toilets are closed from 10am until 3pm because the boats are docked on the island, and they want you to use the boat toilets, which DO have running water. There are showers/hoses on the boats for you to use, too, if you WANTED to, but honestly, we're going to be swimming and snorkeling and nobody cares what you look like at all in Key West. You're going to hear the term "Key West Casual" as the dress code while you're here. NO RESTAURANTS require fancy dress. A Tommy Bahama (Hawaiian) shirt, shorts, flip flops, are what the wealthy wear here everywhere--and that's on a fancy day for a big event (like our wedding!).

We're going to be freezing a lot of water bottles to throw in coolers, which will double as ice and our drinking supply. And we'll be bringing whole flats and jugs of bottled water. We're going to have a BBQ at night. We'll have meat and vegetarian options. Obviously we'll make sure we have coffee for the next morning and throughout the day because we are major coffee addicts (It'll be turkish style, though :) ). Um...and of course booze and snacks! The boats provide breakfast and lunch both days--awesome breakfast to be honest, like bagels and cereal and fruit, and the lunches are like a trip to subway, but we'll have stuff, too, for ourselves.

Any further questions, just give us a ring. You've got my number. Patrik's is 305.879.3750.
It's going to be awesome, I promise! Good or bad, it's all going to be AWESOME!

Who's Coming?!

In my mother's condo, will be my family: My mother Jeannie, my brother Eric, father Jim, his sister (my aunt) Mel, Mel's boyfriend Steve, and my mother's sister (my aunt) Julie.

At my house so far are Patrik's mother (finger's crossed), her name is Monika, and she will be flying in from Slovakia. Also staying at my house is Amy, my best friend since I was in 7th grade, and the best tennis partner anyone could ask for. I'm still hoping that her husband Mike comes, too.
Possibly Kathleen will be staying with us as well, if she comes back to KW one more time (she was just here for Thanksgiving)? Kathleen is my old roommate and my world traveling friend (we went to Europe for a month together, she has visited me when I lived in Korea, and I visited her when she lived in Italy).

My local friend, Julie (a riot with a great heart), will be bringing a friend or two with her to the wedding.

My friends, Tyler and Melissa, expressed desire in totally doing up Key West and having a truly quality week of relaxation. Melissa and I have been best chums ever since our first day of college at Evergreen, and we were college roomies. Melissa's also my "life coach". :) You're all gonna love Tyler!

Vicki and Flynn, one of the most sacred of institutions in my unstable life, have been helping me move since 1998. Vicki and Flynn lived right next door to me in the Seattle U-District's infamous Chai Tai Apartments (somehow a legitimate business despite the rats, red mold, and barf on the wall between our apartment doors)!

Other people that were invited, but haven't RSVP'd, and will definitely be in our thoughts on our Special Day:

My Grandmother, Dolores
My neighbors and Amy's parents, Jack and Lora (my 2nd family!)
The neigbors next door, THE CHAMBERLINS (my fave peeps to babysit for!)
My sister Nikki and her family
Steve and Linda Rodgers & family, our acting family in Washington State since 1987 (Man, I missed those Pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving!).
Linda and Ron Goudreau, great friends of my parents (Linda visited me in Thailand!)
And, last but not least, my best friend Ji Young from Seoul, Korea (I miss her SO much! Patrik and I are going to meet you and Edward wherever you and Ed next visit in the U.S. Ok, Ji Young?)

Thank you all for being so great to me over these many years. I love you all!

Yeah we are getting married!!!!