Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig: Part One

Due to circumstances largely beyond his control (a.k.a. yours truly), Alex has been to Baltimore close to 10 times. I imagine that’s about 9 to 10 more visits per lifetime than most DC residents take to their northerly neighbour, despite it being only 30 miles up I-95.

Although he is fairly significantly better travelled than most foreigners when it comes to the States (newsflash, World: there’s more to America than California and Manhattan), the fact that Alex has repeatedly and inadvertently invested his vacation time in the same three square miles in “Charm City” since he met me has more or less throttled his continuing U.S. education. And has left me feeling slightly guilty as a result.

After all, this is a guy who is supposed to gradually and subconsciously become convinced that he wants to move to the other side of the Atlantic some day (shh…don’t tell), and well, though it is near and dear to me in many ways, Baltimore does not exactly a persuasive argument for expatriation make.

So I’m happy that on this visit to the States, despite culminating in a trip to Baltimore, my deprived boyf was at least able to experience more of what America has to offer. Unfortunately, many of the destinations he hit up on his own time were also of questionable influence (ask him about his time spent in a Key Largo bar with a gang of recently released prisoners), but at least the occasions when we met up in between my stints at work represented some steps in the right direction.

We started in New Symrna Beach, Florida, a place chosen by Christy and Jason (both Americans living in London) as a wedding destination more for the venue and the geographical convenience to their respective families than the merits of the beach town itself.

The rehearsal dinner took place at J.B. Fish's Camp, an apparently very famous, fun, low-key river-side restaurant complete with delicious hush puppies and grits, cold Bud Light out of plastic cups, and a framed photograph of Sarah Palin smiling over a dead moose. Mmmm....God Bless America.


The next day, the wedding took place at the stunning Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Alex, despite his terrified expression in the pic below, did a helluva job with his Best Man speech. Though we were hot and sweaty in the balmy Florida heat, I (and Alex, in his first trip to Florida) were suitably charmed by the tropical environment and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.

As you can see, the first three days spent in America's Southeast provided a fine introduction to two glorious weeks to follow in the States. Tomorrow (or Friday): Part Two of Home Again, Home Again Jiggity Jig and the next installment in The Continuing American Education of Alex. You won't want to miss it.