August 30, 2025
Today was Holly and Bradley’s wedding day! Because the ceremony and reception weren’t until 5:00 PM, Scott was planning on diving and I was looking forward to a relaxing morning on “our” boat at the marina. The Airbnb proprietor had come by and replaced our glitchy coffee machine the day before so we now had a fully functioning one. Scott left around 7 AM and I slept in until the indulgent hour of nearly 8 AM which is unheard of for me now in middle age- usually I am lucky to make it to 6:30 AM.
I poured myself some coffee and heated up a cinnamon roll and had my breakfast on the upper deck of the boat, thankfully remembering to spray myself with mosquito repellant before venturing up there because the little blood suckers were already out-and-about searching for unsuspecting victims. I hung out and read a bit before heading back into the boat and treating myself to a few episodes of a Netflix show, something I hardly ever do.
Scott got back a little after lunch and told me about his dive. The dive shop was about 20 minutes away from our boat, and was called Key Largo Dive Center. They did two dives and it was just Scott, one other customer, several staff and guides, and one student diver. Both of the dives were at Molasses Reef- the first spot was called Winch Hole and the second was called Aquarium. At the first he saw a barracuda, several interesting schools of fish, and the coral-encrusted winch that was the namesake of the location. At Aquarium, he saw a number of parrot fish, a 7 foot reef shark, an old Spanish anchor, and he enjoyed swimming through some cool coral caverns.
We had a little time before we needed to shower and get dressed for the wedding so we decided to take out one of the kayaks that we had access to with our rental. We decided on the tandem kayak and I was surprised when we were able to both lower ourselves down into it off the dock successfully without capsizing it. We (and by “we” I mean mostly Scott) paddled our way out of our marina’s channel and into the bay. The bay was protected on three sides by mangroves and made a protected area for anchoring boats. We paddled around the area for a while and observed some of the boats before hopping out of the kayak and taking a little float next to it. The water was surprisingly shallow and the sand was unpleasantly squishy, reminding me of Lake Hartwell’s muddy base as it squished between my toes so I didn’t spend much time out of the boat. We decided to head back in and we were now paddling against the current so I actually helped Scott paddle this time. We disembarked from the kayak and climbed back up onto the dock surprisingly easily, again not capsizing the boat.
We arrived fairly early to the wedding venue, The Key Largo Lighthouse Beach, so we had some time to walk around and admire the property and its waterfront views. They had picked the most idyllic spot to get married. Holly was a beautiful bride and her brother Gus served as the officiant and was his typical goofy self which was perfect. I cried happy tears as she and Bradley said their vows. Holly’s brother-in-law was in charge of FaceTiming Holly’s father who unfortunately was not able to travel to the wedding due to an emergency abdominal surgery a few days prior. They kept the ceremony short and sweet and then we were sent to the pre-reception cocktail hour that featured a tiki-hut bar right on the water.
Scott and I were tickled to see that they had a photobooth, and not just any photobooth, but a fully restored 70’s model Volkswagen bus that was stocked full of all sorts of over the top accessories and props. We made a beeline to it, picked out our kitschy attire from the selection, and hopped in for the first of three sessions. Not to brag, but we are basically photobooth experts and take ridiculously ridiculous pictures and love every minute. (Fun fact, Scott is using the picture below with me cropped out as his work profile picture now and I think someone has commented on it in every single meeting this week- it has created many laughs and is so incredibly on-brand for him.)
Dinner was lovely and I was able to introduce Scott to the O’Leary family, longtime friends and boarders of the Torsilieri family. I had met them when Gus and I went to Hong Kong on the Interpacific Exchange in 2010 and coached their daughter Quinn at a few United States Pony Club events over the years. I hadn’t seen them in nearly ten years since they had come south for a winter in Aiken and it was nice to reconnect. Tom, the husband, had flown for Michael Bloomberg as his personal pilot while he was mayor of New York City and continues to fly for him. Nancy brought me up to speed on what Quinn is up to as she unfortunately was unable to attend the wedding.
After cake and toasts the crowd moved out to the sand dancefloor and we were blown away by the dance moves of the youngest Torsilieri children Willow and especially Remy, who danced their little hearts out for hours. It was Ben, of The Last Bison fame, that stole the show when he broke out The Worm- he gave it his all and we were all suitably impressed (although he paid for it the next day, visibly stiff and limping his way into breakfast). Scott was relieved that there were no slow songs so he wasn’t forced to dance with me. We called it a night around 10 PM and headed back to our boat.
Right before we had left for the wedding an error message had come up on the main air conditioning unit in our boat and it shut off. This was not good. I had sent a message to the Airbnb proprietor who said she would send someone out. When I looked at my phone back in the car on the way back to the boat, I saw her message. The a/c unit was broken and since it was both a weekend evening and a holiday at that, no one could come out to fix it, but not to worry, they had turned the two fans on to help circulate air… I probably do not need to tell you how hot it is in the below deck V-berth of a boat cabin in south Florida in August. The fans were woefully underpowered and we both just laid on top of the covers marinating in our own sweat and unable to sleep until about 3 AM when it finally cooled enough for us to doze off. (She did give me a partial refund for that night when I asked for one…)
August 31, 2025
We were zombies the next morning because of the air conditioning situation. Coffee helped a little bit but we were worn down after only getting one good night’s sleep out of the three. We packed and did the necessary tidying up of the boat and then headed out to meet the Torsilieri clan in Key Largo for breakfast. The outdoor restaurant was also a nursery and while it had a cool vibe, it was also a $50 breakfast for the two of us, but it was good to chat with everyone again before we headed out.
We hit the road and headed north into Miami for some sightseeing. Scott wanted me to see Wynwood Walls, a famous outdoor street-art and graffiti district downtown. We arrived about two hours later and it was already 95° with typical Florida humidity so rather than checking it out on foot, we just drove around to take it all in. Since it was a Sunday this wasn’t a bad plan since there was very little traffic. No doubt we didn’t get as rich an experience as we would have on foot, but we were exhausted and the thought of traipsing around in the heat was quite unappealing.
Next we headed to the famous South Beach in Miami Beach. Scott was patient and found us a parking spot in a crowded public lot right at the beach and we walked the short distance to the beach. The beach was crowded since it was a Sunday but we claimed a little spot to put our stuff down and waded into the water. The water temperature was reminiscent of a bathtub but it still felt good and we floated around for a little and enjoyed people watching. Scott eventually got out to go lie on the sand and bask in the sun and I opted to stay in the water. A few minutes later storm clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and rumbles of thunder could be heard. Not long after that the first few fat raindrops started to fall. This was our cue to pack it up and head back to the car along with every other beachgoer.
Scott had gone to get the car while I stood in line for the outside shower, praying I wouldn’t get struck by lightning in my attempt to wash the salty Atlantic ocean water and sand off my body prior to having to board an airplane. The poorly organized cluster of people waiting for the shower was an introvert’s nightmare and I bided my time before bravely taking my shot at a turn under the water, and hoped I wouldn’t get in a catfight with one of the scantily clad Brazilian booty lifted beachgoers who didn’t believe in waiting in lines. I survived the ordeal and ran back through the rain to the car. In hindsight, I could have just stood outside the car and let the rain accomplish the same thing without the awkward queuing (or lack thereof).
Getting out of the parking lot was a nightmare, as the mass exodus of people from the beach meant that we were all trying to exit the parking lot from a wildly bottlenecked single entrance onto roads that were now gridlocked with traffic and rather significantly flooded. This little experiment was not a ringing endorsement for the future of humanity. We watched several bouts of road rage, people threatening to use their vehicles as battering rams, and other insane levels of acts of sense of entitlement play out all around us as we inched our way towards the light. About 90 minutes later as we finally made it out of the parking lot and onto Ocean Drive I announced that I never wanted to come back to Miami. One out of five stars. Do not recommend. Much too peopley.
The interstates weren’t much better and we creeped along in the heavy rain. We stopped to refuel our rental car when we were close to the airport and then headed towards the rental car location to drop the vehicle off, unfortunately having to unload the car and repack our wet beach clothes in the downpour. The rental car shuttle took us to the terminal and we killed time before boarding our flight back to Asheville. We were excited to see my parents when we got out of the airport and I offered to drive back home since it was dark. We regaled them with tales of our trip and caught them up on life updates for all the members of the Torsilieri clan. We picked up our car at my parent’s house and then drove back to our house, finally getting to bed sometime after midnight.
