Honeymoon = Comedy of Errors

Honeymoon. The word connotes romance, excitement, fun, and relaxation... unless you are me. That word means confusion, cots (not a good thing) and a comedy of errors fit for a Griswold. 

My then-girlfriend normally handles all planning. To give her a break from it all, especially in the midst of planning the wedding, I decided I would be one of those romantic guys who plans a surprise trip for the day after our wedding. She was very excited and only knew to pack for very warm weather. (That tip would come back to haunt me.)

We packed , drove to the airport, and got our boarding passes. Little did I know that you had to choose seats ahead of time if you actually want to sit with the person with whom you are traveling. So, we flew to our tropical paradise on opposite sides of the plane. We arrived, caught the shuttle to our resort and my new wife was more excited than I think I have ever seen her. Imagine her (and my) shock when we discovered that there was no room at the inn. No, the resort did not overbook. I somehow clicked the wrong date on the little drop down box online when making the reservation and we were not due to check-in until the next day. Oops. The resort was nice enough to help us find a place to sleep for the night... twin size cots in the business center. Did I mention the business center is open 24 hours a day and some businesspeople use the late hours to catch up on work they missed during the day? I was amazed - my bride had not yet complained about anything, though I could tell the forced smiles were not going to last much longer. "We'll look back on this and laugh," I told her.

Laugh we did. We checked in the next morning and loved our accommodations. It was just what we pictured. I walked over to the window, opened the blinds, and gazed out over our view of the... parking lot?!? Oops. Imagine how romantic it was to sit on the balcony eating breakfast while enjoying the view of resort staff arriving to work. All we could do was laugh.

Our time at the resort was very pleasant, if not a day shorter than planned. We took the to two-hour taxi ride back to the airport to discover that, though I had booked the flights for the right day (we had checked), nothing was flying into Miami because of Hurricane Wilma's expected arrival. This oops was on Mother Nature. Really, airport chairs are not that uncomfortable to sleep on. It would just be nice if some of them did not have armrests so you could stretch out - or so my wife said.

We made it home and have not been anywhere since. We are ready to give vacationing another try, though the sound of a "second honeymoon" strikes fear into our hearts!

(499 words)