TJ's Travel Adventures: A Marriage, Mini Honeymoon And a Tour of the Skies

When two people are engaged to be married, there’s one thing that takes importance over everything else: the wedding. Lisa and I had been brainstorming for months where to tie the knot. As we live quite international lives, it only seemed appropriate to get married in an exotic international location. Once we both put our top choices on the table, we were surprised to see our first pick was the same: the Maldives.

Yes, the Maldives, that tiny strip of paradise islands off the coast of Sri Lanka… who wouldn’t want to get married there? Secured in the number one spot on almost all lists for “best honeymoon destination” in the world, the place is basically made for newlyweds. It just so happened that the both of us were individually obsessed with this tropical getaway for quite some time, so now it only seemed appropriate that we got married there. Right?

Not so fast.

The Maldives truly is the world’s best honeymoon destination. But unfortunately, it is also one of the world’s worst spots to get (legally) married. For some reason, the government of the Maldives refuses to recognize any marriage that takes place on the islands by foreigners as legitimate. If the Maldives won’t recognize the marriage, then the strictest-of-all USA government definitely won’t recognize the nuptials. Plan foiled.

As we virtually scanned the globe for the next best spot to get married, we stumbled across a photograph of Bora Bora:

This is not my photo... (Just found on Google Images)

That single, inspirational shot completely took our breath away; we had found our place. Though there were still going to be some legal complexities in getting married there, Bora Bora did acknowledge foreign weddings. However, after realizing that the closest date we could both be in Bora Bora (for an extended period of time) was mid to late November, we finally nixed the whole “legal” wedding abroad idea (though we will still have a “wedding” there when we visit in November!).

To make both our lives easier, and to ensure that our marriage is, in fact, legally recognized around the world, we decided to get married in the US. Heading to southern Florida, we planned our wedding photos, the marriage ceremony and a short, “starter” honeymoon to Las Vegas.

Marriage, Photos and Black Clouds With a Side of Rain

Knowing that southern Florida’s weather is quite unpredictable, we planned our wedding photos for a few days before the actual date. I had my new, tailor-made suit from Bangkok all ready to go and Lisa had a beautiful dress that she had kept hidden away from me until the very last moment. When the day came, we had our clothes, waterfront, Miami skyline and beautiful South Beach surroundings all ready… and it rained. Torrential downpours & black clouds; just about the worst possible weather. We rescheduled for the following day… and it rained again; rescheduled again for the following day… rain… the photographs just weren’t going to work out. Here is a sample of the radar image we saw each day around sunset :-(

Even on the last possible day, the weather radar showed a dreary blue spot lingering right over Miami. So in the end, we had to trade in the long wedding photo session for a simple, yet perfect wedding picture.

With photos aside and the legal marriage complete, it was time for our first honeymoon!

Vegas, Baby

After the Florida weather fiasco, we took off for sweltering Las Vegas, where we at least knew it was going to be clear. Neither Lisa nor I are Las Vegas rookies, so we knew exactly what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. Our first day was filled with fun excursions, delicious meals, a walk down the strip and a few Vegas shows (including Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity at NY, NY Casino). Quite possibly the coolest part of the day, however, was our visit to the Hoover Dam.

Visiting this marvel of engineering, we opted for the guided tour, which brought us all around the outside and inside of this colossal dam. Exploring its infrastructure & the turbine generator room, we got to really appreciate the sheer beauty, size and creation of this American feat. The only thing that made the Hoover Dam experience even better, was how I got to view it the following day!

Hitting the Nevada Skies

One nice thing about being a pilot is the community of friends you make around the world. I have a few pilot friends who are based out of the Las Vegas area, so I called one up and arranged to rent his Cirrus for the day. I figured I would take a refresher course, pickup some recurrent training and then take Lisa out for a sightseeing adventure around the Grand Canyon. Taking off with a local instructor, he warned me ahead of time that the skies, despite being crystal clear and scorching hot, were quite choppy. Turbulence and a bumpy ride wouldn’t bother either of us… but it did make me think twice about bringing Lisa up.

With our seatbelts strapped extremely tight (to prevent us from bouncing all over the cockpit), we did our best to maneuver the plane through the turbulence. With a scenic flight in mind, I flew the Cirrus towards the Hoover Dam to get an even better glimpse than I did the day before. Circling around the amazing spot over and over again, I got some fantastic views and some even better photos! It was truly the cherry on top of my Hoover Dam experience.

A Shot of the Hoover Dam from the Cirrus

Moving back into the training part of the flight, I was ready to practice my steep turns. In a typical airline flight, turns are usually done at about 15-20 degrees, but when training, especially in a smaller plane, the turns are quite sharp and aggressive (around 60 degrees). Deciding to combine my practice and training with some sightseeing, we aimed the plane for the western end of the Grand Canyon (opening up to Lake Mead, at the top of the Hoover Dam). Instead of practicing the steep turns in a wide-open space, I practiced the maneuvers inside the canyon. With the rocks of the canyon walls actually above the plane at some points, it was an unforgettable and quite surreal experience.

Flying over Lake Mead

As we battled our way back through the turbulent air, I knew Lisa, who usually loves to fly, was not going to be interested in bumping her way to the Grand Canyon. Though the final excursion fell through, all in all it was a fantastic trip… or should I say, Honeymoon Version 1! We got legally married, had a great time in Las Vegas, saw some beautiful sites and I even got the chance to spend some time in the air! Perfect. With our legal marriage and first honeymoon completed in the US, we are now ready for the real deal in Bora Bora, coming up this November!