Reception: What about Hot Wheels?

What happens when two kids from Miami get engaged and start planning a wedding?  The stream of consciousness goes something like this: “What is the last day of hurricane season?”  “November 30.”  “I don’t want to sweat my (body parts) off.”  “Is there a way of getting croquetas involved without being tacky?”  “No.”  “There will be a salsa band.”  “Done.”  One of the nice things about having the same home town, is that it makes most of the decisions pretty easy.  Such as venue…

Jokingly, albeit prophetically, before we were officially dating, we decided over a few beers while having mint tea with macaroons, that we would get married in Miami at two places we remembered fondly from our childhood: the ceremony would be at Don Carter’s bowling alley and the reception would be at Mark Twain’s Riverboat Playhouse (hereinafter “Riverboat”).  For those of you who did not have the fortune of having your 5th birthday at Riverboat, it was a  great place to have birthday parties in a dusty old warehouse that was converted into a Dixieland-themed indoor-playground which featured skeeball, a large ball-crawl (bazinga!), and an animatronic dog/bear band with a mechanical Mark Twain that put on a show, the same show, every 10 minutes.  Charlie, with his masters work in robotics, was deathly afraid of the robot dog band… weird, right?  Anywho…

Just like when we got engaged and I forgot who I was supposed to call, once I sat down to start searching for wedding venues, I forgot all of the ones I had saved in the mental “matrimony material” folder.  So, I began the search at the first place I could think of that would work for the both of us: Mark Twain’s Riverboat Playhouse.  I knew the place had shut down in the 80s, but… let’s just see, you know, because, maybe there’s a viable reception venue there now? Right?  Nope, it’s a humungous liquor store.  And Don Carter’s is an Office Depot.   Where do kids in Miami play now?  Maybe the Miccosukee Casino near Krome Avenue has a Chuck E. Cheese inside.  Afterall, Krome is the new Kendall.

I guess we’ll have to find a respectable place to have a wedding afterall!