On Saturday my brother finally got married after a year and a half long engagement. As all of you who have been married or involved in a wedding know, weddings can be pretty hectic, and last week was very busy.
I volunteered to help make boutonnieres for all the extended family members, 120 boutonnieres in all. As you can imagine, it was no small undertaking. Simone and her bridesmaids offered to assist me; I was more than happy to accept their help. One of their unsuspecting boyfriends also somehow got roped into this task-sorry Matt. We managed to finish the boutonnieres in about 4 or 5 hours. They looked great. Way to go girls!
Making the Boutonnieres
The wedding ceremony took place at the Hidden Falls Garden at Thanksgiving Point, the exact location Jason proposed to me.
Andrew and Simone
It was a beautiful sunny day but it was very hot. Although Jason did look stunning in his tux, I felt bad for him and the other groomsmen. They were roasting. I heard them utter “I’m melting.” multiple times. It was scorching so I wouldn’t have been too surprised to find a tux puddle where once a groomsman had been.
The Groomsmen and their Manly Fans
It was so hot in fact that many manly wedding guests reluctantly resorted to using the wedding favors, pink parasols and fans, to help them keep cool. The groomsmen gave in to using them as well.
The Ceremony
The wedding ceremony was followed by a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, endless pictures, and a light lunch.
Me and my Parasol
The festivities then halted for a few hours before the real partying began. They held their reception in Salt Lake City in the grand ballroom of the Little America Hotel. Roughly 200 guests enjoyed a delicious meal that included halibut, fillet mignon, and some yummy vanilla custard covered ice cream. (At least I think it was custard-whatever it was-it was good.)
A Table
After the meal and lots of toasting, we all got down. The ballroom was equipped with a large dance floor and the DJ got the party started. I love to dance and it’s been a while since Jas and I had a chance to dance so I was excited to boogey. We did some country swing dancing but sadly, since I was wearing a dress, I couldn’t do any flips. There was also some line dancing, which made Rowley happy, and they played my special Cotton Eye Joe request, which made me happy. Jacob shaked his booty like nobody’s business. It was a rather amusing and a little scary.
The Boys Getting Down
It was a memorable night and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
More Man Action
Congrats Andrew and Simone! I wish you the best in your life together!
The last year has been a little crazy for me and Jason. We have moved, planted innumerable plants, and installed all manner of things in our yard. Although the yard is still a work in progress, we decided it was definitely time to take a much needed break and go on vacation. We chose San Diego as our vacation location.
Inside the Point Loma Lighthouse
The weather was good for the most part while we were there but we did have a day or so of cloudy skies, referred to by Diegoites as the “June Gloom”. That didn’t stop us from enjoying ourselves though. We went to the San Diego Zoo, several beaches, Cabrillo National Monument, Torrey Pines State Park, the La Jolla Sea Caves, tide pools, and some great restaurants.
Unknown to us when we panned this trip, the US Open was going on in San Diego while we were there. We decided that we weren’t too interested in attending this event anyway (sorry, golf is pretty boring to me) but we did pass by all the crazy crowds and limos at the Torrey Pines golf course. Jason claims he waived to Tiger.
Here are some of my favorite things about our trip (in no particular order):
Taking the top down in our rented PT Cruiser convertible. At first I was somewhat reluctant to go topless because it was a little windy out but as soon the top was down and I could feel that warm sun on my face I told Jason, “That feels really good. Let’s never put the top up again.” He thought that statement was supremely funny for some reason and has been laughing about it ever since.
Our rental car and hotel
Seeing a baby panda at the San Diego Zoo. It was such a fluffy, cute, little puff ball.
The baby panda
Watching the surfers down in the water from the pier above try to catch some waves. Most of their attempts just ended in mass ocean water consumption. It was fun to watch.
The meerkats at the zoo. Even though they were in a zoo these curious creatures retained their wild habits. Two of them kept a lookout on their surroundings by standing on rocks, perched on their hind legs, while the rest of the meerkats dug, played, and sunbathed. They cracked me up!
Eating, eating, eating!!!!! The food was spectacular. We had the best Mexican food I have ever eaten in my life at El Agave Tequileria. We also sampled some international fare at Parallel 33 and contemporary cuisine at Georges California Modern. I had everything from delicious sea bass covered in a creamy garlic-chipotle sauce to Aloo Ki Ticki potato cakes drizzled with pineapple mint chutney. Yum! Yum! Yum!
Seeing a gorilla up-close and personal at the zoo. There was only a plate of glass between us. He looked at me with obvious intelligence and I couldn’t help but notice his hands didn’t look much different from my own.
Sitting out on our room’s balcony at night and watching the nearly full moon rise over a silvery ocean.
View from our Balcony
Watching an Allen’s Swamp Monkey play with a Spotted Neck Sea Otter at the zoo like they were the best of buddies. It was quite entertaining.
Opening our balcony door at night and listening to the peaceful sound of the ocean waves.
Sleeping! Jason and I are pretty much sleep deprived on a regular basis. It was so nice just to be able to sleep until 9:30 or 10:00 every morning. Not being in a rush to get up was definitely one of my favorite things about this trip.
Sitting with Jason on the rocks at the secluded Torrey Pines beach and laughing each time the ocean spray hit us.
Jason hangs on the rocks
Running along the beach and playing in the ocean. Jason thought I was nuts for doing this because the water was too frigid for him. But I didn’t mind it, I was having fun.
Watching the seals lounge and stretch at the “Children’s Pool” in La Jolla. Especially the seal that tried over and over to figure out how to get up on a rock. He was never successful. Poor guy, that rock must have looked pretty good.
Us at the Cabrillo Statue
Those were some of my favorite San Diego moments.
Having been on many a great trip with my sweet husband, the best tips I could give my fellow travelers are as follows:
Get a travel book about the location you are traveling to. Now I know many of you think this is an unnecessary waste of 10 bucks, but I assure you, it will add priceless value to your vacation. When we went to Hawaii a couple years ago one of our friends highly recommended we get a travel book to help us make the most of our stay on the islands. This turned out to be a fabulous suggestion. Not only did this book rate popular attractions, it listed some of the lesser known sites that turned out to be spectacular. It also listed oodles of scrumptious restaurants.
So from that trip on, every vacation we go on we invest in a travel book or two. It’s well worth the expense. We use these travel books, amongst other things, to find the best local cuisine. The food we sampled in San Diego was unbelievable!!!!
This brings me to my last travel tip. Most travelers spend their entire budget on expensive attractions and perhaps some souvenirs. Many of these souvenirs get packed away somewhere or discarded eventually. The longest lasting souvenir you can take home with you is the ten pounds you gained eating divine food. I can guarantee that that fat will stay with you longer than any bobble head doll or oversized t-shirt.
Being silly at Torrey Pines State Park
Seriously though, most people spend every cent of their vacation fund staying at Disneyland as long as possible, or going to Sea World, or some other popular attraction. They then make up their losses by eating at McDonald’s every meal. I think if you do this style of vacation you really miss out on literally sinking your teeth into some of the local culture. Personally, I am always in favor of good food.
My brother, Andrew, will be getting married in less than two weeks. In honor of this momentous occasion a band of geeks, roughly twenty in number, converged in celebration. They played computer games together over a LAN (Local Area Network). Jason termed this particular form of get-together the “BLAN” (Bachelor LAN) many years ago when one of the first BLANs was held for him.
Lots O’ Geeks
I only dared enter the den of geeks, located in the basement of my sister’s house, momentarily during this event but in that brief time here is what I witnessed. Many tables were set up in a somewhat haphazard manner throughout the main basement area. The tables were occupied by a variety of geeks and their precious computers.
Mike and Matt
Masses of cords of all sizes and colors crisscrossed the floor in a hectic fashion and lay in piles here and there. Much sugar, caffeine, and grease had obviously been consumed. The air was rank with geek sweat, the soda cans were piled high, and the candy wrappers were proliferate. The lights in half the space were turned off leaving the glow of monitors the only light source in these areas. This gave the impression that one had stumbled across the cavernous dwelling of strange, tech-savvy, nocturnal creatures. This perception was furthered by the fact that many of the geeks appeared to have entered some sort of catatonic state. They were only aware of the screen in front of them and the sole indication that they were actually alive was the occasional twitching of their fingers. Other geeks were very animated. They uttered many obscenities in the heat of battle; during their infrequent periods of silence the faint whirl of CPU fans could be heard. While this was not the first time I had witnessed a BLAN firsthand, I still could not stomach it for more than a few minutes.
Cody and Jacob
The geeks played until 2:30 AM or so. I suspect they would have played longer if Andrew had not poorly planned his transportation arrangements. He and Simone rode over together. She entertained herself elsewhere for quite a while, but in the end she still needed to drive him home. Common sense is not a Nelson trait, nor a geek one for that matter. But, despite the BLAN’s relatively early termination, the geeks seemed to have enjoyed themselves.
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