Yes, the wedding was on May 29th. Yes, I want to be showing all of you the photos and telling stories and describing what it was like for everyone who attended to have come from out-of-town. Yes, it was a "destination wedding" and the destination was ... Ann Arbor, Michigan?? What were those kids thinking? Well, the wedding pretty much went off without a hitch. We escaped the thunderous downpour that threatened nearby and sped up the ceremony by about 15 minutes so that we wouldn't be outside getting drenched. It did eventually rain but not before we got everyone inside for the reception's open bar and well-chosen dinner selections and friendly seating arrangements and toasts and dancing.We don't have the official photos to post yet. We have photos from friends and family but I haven't received them yet.
So in the meantime, you're going to have to be satisfied with the photo above which was taken today of our visit to Bridlewood Winery in Santa Ynez.
We're here for Marika's graduation from UC Santa Barbara. She gets her diploma tomorrow with all the other Bachelor of Science in Biology majors. Gil and I have been here since Wednesday. We've had two glorious days with Marika all by ourselves. Evan is driving up from LA as I write this. Marika's dear friend from her competitive equestrian days back in Michigan, Gillian Grafton, is arriving tonight from Minnesota. Adam and Laura cannot be with us since they are still on their honeymoon in the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain.
We have been sampling every conceivable kind of cuisine on State Street here in Santa Barbara since we've been here. It's bittersweet knowing that Marika won't be here to visit anymore. On the one hand, it's always a great vacation. On the other hand, it's an expensive vacation.
Marika heads to Honduras for her second Global Medical Brigades volunteer travel on Sunday, the day after she graduates. When she gets back to the states after ten days, she'll pack up all her belongings from the past four years and bring what's worthy back to Michigan for the next year. More on her plans later. (She's applied to medical school for the 2012 class and will be working this next year in research at U-M.)
We had lots of friends and family staying at our house for the week prior and the week after the wedding. Gil's sisters, Genie from California and Meryl from Israel, and my mom all stayed for the full two weeks. We cooked, we gardened, we took turns playing frisbee with the dogs, we shopped, we got to know more about one another than we ever wanted to know. We made pots of French Press coffee each morning and poured glasses of wine each night to enjoy on our recently built simple but functional wooden deck in the backyard.
So I owe you all a full accounting of the wedding with photos but it won't be today's blog entry.
Haiku
Weddings bring great joy
More time planning the event
Than I imagined!!
