We left very early in the morning last Wednesday, heading back East for my cousin Michael’s wedding to Amanda.
Michael’s sister, my cousin Tracy (aka Lacey Tree to those in the know) had come out for my wedding last year, as well as Rob & Kelly’s wedding the year before, and she had seen me act as an officiant for my brother Rob’s wedding. She must have liked the job I did, since she recommended to Michael that I be his officiant as well. I was touched when they asked, and after a little back and forth, I agreed.
Since Kimi had never been to D.C. before, and since we wanted a non-stop flight, we flew from San Jose into Dulles. (There are no non-stops from San Jose to Richmond.) We ended up staying at the Washington Court Hotel, a couple of blocks from the Capitol. Sammy did a great job on the flight out, and didn’t complain when we got him up at 4:15 in the morning for the shuttle to SJC. In D.C. we drove down Constitution Ave. in our rented mini-van, ate at a grill in the Union Square Station (just a block or two from the hotel, and near the Postal Museum). We walked around that evening, admiring the gardens and fountains, walking past the historic buildings. A friendly woman was walking her chocolate lab and golden retriever in the park near the Capitol building, and they were happy dogs, who came up to lick Sammy in the stroller. Sammy loved it, but when we got him home that evening we were horrified to see him breaking out and puffy from where the dogs had licked him. Turns out he’s allergic to them. Fortunately he wasn’t uncomfortable and he was back to normal by morning.
The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel (quite nice) and went on a quick D.C. tour via the DC Ducks — an amphibious vehicle. We both enjoyed the tour. I would have liked to spend more time in D.C. and even actually — gasp! — enter a museum, but we were a bit limited on time. As it was, Kimi got a good taste of D.C. I’ve visited before a few times, and we were anxious to beat traffic to Richmond, so we left in the afternoon.
Thursday night, my uncle Derek and aunt Barbara (Michael and Tracy’s parents) hosted us for a bbq at their house in Mechanicsville, outside Richmond. We were staying at the Days Inn in Richmond; as it turned out, NASCAR was in town for the same weekend, so there was a lot of race fever going on. (Kimi and I had seen Talladega Nights a few weeks before, but otherwise weren’t too familiar with NASCAR.)
Friday we toured Maymont with Tracy and my parents, and then Friday night turned out to be Michael’s bachelor party, about which I will only say that it began at Hooter’s (my first time eating at that fine establishment) and progressed from there.
Saturday, I slept in (hey, it was a late night from the bachelor party — and noon in Eastern is 9am here) while Kimi, Tracy and Sammy went shopping. That evening was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner (a wonderful dinner at Franco’s, an Italian restaurant). Afterwards, Tracy, her friend Heather and I joined up with my cousin Wendi (who I haven’t seen in years) at Sharkey’s, a bar & pool joint, to hang out and catch up.
Sunday morning, after a breakfast at Aunt Sarah’s Pancake House, we visited a civil war cemetary outside Mechanicsville, where my grandparents had worked as caretakers, and my mother and uncle had lived at the house on the grounds there. Such a different world they had lived in.
The wedding was wonderful. I am quite comfortable speaking in public so I wasn’t nervous to be the officiant of the wedding. Michael and Amanda wanted the ceremony to be brief, and it was, and went off quite well. The reception afterwards was held in the same location, The Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, which was just gorgeous. (I’ll add some pictures here in the next few days.)
One of my favorite moments was that Ben, Amanda’s father, had two lines during the ceremony. In response to my asking, “Who gives Amanda to this man?” he is supposed to reply, “My mother and I do.” (Then later he and the other parents say, “We are” in response to my asking, “Are you willing to support etc. this marriage?”) Well, in the rehearsal on Saturday he had not quite said it right. With good humor, he promised to memorize his lines. On Sunday, during the wedding, as Amanda and Ben walk down the aisle, promenading to the harpist’s music, I see Ben say something to Amanda and she cracks up. Turns out Ben had written his lines on his hand in big blue print, and was showing it off for Amanda.
After the wedding on Monday morning, we all (except for the bride and groom) met up to eat breakfast again, this time at IHOP. I don’t normally eat breakfast, so it was a little jarring to have so many opportunites to eat pancakes, waffles and French toast. I will have to say that IHOP’s version of crêpes was just awful, but I really enjoyed the breakfasts elsewhere.
Our flight was at 5:45pm, and we had to drive up from Richmond to National, get gas, turn in the rental car, and deal with the extra security on 9/11 (plus Dulles’ agonizingly slow shuttles), so we figured we’d need to leave by 12:30. That was a bit earlier than strictly necessary, but I had blown it from Tacoma our last trip and we had missed the flight, and Kimi was in a mood to overcompensate, and I was in no position to argue. As it turned out, traffic was light, security wasn’t as bad as we expected, and the flight was delayed, so we ended up hanging out for an hour or so more than we expected. This got Sammy a little cranky, but he ended up sleeping for a couple hours on the flight and generally being okay, if not as well-behaved as he was for the flight out. Thanks go to John and Yvonne (aka Scrappy) for picking us up from SJC.
I have to say it was a bit eerie (and perhaps even foolish) to have booked a United flight from D.C. to San Jose on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. While we were waiting at the gate at Dulles they had about a dozen TVs with CNN playing, and of course it was CNN’s 9/11 retrospective coverage, so there wasn’t any way to ignore what day this was.
In general, I have to say Sammy was a superstar for the entire trip — with just one exception, when he cried half the night on Thursday night starting at 3 a.m., without us being able to calm him down at all. (I finally took him out for a car ride at 5am and he did fall asleep but only slept for 40 minutes after I brought him back in). I felt bad for our neighbors. Other than that one night, however, he was in a great mood with all of the relatives, very smiley, and charmed the pants off of just about everyone. He was also completely silent during the wedding ceremony, seeming to understand the importance of it all, and then waving and smiling at me when it was over.
I’m very glad we made the trip; it was great for Kimi to finally meet my relatives there, and it was wonderful for them to meet Sammy. (Kelly offered us $20 to buy him, and Barbara told us not to worry, that Sammy was going to stay with her from now on.) To Barbara, Derek, Tracy, Michael, Amanda, Laurie, Kelly, Kevin, Leslie, Wendi, and Jeffrey, my parents, and everyone else we met there (including Amanda’s relatives, and Michael and Tracy’s friends, and all of Barbara’s relatives who I had never met before) — thanks for showing us a great time. Extra special thanks to Tracy for taking such good care of us and taking us shopping and eating so many times.
Subscribe (via Feedburner)
