Weekend Wedding

Being at work after a long weekend or vacation always sucks. I’m not busy at all but I sure don’t want to be here.

Let’s focus on the positive, shall we?

We had a really nice, long weekend. We took off Friday and Monday (yesterday) from work in order to attend a friend’s wedding out of state.

On Friday we dropped River off at the dog-sitter and set off a little after 12pm for OH. It is a 7.5 hour trip. We do well on road trips. I really like road trips but have noticed a little car sickness coming on in the past few years. I don’t like getting older. I just try to ignore it. It’s the worst when I’m trying to alternate between reading and looking outside over and over. Like reading a map and navigating. Urp. Bleh.

We took R’s car so he ended up driving the whole way. I did offer to drive but it never happened. I am a better passenger and he is a better driver anyway, so it works out. In my world the passenger is supposed to shuffle things around in the car for the driver and be alert if the driver needs help. An empty food wrapper? Here, let me take that! I’m good at this… R, not so much. I have to ask him to do things for me when I drive. I know it’s not just in my head because when I drive with my sister she is always right on top of all the passenger duties. Maybe it’s a woman thing ;)

Friday night we got to OH, checked into our hotel (which was nice; we could see the water from our window), and met a couple friends for dinner. It was delicious and the service was great. I started with an awesome french onion soup. (Oddly, I’ve been craving onions lately… when I was a kid I hated them, then I graduated to an indifference to them, and now I love them.) Onion rings were also ordered. They were the thick kind and, even though I prefer thin ones, they were good. The salads were good, with a light herb vinaigrette. My main course was a perfectly cooked, medium-rare, peppercorn crusted steak with a chardonnay sauce and cheddar mashed potatoes. Mmmmmmm

Needless to say, we ate way too much.

That night R slept very little because he forgot to bring a fan (he has to have background noise to sleep and it drives me crazy). Poor guy :/ The bed was pretty comfortable though.

Saturday the wedding was not until 6pm. We had time to kill so we slowly got ready and went for a walk out around the hotel and down to the water (Lake Erie). It wasn’t a beach or anything but I loved being by a large body of water again. It’s so calming looking out at the waves and shimmery water and breathing in the air. Someday I’m going to own a house on a big lake or by the ocean…
Some people were flying this gigantic kite using the wind that was blowing in off the water. It was impressive.

After the walk we went back to eat lunch at the hotel restaurant. We were the only ones in there. We expected it to suck but we were pleasantly surprised! Slightly expensive but good food and good service – lucky us! We hung around and watched TV a bit, got ready, and then headed out to the wedding.

The wedding was at a botanical gardens place and the setting was just beautiful. The weather was great too, sunny but not too hot. It must have been an expensive wedding. The bride looked lovely, everything was wonderfully planned, and the food was yummy. They served iced tea and lemonade in wine glasses while we were waiting for the ceremony to start. Very nice touch.

After the ceremony, while the wedding party had pics taken, we were served drinks and apps in a courtyard area. I snagged a melon lemonade which was just lemonade and M.idori but was really tasty and refreshing. I never passed up an app offer so by the end I was feeling quite gluttonous… ahh well!

The reception hall was decorated beautifully. Dinner was buffet-style with a mediterranean side and an asian side. Both were delicious (I'm not a picky eater, can you tell? haha). The wedding cake was pretty and banana-caramel flavor. Not what I would have picked but it was very good.

R was ready to go around 10:30pm so we hugged the bride and said our good-byes. It was a very nice evening. I’m so happy everything turned out so lovely for her wedding.

Now she is in HI and I’m really jealous! :)

Saturday night R slept much better because the hotel delivered a fan to our room.

Sunday we went to breakfast at the same hotel restaurant and it was very good – fresh fruit, hot oatmeal with brown sugar, eggs, bacon, potatoes, pancakes, pastries, bagels. We headed out around 11am and were back at our house before 7pm.

I took C with me after that to pick up River so we could chat about all the wedding details. C has been engaged for over a year now and is planning her own wedding for next May so she was interested in hearing about it all. When we got back we went running.

Monday we went to watch the horse races. I had never been before. We lost every single bet we made but it was still fun. It was more carnival-y than I had imagined. I’m not sure I’d be pushing to go again any time soon but I’m glad I got to see what it was like.

It really was a great 4 day weekend / mini-vacation. Our next vacation (week-long) is in October. It can’t get here soon enough but at the same time I’m trying not to wish away autumn.

Work is almost over! I can’t wait to go home.