Saturday, August 1st was wedding day!! I started the day with a nice long 10 mile run (that's a separate post). We were instructed to meet at Balboa Park in downtown San Diego for wedding pictures at 3pm, so we left our motel at 2:15pm to give us time for traffic and parking. Except...we couldn't get out of the motel parking lot! A large SUV had parked crooked and half out of a compact car space next to us, and a big pickup truck had parked in the space behind ours, and our rental Mazda mid size SUV did not have the requisite tiny size or turning radius to squeeze out. I had to go to the "lobby" building of the motel and wait for the guy to help us. Thankfully the owner of the badly parked SUV was in his room and was able to come out right away to move his vehicle, but the whole process still set us back at least 10 minutes.
When we were finally on the road, I reached for my phone to check traffic and discovered that I had left my phone in the motel room. I can live unconnected for an evening just fine, but my phone is my camera! I was SO SAD not to have it for the wedding! Jeff assured me I could use his phone for pictures, but it wasn't the same and his phone camera lens was all smudged and I didn't have anything to wipe it off. So I barely have any pictures of the main even that we were there for! Arg!
Thanks to the motel parking lot setback along with the horrendous endless SoCal traffic, we arrived at Balboa Park 5 minutes late and then had to wait for a parking spot to open up. It was a longer-than-comfortable walk through the park area under the blazing California sun to the meeting point. We were roasting and sweating in our formal wedding clothes! In spite of the sweat-fest, it was rather amusing to walk through the busy public area full of people in shorts and t-shirts while wearing our wedding dress code "disco formal" sequins, sparkles, and dresses on a hot hot afternoon.
Our family members were all at the meeting point when we arrived 10 minutes later, but the bride and groom were nowhere to be found. Someone got a text saying they were running late and to find some shade to wait. So we waited. And waited. And sweated. And waited. 40 minutes later...Sam and Katherine arrived with the photographer! 15 minutes and 2 photo poses after that, the photographer dismissed us, saying any other pictures we want to take would be done on the boat later that night. We had 2.5 hours until it was time to board the boat, and we were all too hot and tired to DO much of anything, so we drove our air conditioned rental car to a downtown parking lot near the pier and sat in the air conditioned bliss of the car for 15 minutes or so to cool down. I ate a snack. Then we girded up our sweat glands and exited the car to wander the pier.
What do we do when it's ridiculously hot and we're on vacation with time to burn? Get ice cream! We found a gelato place on the pier and sat there eating cool creaminess (I was prepared with a lactase pill) with Jeff's sister and her family. The kids got some quality cousin time in! Eventually we meandered over to the correct pier and waited in a scrap of shade for another 30 minutes or so to board the boat for the much-anticipated wedding.
Spoiler alert: I did not get seasick on this wedding boat. It was a legitimate concern, but thankfully I avoided it! Amber and I each took half of a Dramamine and survived just fine.
Boat is really the wrong word. It was a 3 deck yacht that they had rented for 4 hours. We had hors d'oeuvres and sparkling cider (or champagne for the alcohol-inclined) on the middle deck while the 70-ish guests boarded. Then we were instructed to go down to the lowest level for a fancy tasty dinner. We lingered and talked and enjoyed the meal at our table of immediate family. The 7 cousins (our kids and Steph and Jasen's kids) got their own table to enjoy some independence at a formal event. While we ate, rumors circled the room that Sam and Kat had already been married earlier that day in Balboa Park after the pictures ended. Even Sam said "I don't like lying!" while twisting his new wedding band on his finger. Jeff and I weren't surprised that they were already married, but we were curious how the next few hours on the boat were going to play out.
Once everyone had eaten and socialized sufficiently, we were told to go to the top open air deck for a group picture with the sunset. Sam's best friend Jake took the microphone. "You have probably heard some rumors that Sam and Kat got married earlier today at Balboa Park," he began. "That rumor is false! Sam and Kat are going to get married right here in front of all of you!" The guests cheered. I scratched my head. What was the point of the ruse? I still don't know, but I laughed it off and we watched Sam and Katherine say what they love about each other and then say I do.
"By the power vested in me by absolutely nobody, I pronounce you husband and wife!" Jake crowed into the microphone. Another head scratcher. "Soooo...are they married? Or are they not married?" I whispered to Jeff. He shrugged. I laughed again. Who knows! Sam and Kat have been together for at least 7 years, so at this point the gathering really was all about celebrating their togetherness anyways. I let go of my confusion and watched the festivities unfurl. First dances: sweet, teary eyed mother of the groom, snappy sassy bride and father dance, cozy happy first dance as Mr. and Mrs. White. Then came the 2 hour dance party on the middle deck.
The DJ played quality, fun, LOUD music. Those of us wedding guests who did not imbibe alcohol found ourselves clustered on one side of the top deck, sitting in the cool sea breeze as the yacht motored around and around the harbor. We sat and talked for the rest of the night, watching the kids dance and play and eat cake nearby. Amber was the most committed to dancing. She had the deck to herself for most of the evening, and she made use of it. She jumped, twirled, marched, and moved her body in every way she could think of while the music vibrated the floor. It was so funny and cute! I didn't know Amber liked to dance that much!
After 4 hours, the yacht parked? docked? returned to shore? I can't think of the right words. We disembarked and made the trek back to the parking lot and then drove back to our motel. We got to the motel a little before 11pm, completely wiped out. Aside from forgetting my phone, my biggest regret of the day was not getting a picture of the bride with her new sisters. Katherine is an only child, so when she married Sam, she got two sisters: me and Steph! We will have to take a sister picture next time we're together to make up for it.
We left at 8:15am the next morning for Anaheim, where we returned our rental car and went through airport security to find out that our flight had been delayed. It was delayed two more times before it finally left at 3pm, 3.5 hours late. As careful as Jeff tried to be, he still ate something with a nightshade in it that upset his system and made him a hollow surly shell of his usual cheerful self for the entire delayed journey home. Jay drove us home from the Pasco airport, and we were so relieved to arrive at our air conditioned house a little after 6pm.
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