So, I am finally back in California, after having a pretty long (but fun) day yesterday at the wedding and surrounding festivities. We got a late start yesterday, going for breakfast at around 9:30 AM. We ate at "The Baglery", which is a local place that makes their own Bagels. It came highly recommended by Tanya when we first got into Bellingham, and she was right -- it was pretty good. After that we checked out Fairhaven, which is the older, artier, cafe-ier, and yuppier part of Bellingham. We were joined there by Mike and Sheila, who made a precision strike on Washington for the wedding. The weather wasn't great -- cool, cloudy, with some drizzle, but we didn't let that stop us from our mission -- celebrating Rushabh's birthday!
We left Fairhaven in order to deposit Jim, Chee Wai, and Bill back at their respective hotels, so that they could change into their tuxedos and begin the pre-wedding picture-taking process. The slimmed-down group checked out one of the art museums in downtown Bellingham. It was pretty decent, for a small-town museum. It seems like the Bellingham area has a productive community of local artists. Some of their work goes to shops in Fairhaven (I was tempted by some pottery, but didn't want to bring it home), and other pieces are shown in the museum. There was one artist, RR Clark (word doc, sorry), who had a big display on the 2nd floor. His stuff was pretty neat -- some of the first "painting-in-museum-art" that wasn't afraid to have a narrative (comic book style) or make use of written text.
After this, the group slimmed down again, as the wedding neared. Rushabh, Kristen, Hong Eng, and I spent about 2 hours together, before making our way to the church. I can now say that I have been to the "Big K" in Bellingham, WA. Sweet.
The wedding itself was pretty good -- the church was beautiful (I probably should have taken some pictures of it -- oh well), the ceremony was the right length, the priest cracked some jokes (I told Justin and Sarah that if he had made a Simpsons reference he would have had me), and everything went off without a hitch. The bride and groom rode off to the reception on an old Ford Model A, in lieu of being pelted with rice or bubbles.
As this was an evening ceremony, the reception followed immediately afterwards. There was food (which was pretty good), drink (I snagged a picture of Chris and Tanya's first diet Cokes as a married couple), and dance. It went until about 12:30 or so, and then I stayed to help with the clean-up of the reception hall. After cleaning up, depositing various peoples to where they needed to go, and getting myself and Jim back to the hotel -- it was after 2:00 AM. And of course, we had to get an early start in the morning, so that I could get Jim and Bill to SeaTac airport in time for their respective flights. So, I rocked today on 4 hours of sleep -- 28 years old and I've still got it!
All-in-all, it was a pretty fun trip. There was a lot of deja-vu to the Norway trip for me, because I spent the bulk of the week with that same group of criminal masterminds. I also got caught up with some UIUC people that I haven't seen in awhile while at the reception, which was cool. I met some of Chris and Tanya's friends from their undergrad, but I didn't really hang out with them too much. I was also happy to visit with Justin and Sarah again -- they are a lot of fun.
So, all-in-all, a successful trip, from which I return home tired. So, I will have to recover by going to work and doing a half-assed job...
-Andy.