All Apologies, AKA Anna's Wedding

All Apologies, Nirvana

I simply cannot write an entry that takes place in Seattle without giving a musical nod to Nirvana, who were the first rock group I ever listened to from the modern days and my first idea that Seattle existed...outside of PY.

So last weekend I went to Seattle for my dear friend Anna's wedding. I was even a bridesmaid! I tried to be a good bridesmaid and help where I could! I visited in January and participated in paper cutting (all of Anna's invitations, save the dates, place cards, etc were HAND MADE) and some bridesmaids dress picking. Before any of us knew it, July was here. I even had to give a toast! And the day of, I wound up transporting the rings to the site. Holy cow. What stress. Don't worry, they made it.

Anyway, the wedding was at Golden Gardens Bath House, which is run by the Seattle Park Service as a beach destination in Seattle. From what I can gather, it's quite popular in the sunny months!



Thanks Jess, I borrowed your image. :-)

Pretty great, right?

Well, the wedding began with a bachelorette party which I am not permitted to post any photos of, then onto the rehearsal dinner at a med restaurant on Alki Beach in Seattle called Pheonicia. It was delicious! The owner, Hussein, prints menus, but never really uses them. He is this cute little old man who doesn't appear to speak much english and when he approaches your table and says he'll "fix you something special", you kind of just have to trust him and run with it. I didn't take many pictures at the rehearsal dinner, but I will post one if it ever surfaces. It was a great time with a great group and great food! Anna and Jess' families were both outstanding! I met a lot of great people!

The big day was upon us on Saturday the 18th, and thanks to Anna's meticulous planning, there was very little stress that day. One little snafu with the park service resulted in everyone showing up (ie-caterers) and the venue not being open (thanks seattle park service) and us having to put Anna in her dress outside for pictures, but, it went amazingly well. The bridesmaid, Kathryn, Athena, Kassidy, and myself all got along very well. The groomsmen, two of Jess' brothers, then a cousin, and an old friend of his, showed a bit less solidarity, especially when it came time to decorate...errrr...vandalize the bride and grooms car. Big ups to Minh, the only groomsmen who helped out!

Bonus, I got to see my room mate from Wenatchee, who I hadn't seen since I left washington. And double bonus, I got to play beach volleyball in my dress. And drink lots of alcohol.


The whole wedding party, including the ring bearers Oscar and Pow Sticky! Minus the Flower Girl, though



Anna was beautiful! Here she is getting ready to walk down the aisle. Check out that train!


Tables with Seattle based Jones Soda favors, and recall: all hand made paper products, including menus, favor cards, etc etc.


One our way out to decorate vehicles...there are scissors in my shirt bc we were sneaking out, but had to stop for drinks from Gary on the way out.


Our handwork on Anna's car, which I, ironically, drove home with 4 other people in the car. It was hard to explain to people...I should also note that we attached a galloon milk jug to the bumper, and it made it all the way back to Anna's house in tact!


Craftsmanship on Jess' car, which they did drive home!


Sunset dance party with the MOTB and MOTG!


Pow Sticky tried climbing into my suitcase to come back and soak up some Cali sun...

So did Oscar!


I came back to SF exhausted, but having had a great weekend! I'm of the belief that Anna should be married every year so we can all get together and party on the beach! I will post more pics when the pro shots come out. SWEET!

Cheers!

Ain't It Good, Part II

Let's see, where did I leave off? Oh Yea! Alcatraz. So, the national park service runs Alcatraz. It certainly shows its age and it is sad to think that it won't be there forever! So anyway, Alcatraz was first a military base, then a federal maximum security prison. It closed its doors in 1963, owing to the gigundo cost to run it...being off shore they had logistical issues with waste, supplies, etc etc.

So, it is about a 20 minute boat ride across the (very windy and cold bay) to get there. See below:



Windy!

They call it "the rock" for a reason:


So, when you approach the island to dock, one of the first things you see is a large sign identifying the place, but someone has spray painted "Indians Welcome". I'm not 100% sure on the story, but Alcatraz was occupied by Native Americans for nearly two years, and the proposed to turn it into an ecology center, etc, but they were forced out, and it was during this period that many fires took place. Here is the wikipedia article should you want to read more about it!

Here is a photo:



You get off the boat and hike up a gently sloping hill that is supposedly about 13 stories when you get to the prison at the top, but didn't seem to bad to me, then you go in the main cell block area and start an audio tour. I have to say, I felt like a giant nerd walking around with that orange string around my neck with a player attached to it, but it did end up being cool. The park service went and found prisoners and guard from Alcatraz and interview them for the tour, and it was nice to hear some history first hand.

I'll walk you through a bit of it here.

First stop: in take showers. This is where the tour started. Not terribly private, hey?



Welcome to Alcatraz, here is your cell! (Very similar to my 1k per month apartment!)



Block of cells on C-D Street.


The inmates had plenty of time to knit!


Solitary Confinement was not a friendly place. This is where "The Bird Man" spent a great deal of his time.



Where inmates had visitors.

There's Jennie in front of the city skyline from Alcatraz. Could be worse for a federal penn, right? CHHHYEA!


Three inmates escaped from Alcatraz by burrowing holes from their cells air vents into the exhaust system and out. Somehow, they managed to make life like masks of themselves and place them in their beds, so the guards didn't notice that they were gone until long after they had left the island. No one knows if they made it to the city or the Angel Island (the "Ellis Island" of the west) to this day. They were never heard from again. They may have made it to safety, they also may have drown int the cold waters of the bay. It is up to your imagination as to what happened to them. I imagine that they made it to San Fran and got the hell out of dodge so fast no one could find them. The above photo is one of the dug-out air vents.

And finally, one of the things I found strangest about Alcatraz was that the menu board hung with the breakfast menu from the day they moved the prisoners. Granted, someone may have re-created it, but in my world it has remained intact, kind of like a snapshot in history. I found it fascinating that a detail like that would be left intact, even during the Native occupation and almost 50 years. Here's a photo:


There is your brief tour of Alcatraz. :-P I recommend the full one to anyone in the area!

The rest of the time, Jen and I took a tour of the city (sorry, not too many pics, too fast) and then we went back to Livermore for the 4th, watched some fireworks, drove around the valley a bit, and just laid low after several days of jamming.

The 5th came and I dropped her off at the airport, and was sad for a while, but, owing to my very generous mother, was able to go drown my sorrows in retail therapy. I needed new sneakers very badly, and I got them. Did you know you're supposed to switch out your sneakers every 300 miles? Well, I had long since bypassed that mark, but now I have a bright pair of brand new Nike's. I will be honest and say I had never been able to fit in Nike's before, but these are awesome. Thanks Mom!

Next, I was off to my coworker Debbie's place for dinner, but first she had agreed to take me to a movie. I love going to the movies, but I so rarely do it, so it was so very nice of Debbie to take me! We saw Public Enemies, which was a bit long, but still very bad ass. Then she had me over for dinner, and her oldest son Eric and his GF Sarah surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of lillies and peonies, which made my kitchen smell wonderful for a week. Sweet birthday, right? I had dinner at Debbie's, he SO, Ron, made kebabs of chicken and lamb. I had one bite of just about everything on the table...risotto, kebab, fresh tomatoes and cheese, yum yum! It was a birthday feast for sure. Debbie and her fam even got an angel food cake with lots of fresh fruit and sung to me! I didn't have much, but it was so delicious. I took a photo of my glowing cake (I know it's bright, 25 whole candles!). Here it is:



Aren't I lucky?

As if that wasn't enough, the party continued Monday! Plenty of well wishes from my coworkers. My Claude, the SLW winemaker, had myself and Monika and her family over for yet another amazing meal. We had venison...it went very good. Best I've had, probably. And bonus, I got to see Monika's adorable daughter! My supervisor, Chris, made me real buttermilk pancakes too, and he even made them tiny sized for me. Perfect. I will admit, I am spoiled. I had a FANTASTIC birthday. Thank you to everyone for making it so special!

PHEW. Lots of adventures. And the summer of fun continues: this weekend I am off to Seattle to be in Anna Sweet's wedding. Heck yes! I am psyched. Weddings are very exciting. I get to see my room mate Chris, from crush in WA, for the first time a while too. You all will hear about that soon!

PS-- Home in NY in just under a month! Can you say...excited?!!?!?

Cheers!

Ain't It Good?

Song: Ain't It Good, Children of Eden, Original Cast Recording

Long time, no update. Call it an unfortunate case of a very long to-do list. My birthday has come and gone, and I can say with absolute certainty that I have gotten a lot accomplished in my 24th year. Surgery, school, working, keeping my head above water. I gave myself a nice pat on the back and a few of my favorite potato chips in celebration. Yes, sour cream and cheddar ruffles. Yes, they are unfortunately just as delicious post-op as they were pre. Drat. Since I can't have birthday cake really, they are my choice of stand-in. :-P

Anyway, for my birthday and the 4th, my best friend Jennie came out from Washington DC. Can you say AWESOME! Well, we got up to quite a few things while she was here. She had a series of requests for places to visit, most of which I had never visited, so I was happy to oblige.

Our first stop was to spend the night in Monterey, CA. Monterey is a beautiful coastal town about 40 miles south of Santa Cruz on the extremely scenic Route 1. We drove down on a Wednesday after a delicious break fast at Zorn's, my favorite breakfast place in the area, who makes killer avocado, tomato, bacon and cheddar omelettes. Jennie discovered the magic of traveling with a gastric bypass patient...we're cheap dates. One omelette, two cups of coffee, and two satisfied customers.

We were on our way, sponsored by my Aunt Deb who had picked up some free passes, to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. OH.MY.GOD. It was AMAZING. It narrowly beat out the Sydney Aquarium because they had so little space and did so much with it! I highly recommend it to all who visit the bay area. My favorite exhibit was the jellyfish, Jennie's was the otters, I think. They also had an entire exhibit dedicated to seahorses. Here are some photos:



Beautiful jellyfish.



Yes, ESers, those are Emerita. Not talpoida though. Could have fooled me!



Some sea anemones.


Jen's favorite, the very endearing otters



Entrance to the Aquarium



These jellyfish are currently the background on my computer. Aren't the colors awesome?

After spending the night and awaking to the sound of the ocean outside of our room, we headed out to drive south on Route 1 to Big Sur, which was quite a ways down the coast.

We did a portion of 17 mile drive, which is famed, evidently, but gave up before the end because it was boring. Ha! Sorry, but, you're better off to stay on Route 1 and skip the 9$ fee. But, we did get to see the lone Cypress, which is a very famed image of a single Cyprus tree rising up from a rock formation in the sea. Here is a photo.


On the way from Monterey to Big Sur, we stopped in Carmel, dictated by our empty stomachs. As luck would have it, Carmel is home to a historic mission! Jennie and I both love visiting missions. We're not altogether sure why, considering she and I are both not terribly religious, let alone history buffs or Catholic. But, as I mentioned in a previous entry, something about them really strikes me. So, we stopped, browsed the rosaries in the gift shop and went to check out the mission. We met a very nice padre there, he seemed very humble and kind, exactly what I like to think of when I picture holy men.


Beautiful day behind the bell tower, don't you think?




Inside the main sanctuary...don't worry, it's cool to take pics, I made sure.



Older graves marked out by rather large abalone shells.



Fountains and Gardens.



Bell Tower and Sanctuary Building

We drove southward until we reached Big Sur, then we turned around and came back up. It was beautiful. However, it was a very windy and frustrating drive, with lots of shifting and breaking, it was tough on my little CRV. But, I always make sure my CRV gets to see all of the sights. It deserves it, after all, carrying me around! Below is a photo of Jennie and my CRV enjoying the scenery near Big Sur.



See? The CRV needs love too!

And here are two shots of the scenery at the coast. It was breath taking, really.


The biker on the right side of this pic was REALLY GRUMPY!!!




Next stop was Santa Cruz for dinner...for the BEST fish tacos in the universe. I mean, they are amazing. Fresh, of course. Let's see if I can remember them all: scallop, snapper, shrimp...oh, I can't. But I will tell you, none of them are deep fried and they are all delicious. They are from a little taco bar in the back of the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasters called El Palomar. Just for all of you, I took some photos! I had one bite of each...yum!



PS- Don't be scared, one of the tacos pictured is asada (beef), for those who noticed.

Alright, I unfortunately need to go to bed. I have to work tomorrow, sheesh! I will finish vacation round two including Alcatraz and a San Fran city tour and my week long birthday mania tomorrow night!!

Stay Tuned!

Cheers Big Ears