A Magical Wedding!

What an amazing weekend--probably the most beautiful wedding ever.

On Friday night, we had the rehearsal, followed by the rehearsal dinner and cocktail party.

The dinner was quite amazing--I'm not sure how many courses of wine we went through John made a wonderful FOB toast (with everyone at the table saying "don't screw up" before he opened his mouth).


By the time we had finished the first course ("Seafood on the Rocks"--seafood crudo, shrimp cocktail, cervice, and oysters) and the second course ("Organic Iceberg Salad with Garlic, Gorgonzola and buttermilk dressing for me and "Dungeness Crab and potato leek soup for John), we thought the dinner was over....then the Pork Porterhouse and roasted rack of lamb showed up. With each course we were served both white and red wine- specifically chosen to pair with the food. Then dessert came and we had both champagne and a sweet dessert wine with our "creme brule and the Upside down apple cake with vanilla ice cream. After all that, we took the private SFO trolley (running an ongoing loop from the restaurant back to the hotel) and went on to the cocktail party.....

On Saturday, we took the trolley (2 trolleys running a continuous loop between the hotel and the Ferry Building where the wedding was held.).

The trolley pulled up to the Ferry Building The Ferry Building is one of the major architectural icons in SFO-- opened in 1898 with a beautiful clock tower (modeled after one in Seville, Spain). As we got out of the trolley, we stepped onto a white carpet flanked by six 5 foot planters filled with white hyacinths. It was like walking into a red carpet event. The carpeting went up the stairs to the second floor. As we walked in, we were met by a staff of tuxedoed waiters with trays of champagne and wine. The Ferry Building architecturally is reminiscent of the old magnificent train stations- huge arched windows and this feeling of grandeur.


John and Ann
They made the space very intimate with draperies and soft lighting, tall glass vases with branches and floating candles surrounding the circular wedding seating. It was very unusual- a wedding in the round. The center of the floor (all mosaics) was a patterned circular mosaic-covered with flower petals in lilac and white and purple. Surrounding this were rows of white chairs. While we sipped champagne, a 3 piece orchestra played classical music.
The ceremony itself was quite lovely--the mayor of SFO (Gavin Newsome) was extremely charming as the celebrant.


Stephanie was absolutely gorgeous--she literally glowed--and John fulfilled his father of the bride walk down the aisle so well.

Instead of doing traditional readings, they had their friends and family speak. First, Jim's "brothers" spoke about family and it was quite touching. They truly have embraced Steph as part of their family--quite a tribute to her, because she not only had to make Jim fall in love with her- but also his two kids and the entire swooping family of 5 "brothers", mother and 13 kids.

After the brother/cousins, they had the couple who introduced them talk about friendship,
then had two of their closest friends talk about how to have a long, happy marriage. Then the vows--and it was over!

While the family went outside for photos--the rest of the group were moved to a huge room overlooking San Francisco Bay--with a bar at least 20 feet long. They had a clown and magician there for the kids. (During the day on Saturday, they had a trolley that took the kids to the Children's Museum for a scavenger hunt).

While the guests were enjoying the view and the drinks, the room where the wedding had taken place was transformed by a staff of what seemed like 1000's- into the wedding dinner and dance.

The tables were spectacular. Steph's new "mother in law" , Ann, is not only beautiful, charming, interesting and beloved by her entire family, she also designs jewelry. She designed Steph's wedding ring (gorgeous beyond belief)--and also made 200 beaded napkin rings for the wedding.

Dinner was wonderful--the first course- safrron poached pear salad - served with a 2007 Chalone Estate Chardonnay. Second course- a filet of beef tenderloin (perfectly cooked--how do they do that when they're serving 200 of them?) with sweet potato and chive puree, garlic-braised broccolini and spinach tamarind demi-glace. Served with a 2007 Chateau de Beaucastel Coudoulet Rouge....
Third course--a dessert trio of banana split trifle (layers of graham-cracker crust, toffee, banana custard and vanilla-bean whipped cream), chocolate caramel tartlet (dark chocolate tart shell filled with vanilla-bean caramel, macadamia nuts, coconut and topped with dark-chocolate ganache and gold salt and finally, snicker bites (mini bars of caramel, peanuts and gianduia chocolate with a crisp rice crunch)--served with a 1986 Chateu D'Yquem.

The wedding cake was very unusual (never did get to try either the "chocolate with candy bar cream" or the chantilly with raspberry sauce" slices.)
After dinner, the band started. They were SO good!...a black band that played R&B and great old songs. We were on the dance floor immediately--and stayed there for most of the night. Two of Jim's brothers joined the band and played bass guitar with them....perfectly.

Cajuns!

We had our giant send-off with the Cajuns-- a huge pot of gumbo chock full of crab and shrimp, potato salad, bread pudding. In typical Cajun fashion, they pulled about 8 couples together and made it look effortless. It was both Katie and Cheryl's birthdays- so I bought a red velvet cake for them. They were thrilled.

St Paul and the wild opossum

Our Minneapolis/St Paul annual visit has typically been scheduled for July/August, but this year, because of the eye surgery, we were coming through in October. We didn’t even think about weather issues (I had conveniently forgotten the memories of my 30 years in the “north country” and those brisk fall days). We realized that we might be looking at some cool nights when Rick and Sue, the campground owners, told us that they closed for the season on October 7th. Since we wanted to be in the area to help out Mom and E.D. close up the lake house, we decided to brave the chilly weather. We spent a weekend in Wisconsin at the lake.

These visits are always a bit boring for John. I had my annual dinner with Kathy and Jane and caught up on their lives, their kids and now grandkids, and all of the trials and tribulations of old high school friends.

This year I also re-discovered an old Ziff colleague- Dianne – who I had lost touch with for all these years. She and her husband had been transferred to Athens, then to Brussels and had just returned to the States and their home in Woodbury- just a few miles from our campground. We decided to get together for lunch and catch up. Di’s life is crazy- two kids with impossible schedules. Between football, hockey, tennis, youth group meetings and car pooling- and her ‘baking business’ – she leads an absolutely insane life. After meeting Chloe (and John), we took a ride to her house to meet her ‘babies’- Lester and Leo, her shitz-tzu’s. When Di let Lester outside, he raced out- and under their deck. We heard mad barking and Di said that she was sure there was a dead animal under the deck. She got out a broom and tried to get both the animal carcass and Lester out from under the deck. Then we heard not only barking from Lester, but a very different growling from some other creature. It was unnerving and then there was silence. Di looked up at me and said, “Do you think he’s dead?”….and we both had visions of trying to get a bloodied Lester out from under the deck while fighting off some other wild creature. Then, we heard the barks again and Lester raced out from under the deck. Di appeared with a dead animal carcass that looked like something from Jurrasic Park. As only a Viking woman could do- she came in to the kitchen, triumphantly holding the carcass – and smiled.

Then, she tried to figure out how to place the carcass in the garage to get the maximum impact when her husband arrived home that night… Her 9 year old son, meanwhile, was trying to convince her to let him take it to school. Postscript—the living creature under the deck was there for several days. After calls to Animal Control (no help), they decided to try to trap it. Days later, I got an email- it was a 0possum and they were able to trap it and set it free in the wild.

Cleveland- A Trip Down Memory Lane

This year our Cleveland trip was a little less stressful- the parking lot was sold and now just a part of family history. But, we were “hosting” a visit from John’s sisters, Alice and Mary. They wanted to come in to their hometown to look at it from a different perspective- a walk back through time and family history. With all of the research on all of the family lines, John had been able to identify family property in Cleveland dating back to the 1800’s. So, we took the girls on a 3 day walk through history.




Alice (or, ‘the worm’- known for her ability to talk her way into anyone’s house) was in great form on this trip- on our first morning, we were able to get into 3 of the old family homes.


Imagine 4 strangers (and a dog) knocking on your door and worming their way into your house for a tour down memory lane. It was really interesting--lots of old stories and I think that the current homeowners enjoyed the visit as much as we did. One of the homeowners even gave the girls 4 hand-painted doors from their parent's bedroom closet (sounds strange- but they were quite lovely- and I think they plan to convert them into serving trays).

John did an amazing job of pulling together old family photos- then taking the girls to the sites and using the photos to bring the sites to life. They were thrilled- seeing places where their parents, grandparents and great-great grandparents lived - and seeing the old photos and taking pictures of themselves in the same sites. We even stopped by a popcorn factory that had family connections back to the 1880's.

The Humphrey Popcorn Company had ties back to John's Harlow relatives and there were stories passed down in the family about a popcorn stand. So, we were given the grand tour- and walked out with bags of popcorn balls and taffy. All in all, a very successful - but exhausting trip

.

East Haddam

More research on the Harlows—so it was time for a trip to East Haddam. We stayed in Lyme, CT and got to not only get some family research done, but also meet up with E.J. and Sharon (and Jolie)

The Dog Days of Salem

CHLOE.....


BAILEY....



AND STELLA..................

Summer in Salem

After a month of what seemed like non-stop rain and cold, the sunshine has come out and we are enjoying our waterfront view. Waking up every morning to this view just starts your day out right.

We've had a great time so far--catching up with old friends. John even caught up with an old army buddy, Charlie. A few bottles of wine and the army stories kept us in stitches.

And, best of all, we got to have an afternoon with Steph and Jim - before they took off for their holiday in Japan. They flew in from NYC for the afternoon and the weather cooperated- giving us a gorgeous sunny day for lunch on the Salem harbor.