With the wedding/honeymoon we didn’t do as much traveling as was experienced in 2007. 2 countries, 5 states, 11 cities.
The wife wanted me to add the following…
Layover cities (for kicks)…
Seattle to New Orleans to Hattiesburg to New Orleans to Hattiesburg to Jasper to Hattiesburg to Jackson to Hattiesburg to New Orleans to Seattle.
…our travels over the last 9 days. Somebody calculate those miles and I’ll give you a cookie.
The Obamassiah has been skipping out on church in order to work out at the gym. Look likes Barack paid a little too much attention to 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
On the three Sundays since his election, Obama has instead used his free time to get in workouts at a Chicago gym.
Asked about the president-elect’s decision to not attend church, a transition aide noted that the Obamas valued their faith experience in Chicago but were concerned about the impact their large retinue may have on other parishioners.
“Because they have a great deal of respect for places of worship, they do not want to draw unwelcome or inappropriate attention to a church not used to the attention their attendance would draw,” said the aide.
Both President-elect George W. Bush and President-elect Bill Clinton managed to attend church in the weeks after they were elected.
A great piece from August 2007 on Virgin America airlines. Chelsea and I are flying Virgin when we fly to LA or Vegas in early 2009. I’m overly eager… it appears to be a flying playground for adults.
Anyone ever flown on Virgin America? Stories? Bueller?
Is it stupid to drive 2 1/2 hours to Portland just to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings? That’s exactly what we did over the weekend with our friend Kim and Colin who were craving the wingsbeersports as much as we were.
For all that Seattle has in unique, can’t-get-them-anywhere-else-in-the-world food, it lacks in chain eateries beloved by the majority of Americans (see: Chick-fil-A, Waffler House, Cracker Barrel, Sonic) as well as Buffalo Wild Wings.
Seeing the BWW was a staple in my weekly diet during college (weird that Mississippi has something Seattle doesn’t… silly treehuggers and their tofu) it’s been pretty difficult to live without for the past 26 months. So when we discussed the fact that Portland has three (3!) in their metro area, the weekend road trip was inevitable.
God bless Buffalo Wild Wings.
We’re back. Happy. Rested. Yet somehow, still exhausted.
Each day was 72 degrees, sunny, with a slight breeze. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, wishes, support, love, and encouragement from those in attendance.
Pre-Wedding Events
I rented a house in Watercolor and was joined by a handful of friends and their wives for 48 hours of early mornings and late nights with plenty of interesting happenings in between.
The rehearsal dinner at Yanni’s Seagrove Grill was spectacular — the best grouper I’ve ever had. My college roommate Matt Weston even made time to pull from his file one of the most embarrassing collegiate stories concerning my past happenings.
Wedding Day/Reception
Our wedding was at the Interfaith Chapel in Seaside with a beach side reception a Bud & Alley’s.
Having many of you tell us to “relax” and “enjoy the day” Chelsea and I actually remember everything from the ceremony. My dad led the ceremony, the central theme of which was ‘grace.’
We made it to the beach just in time to squeeze in some sunset shots, returning later for some night shots where we actually got shin-deep in the water, laying on the sand as well.
Chelsea and I both agree that our favorite moment was when we returned from taking night shots on the beach and found everyone at the reception dancing, singing, eating and drinking. Our goal was to host a party that was intimate, fun-filled, and relaxing. We think that was accomplished.
Honeymoon
We literally had the beach all to ourselves, seeing more fighter jets pass by than we did people. We spent our days at the Water Sound Beach Club. Wednesday, our beach chairs and umbrella were the only thing we could see on the beach in any direction.
We both planned to spend our time cranking through newly purchased books… though we spent 98% of the time penning the wedding’s events into our journals.
At nights and when it happened to rain we made our way through the first season of Mad Men, Season 1 — we’re both hooked.
First, let me testify that as a non-runner (definition: I haven’t consistently run 1 mile since high school) that to actually finish the NikePlus Human Race 10K was a feat in and of itself. I did virtually no endurance training prior to the 10K and was just amused that I didn’t finish behind the 12-year-old one-legged blind girl. I’m not bragging… just giving you an idea at how much I hate to run. I think it’s obvious from the charts below that we have very little to brag about.
Place (World): 161,426 of 491,544
Place (Vancouver): 2082
Chelsea and I ran side-by-side for the entire race, however, until we saw our times late Monday night, Chelsea accused me of pulling a ‘Michael Phelps’ and crossing the finish line just before she could. Turns out, that wasn’t the case as we both crossed the finish line at the exact same time: 1 hour 12 minutes 16 seconds
We ran the the charity ninemillion.org.
As you can see, unless there were only 2,083 people running in Vancouver we did pretty well.
Though our World Ranking make me a little more humbled.
The first Nike Human Race (get it?!?!) is being held this Sunday in cities all over the world.
It’s a 10K, and considering that (aside from your typical ‘get in shape before the wedding’ routine) I’m not a runner, and I think I’m going to end up having my a$$ handed to me while Chelsea finishes in record time.
We’ll be running in Vancouver, and I hope some of you might be running elsewhere for one of the three causes.
Want to go the the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver? Get in line… the American line.
Tickets to the Opening Ceremonies: $1,200
Hope your weekend went well — it’s only 4 more days until football season.
I also hope your weather was better than ours… let’s hope rainy weather isn’t here to stay. The clouds opened up long enough to get in a hike to visit one of the best falls in Washington state, take new Seattleites and MC Alumni, Clay & Emily Taylor to dinner in Bellevue, had a big old all-you-can-eat-buffet Sunday, showed Chelsea that fancy high school from 10 Things, and tasted one of the best cups of coffee I’ve had in a while (in Tacoma, of all places).
Thank you again to all those who either played a part in hosting or attended the wedding shower Sunday at Jasper’s First Baptist Church. Chelsea and I stood, meeting folks in a line for 90 minutes… we didn’t speak to any one person for more than 20 seconds and even still we were barely able to speak to everyone who attended. We were blown away by the fact that you came… thank you so much.
You all welcomed Chelsea and her family with open arms. However, having been a member of Jasper’s FBC for nearly 25 years now, that doesn’t surprise me one bit.
For those who couldn’t make it, we appreciate your phone calls, texts, and emails. No need to apologize for missing out.
We were in Jasper for a little less than 24 hours over the weekend. This gave me just enough time to get Chelsea acclimated to the city I hold dear. I took her on a thorough (albeit brief) tour. Some highlights:
There were other locations of interest in between (Downtown Jasper, Memorial Park, TR Simmons, the Pool) though Jasper, to me, is more than a quick half-hour tour. It’s sad to think that since I moved to Seattle 23 months ago I’ve only been back on 5 occasions… most visits lasting 2 days or less.
Wow. I just thought of a great business idea: Jasper Tours. “And THAT is the free-flowing well… go on over and take a sip. It DOES smells like eggs, doesn’t it?!”
Some of you fly more than myself, and I can honestly say that I don’t envy you. I had a conversation with our VP of Marketing yesterday where I mentioned never to be considered for a position which required me to travel 50% or more of the time. I’m like most of you: I buy cheap. Kayak.com is my lifeblood, and I only fly Southwest when I have to (I feel like I’m being herded to slaughter on a bus in the sky). Aside from jetBlue and Virgin America, I make no differentiation between airlines. They all have red, white, and blue in their logo.
This rich guy wrote a great tongue-in-cheek article about the current state of the airline industry.
Some of my favorite quotes:
You still expect to be treated like a rich person when you have demonstrated, by flying commercial, that you are a poor person. [...] Take flight attendants, for example. Once upon a time these straight ladies and gay men sought to please fliers; now they treat fliers like criminals. Ask a stew and she’ll probably blame it all on terrorism. She’ll go on about how after 9/11 she stopped being a camp counselor and became a cop. But that’s just an excuse.
[The airlines] know you are poor; they know from their experience that, given the choice, you will always save money rather than time. And so they don’t fear that if they slow down you will get off. If your time was that valuable, they will think to themselves, you wouldn’t be flying on their planes in the first place.
Thanks to East Texas thunderstorms, we’re sleeping in the luxurious Baytown Inn in Grapevine, TX tonight (Sunday) before heading back to Seattle on a 6:55 AM flight tomorrow.
Thank you to all who came to our shower at FBC Jasper yesterday. We stood for 90 minutes, greeting you non-stop and just barely got through the line before we had to take off the airport. Thank you.
Anyhow… the blog seems to running faster (not wonderfully though) though keep me posted when you run into any issues.
A few of you asked if the “thrown away jacket” picture was real. Yes, it was.
Story: We ate Mexican for dinner during our trip to Vancouver. It was delicious. Chelsea;s jacket absorbed the smell to such an extent that it was unbearable upon our return to the car. Thus, we threw the jacket in the trash can en route to watch the sunset.
Dang fajitas.
“Unto you a child is born!”
Acting like a fool at the church where the movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was filmed.
This childhood favorite we’ve watched as a family every Christmas Eve since I was a child. It was filmed in Vancouver, so on our way out of town we plugged the address of the church into the Garmin. Bliss.
Gladys Herdman hits too hard.
The blog about a conservative Southerner in Seattle.
I take photos, talk about life, our travels, as well as college football. Now that you're hooked, learn more.
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