Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Rome, Day 1

We didn't have much trouble waking up early on our first day in Rome. Caesar House had free breakfast room service, which I was very excited about! I guess it wasn't that hard for them to do, since there were only 10 rooms or so. The breakfast for each person consisted of a croissant filled with jam (exciting!), rolls, an assortment of jams and spreads (Nutella!), semi-soft cheese (Patrick wasn't a big fan of this stuff, and I just ate it because it was there), and one extra item of our choosing (the extras included yogurt, juice, tea, and cereal, among other things). That first day, Patrick had juice, and I ordered tea with milk (my tea intake increased considerably while we were in Italy). It wasn't the most lavish breakfast ever, but it was filling and a nice change from the Continental breakfasts at most American motels/hotels.

After breakfast, we ventured out into Rome (this time in daylight, so it was less scary). We quickly learned that pedestrians in Rome are even more ballsy than in Boston. They just walk in front of oncoming cars (granted, the cars were going pretty slowly due to traffic). We ended up doing the same thing because it was the only way to cross the street in some cases. That was not my favorite part of Rome. We took the Metro, which was very crowded and stuffy, to the Vatican stop, where we planned to spend our morning.

We climbed a bunch of stairs from the Metro station and soon realized that the line to the Vatican Museum was very long, stretching for blocks and blocks, winding around the walls of Vatican City. We walked and walked until we finally got to the end of the line and debated whether it was worth standing in line for so long. We decided just to stick it out, because how often do you get to see the Sistine Chapel? There were a bunch of tour guides offering 50 euro tickets for tours without any waiting in line (Rome is full of people out to make money off of tourists, which is fair but annoying), but we're stubborn and just waited in line. We were behind a group of German teenagers who kept eating sandwiches from their backpacks. They were better prepared than we were. It actually only took about an hour to get to the museum entrance. There were some other German tourists behind us who kept cutting in front of everybody, and it pissed me off, but what can you do? Some people just don't follow the rules and are able to get away with it. I tried not to get too riled up about it because we were on vacation, and vacation is supposed to be relaxing. [Incidentally, we went back to that area later on in the day (around 1pm), and the line was much shorter. So if you're going to visit the Vatican Museum, it would be advisable not to go at 9:30am, but to wait until 1pm, based on our limited experience.]

Once in the museum, we were a little overwhelmed by our choices and kind of wished we had a Vatican Museum guidebook in addition to our Lonely Planet Italy book. But we decided just to follow signs instead of paying for a guidebook. We walked through a hall with lots of impressive tapestries and then went through the map room (all the while surrounded by a crush of other tourists; not the most leisurely way to appreciate art). I really liked the old maps, which included not only geographical points of interest, but also more fanciful subjects like Neptune and his chariot.

The ceiling of the map room was also impressive, full of paintings. There was so much to look at that it was hard to take it all in. At least there were benches every so often in the map room so we could just sit down and look around.

Next we went through a bunch of papal apartments decorated with more amazing art (Patrick, keeper of the guidebook, told me about some of it, but I can't remember it all now). Finally we got to the Sistine Chapel, which was very crowded, but worth it. Again, there was so much to look at. We spent a decent amount of time there and then made our way out of the museum. We considered buying and mailing a postcard from Vatican City, but we didn't see any postcards we liked. While we were looking at postcards, an American approached us and asked if we were mailing anything at the post office. I said no, but if it helped, the word for stamp was francobollo (it's a fun word!). Turns out he didn't want to know the word for stamp, and he probably thought I was a weirdo for just volunteering that information of my own accord. He just had a few extra stamps and was going to offer them to us, because he thought they were only good inside Vatican City, but then somebody else told him they could be used in Rome as well, so he kept his stamps. Francobollo!

There was a big spiral ramp descending to the exit of the museum, which looked like it would be fun to roller skate down, except that there were barriers every so often along the ramp, probably to prevent such behavior. Boring! Once outside of the museum, we sat on the steps and pondered our lunch options.

We decided to walk around and find something that looked good. On the way, we found a store selling Pope bottle openers, which Patrick had wanted to buy. We got one for ourselves and one for our friend Mike, who had a Pope John Paul II bottle opener, but not a Pope Benedict bottle opener. The bottle opener is not blurry; my picture of it is.

We decided to get lunch at a nondescript pizza place a few blocks from the museum. It wasn't very good, but it wasn't awful either. We sat on the sidewalk and watched cars park in the alley next to us. One parked car got bumped twice by other cars parking next to it. Crappy! I'm so glad we didn't have to drive at all on our honeymoon, especially in Rome.

After lunch, we got our first gelato of the trip at a small kiosk we'd seen while standing in line for the museum. It was Nutella flavored, and it was possibly the best gelato of our trip, though we had no way of knowing that at the time! The kiosk was next to a bookstore where I'd hoped to buy an English-Italian dictionary (somehow we'd failed to pack ours, and it was sitting at home in California), but the bookstore was closed for lunch.

Next, we went to a tented market next to the gelato place. There were a ton of vendors selling all sorts of things--T-shirts, jewelry, fake purses, hats. There was a woman selling watercolors she'd made of places around Rome, which we liked and were affordable. We bought one of Piazza Navona for ourselves and one of the Trevi Fountain for Sara, because it was her favorite place in Rome.

Once we were done exploring the market, we walked to St. Peter's Square, which was only a few blocks away. We waited in line to see St. Peter's Basilica, but this line was much shorter than that for the museum. The square itself was beautiful. It was surrounded by columns topped with statues, there were fountains (so many fountains in Rome--I love that!) and an obelisk for good measure. There were people setting up a stage for the Pope's appearance the next day (good thing we didn't try visiting the Vatican then!).

The Basilica was huge and beautiful and not horribly crowded (yay!). We didn't go up into the dome, but it looked so pretty from ground level. There's just so much to look at! St. Peter's Canopy was majestic and impressive, but it was made out of bronze from the Pantheon (boo! Raiding pagan monuments is not cool). Oh well, at least they made something nice out of it.

After relaxing and taking in all the sculptures and paintings and mosaics, we left, stopping briefly to stand on the red porphyry disc where Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope. I felt like we shouldn't be standing on something with such historical importance, but everybody else was walking all over it, so I guess it was okay. The stonework on the floors of all of the cathedrals we visited was beautiful, by the way. So much care and money were put into these buildings; it's mind-boggling.

After leaving the Basilica, we found an open bookstore, which sold mostly religious books, but also had a small section of Italian-English dictionaries. Phew! We actually didn't end up using the dictionary much, but I felt better having it. We also picked up some postcards, and the check out procedure was confusing. One guy had to add up our purchases, and then we had to go elsewhere to actually pay for them. Huh.

Next we walked across Ponte St. Angelo, which had many beautiful sculptures portraying the holy relics.

And then it was time to see more Bernini sculptures, this time part of a fountain instead of a bridge, at Piazza Navona. There are two fountains there, and the first wasn't that well-kept, but the second, Fountain of the Four Rivers, was really beautiful. It's just crazy that somebody could turn huge hunks of rock into a piece of art like that!

I should note that Piazza Navona, like the other piazzas we visited, was full of street vendors selling paintings and sunglasses and knock-off purses and little toys and who knows what else. Except that they weren't supposed to do that, so whenever a policeman came by, they'd bundle everything up (they kept it all displayed on a sheet for easy bundling) and walk away casually. They weren't fooling anybody. As soon as the policeman was out of sight, they'd lay their stuff out again. It seemed to be mostly immigrants, which makes sense, I guess. When you move to Italy and don't speak the language fluently, it's easier to join up with the illicit street vendor group from your country and make money that way. It took away from the ambience, but they have to make a living somehow. I didn't buy anything from them though.

Near Piazza Navona, we bought a pretty tile (which is now hanging in our bathroom), from a store full of breakable things, called De Sanctis. We then got a chocolate croissant at a smaller piazza nearby and had a quick snack.

Next we visited the Pantheon, which was sad because it had been stripped of all its nice materials and had been converted to a monotheistic monument instead of what it used to be. Lame, Catholic Church! At least the architecture was still nice. There wasn't much to see inside the Pantheon, so we sat outside with our backs against a huge column and watched people. It was strange that right next to this incredibly old building, there were restaurants with scrolling LED signs.

It was getting near dinner time, so we walked to Piazza Campo de Fiori (and passed a cupcake store in an alley along the way, but didn't go in). Mike had recommended the pizza at Forno Campo de Fiori, and he was right! It was really good. We just went in and indicated what size piece we wanted (it was cut from a large rectangle of pizza), and they folded it up and wrapped it in paper. Very casual, and very tasty pizza. We ate it outside, and while eating, we saw a priest come out of a lingerie store on the piazza. I got a kick out of that--a priest in a lingerie store! After finishing the pizza, we sat around for a little while and witnessed a dispute between two guitar players, over who should be allowed to play there. There were a lot of people walking around, but it didn't feel crowded. There were people riding bikes and giving their dogs drinks from a faucet in the middle of the piazza and buying flowers from the open air market. It was a nice and relaxing place to sit and pass the time (apart from the guitar player turf war).

We were still hungry after the pizza and it was threatening rain, so we decided to get more dinner at Bacchanale, also in Campo de Fiori. We sat out on the well-tented patio. Their big focus was alcohol, but we didn't take great advantage of that (I think Patrick had some beer). We split a bowl of Pasta alla Matriciana, which was bucatini with tomato sauce, bacon, and cheese. That stuff was good. I tried recreating it when we got back home to California, but it just wasn't the same. I'll keep trying though. It's a simple enough dish.

We also had fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies, which were good, but a little greasy and overwhelming after having pizza earlier. But I don't get many chances to eat zucchini flowers here, so I'll eat them when I can. There was a table of loud and annoying Americans behind us. There was one guy and about 10 women, all middle-aged, and the guy was drunk and trying to impress his lady friends. He ended up breaking a glass accidentally. It made us wince and wish we were Canadian. Oh well, they were enjoying their vacations.

Patrick fell asleep in his chair toward the end of dinner (too much beer and cheese, I guess), but he woke up easily, and we walked back to the hotel. It was a pretty long walk, but there were more dramatically-lit ruins to see (I love that!). There was one block of walled-in ruins that was inhabited by a colony of feral cats. They were everywhere, but they were pretty far below us, so it wasn't scary. They were just wandering around, hanging out. It was just surreal, passing ruins at night and finding them crawling with cats. We had noticed a lot of postcards featuring the cats of Rome in gift shops, and they made more sense after seeing this. I wanted to stay and watch the kitties, but we had to be on our way.

We walked past Vittoriano at Piazza Venezia on our way back, which was very large and impressive. Romans know how to build monuments!

Near the Vittoriano were more ruins, this time without any visible cats. I just couldn't get over how something so old could be plopped in the middle of a bustling, modern city. I stopped a lot to look at the ruins at the Forum.

And then it was back to our hotel. A good day, overall.

Monday, October 10, 2005
London to Rome

We arrived at Heathrow around lunchtime, all groggy and wearing our glasses instead of contacts. We had to go through security again, which wasn't too bad. When we tried to figure out what gate we were at, we learned that at Heathrow, you don't get to know your gate information until ~30 minutes before the flight leaves. Luckily, we didn't have long to wait. When our gate number was displayed, we went straight there and then sat around for a little while in a little glassed-in waiting area with nothing exciting to see or do. There was a group of Chinese tourists on our flight all wearing baby blue hats. I think we saw one or two of the hats on our flight home as well, so maybe they were from San Francisco.

Our flight to Rome was uneventful. From the airport, which is located outside of Rome proper, we had to take a special train to Roma Termini (Rome's train and subway hub). We had some problems getting our train tickets. We'd studied some Italian in the months leading up to the wedding, but we kind of expected that the train station at the airport would be more English-friendly. We tried to use an automated ticket-buying machine, but it kept going back to the main menu, and we couldn't tell what it was saying.

So then we tried standing in line, which took a while, and I was nervous we were in the wrong line. But when we got up there, Patrick just said "two for Roma Termini" (in Italian), and we got our tickets, no problem. Still, it was stressful not being able to speak the language fluently. I hadn't realized how helpless I'd feel (when I went to Germany in high school, I'd had 4 years of German classes, so it wasn't as much of an issue). Luckily, Patrick was willing to do most of the Italian-speaking during our trip (and he planned it all too--a full-service honeymoon!).

By the time we got to Rome, it was dark out. Once at Roma Termini, we wandered around along with tons of other people until we found the Metro part of the station. We took the Metro to the Colosseum, exited the Metro station, and there, right in front of us, was the Colosseum, all lit up and spectacular-looking. It was pretty crazy. We were really in Italy!

It was only a short walk from the Colosseum to our hotel, Caesar House. Of course, we had heavy hiking backpacks on, so any walk with our luggage was too long for me. We walked by more old ruins, also dramatically lit. I thought that was one of the most impressive parts of Rome--all that history smack dab in the middle of a modern city.

The hotel was on the second floor of an old building (located across the street from Sexy Shop, a trashy-looking lingerie store), and since it was nighttime, the outside door was locked. We tried using the buzzer to contact the front desk, but we had some technical issues with that, mostly stemming from our lack of buzzer experience (do you hold down the button to talk or not? Apparently you don't hold the button down at Caesar House because the front desk lady won't be able to hear you). So we stood outside for a little bit, not sure if the lady was going to let us in, and then a nice American guy who was also staying there let us in with his key. Phew!

The hotel was small (only ~10 rooms), but it was really nice, and the girl working the front desk was so friendly (and spoke English, which was such a relief after our long day of travel). Here's a picture of our room the second night (we had to switch rooms due to availability). It gives a good feel for what the rooms were like. I liked the fabric they used for the bedding and curtains. Floral, but not stuffy old lady floral.

It was late when we got in, and I was worried we wouldn't be able to find dinner, but it turns out Italy's all about late dinners, so we had no problem. The girl at the front desk recommended a restaurant in an alley just around the corner from the hotel. There was some sort of buffet in the restaurant, but we couldn't figure out how that worked, so we just sat on the patio and ordered our own dinners.

Patrick had meatballs (which turned out to be a little too small to stand on their own as dinner--those darn secondi piatti). I had pasta with clams and mussels. We had our first encounter with the bottled water with and without gas thing, but we already knew to expect that. We stuck with no gas throughout the trip. How unadventurous! Some of the bottled water was unpleasantly minerally, but whatever. Minerals are good for us!

Our waitress at the restaurant spoke English too, which was nice, though I also kind of wanted to use our Italian. But it was late, and we just wanted food without much trouble, and that's what we got. It wasn't the best meal ever, but it was fine. There were some old Italian ladies at the table next to us; they were having a good time, by the sound of things.

Back in our hotel, we watched a show in Italian that appeared to be similar to Who Wants to be a Millionaire. And we were actually able to translate some of the questions and answer them correctly! We couldn't tell how the prize system worked though. The prize was a tiny little car, and after the person answered a question correctly, they got to choose an envelope (a bored-looking hot Italian chick in very few clothes retrieved the envelopes), but then it wasn't clear how the thing in the envelope related to them winning the car. We watched that show until we were too sleepy. We managed to stay awake until 10pm, which was our goal. We wanted to try and get in the right sleep schedule so we could make the most of our time in Rome.

We're married! Everything went just as planned, and the weather was beautiful, and it was just a wonderful day. I'm so happy :) We're about ready to fly to Italy for our honeymoon. I'm sure it'll be wonderful as well! More when we get back...

Sunday, October 9, 2005
Brunch and Travel

We woke up at a decent hour on the morning after our wedding and headed to Carmel to have brunch with our family and friends still in the area. We got there early and saw Tree and Andrew walking around, so we joined them and window-shopped for a little while. At 10, we headed over to the Village Corner for brunch. We were lucky enough to get a table out on the patio, and the weather was good. Brunch was enoyable--I had a yummy smoked salmon eggs benedict, and the orange juice at the Village Corner is always delicious. I'm glad we got to see most of our guests again before we left for our honeymoon.

Too soon, it was time for us to say goodbye to everybody. We drove back home and finished packing for our honeymoon (we were pretty much done, but there was some overlap in our wedding stuff and our honeymoon stuff that had to be sorted out). Patrick's dad drove us to SFO, and we both checked in, incredulous that we were actually going to Italy in a few hours!

We had a boring pseudo-Italian snack at the Il Fornaio Cafe in our terminal, and then we sat around reading and waiting (I love having an excuse to buy magazines! I got Sunset and Real Simple). I had realized that I didn't have my address written in my passport, so I searched the gift shops for a pencil, but they only had pens. Lame! In fact, it took me many days to find una matita, even in Italy (mostly because I kept forgetting to look for one). But I didn't lose my passport, and I found a pencil in Florence, so everything worked out on that front.

Our first flight was from San Francisco to London (Heathrow) with British Airways, and it was approximately 9 hours long. It wasn't great, but there were enough novel things that I was pretty happy the whole time. I watched Bewitched (a horrible movie, even by my standards) and Fantastic Four, and we had tea, which was fun. The flight attendants seemed so much more polite and pleasant than American flight attendants, but maybe we were just fooled by their accents. I tried to have wine with dinner, but it was not enjoyable, so Patrick helped me drink it. I'm trying to enjoy wine! I guess airplane wine isn't the best place to start.

We tried to get some sleep during the flight, but that didn't work so well. It didn't really matter, since our internal clocks were so messed up already, compared to Italy time. There must have been some breakfast before we landed, but it was unmemorable. Come 1pm Monday, we were in an airport on a totally different continent from where we started. Crazy!

Saturday, October 8, 2005
Wedding Day!

Tree, Erin and I woke up at 6 am and ate grapes and danishes for breakfast. Rebecca was supposed to show up at our room (at the Big Sur Lodge) at 7 am, but she didn't get there until 7:15. I was getting pretty nervous and worried while we waited (wondering how long should I wait before we just do our own hair), and I was just about to call her when she showed up at our door. From there on out, things went pretty smoothly, apart from the fact that we were 15 minutes behind schedule.

First, Rebecca did Erin's hair, and then Tree's, based on pictures I'd chosen online (I asked them if they wanted anything in particular, but they were pretty easygoing, so I just chose pretty simple styles). Erin's hair was based on this picture, and Tree's on this one (with the extra stephanotis from Swenson and Silacci tucked on one side instead of all those hairsticks). While they were getting their hair done in our little bathroom area, I chatted with them, trying not to get nervous or stressed out about the time crunch. They were good at being calm and reassuring.

Tree and Erin's hair looked so cute! Finally it was my turn, so Rebecca put my hair in curlers (it was really impressive how she brought her whole salon setup with her to our little rustic cabin room and did everything there). The light in our room wasn't good, so she and I went out on our little porch so she could do my makeup. It was still early morning, and cold, so I brought a blanket with me and wrapped up in that. So elegant--wrapped in a blanket with curlers in my hair :) The cabins across the way were inhabited by what appeared to be a bunch of families who knew each other; the kids were out scootering around, but none paid any attention to me. Then their breakfast bacon was ready, so they all went inside.

Makeup application went without a hitch until Rebecca accidentally knocked her expensive face powder off the porch railing into the bushes. There was enough left in the lid for her to finish my makeup, but I still felt bad about her loss. She said she was going to crawl around in the bushes after we left to see if she could salvage any of it. I hope she succeeded! Things went fine after that, and we were done and out the door at 10:15, still 15 minutes behind schedule, but looking good! Rebecca did a good job.

Tree and Erin loaded their things into Erin's car and took all the dresses, while I went ahead (and discovered my car had been majorly pooped on overnight by the birds in the big tree it was parked under, but whatever!). I didn't think that one through very well, since without my dress, there wasn't much I could do. But I just wanted to get there and make up for lost time. I drove to Ventana (our wedding was on the terrace of Ventana's restaurant, Cielo), which only took about 5 minutes. Once at Ventana, there's a bit of a (beautiful, scenic) drive to the restaurant, and I was stuck behind this PT Cruiser going about 5 mph. I tried not to be stressed out by the snail's pace we were moving at.

I got to the restaurant, parked and went to our designated changing room under the gift shop. But nobody was there (I didn't expect Tree or Erin to be there yet, but I figured somebody would be there)! At this point, I got a little freaked out because we were late, and I couldn't find anybody, and I started worrying that Tree and Erin had somehow gotten lost (how silly of me; they're way better navigators than that. They were actually doing something very thoughtful for us at that exact time, as we discovered later). I went back out to the parking lot, and my mom pulled up and hugged me, and that made me feel better. She went off to find DeAnna (Ventana's wedding coordinator), which I couldn't do because Patrick and I had agreed not to see each other before the wedding, so I had to stay hidden.

I went back into the changing room, and shortly thereafter my mom returned with both Danielle (our photographer) and DeAnna. I shoved the placecards and menus into DeAnna's hands (which was funny, because that's exactly what she was looking for), and I started calming down. Tree and Erin showed up a little bit later (why did I ever doubt them?), and the dressing got underway. I really shouldn't have worried anyway, since I had a backup wedding dress in my car (just a simple white linen sundress). I also had backup shoes and jewelry, just in case. Yes, I'm overly prepared at times.

The changing room was more of a conference room, and it had big windows with a gorgeous view out onto Ventana's grounds. Not the most private of changing rooms, but nobody walked by, so it was fine. We got dressed, Erin did her makeup, and there was some picture-taking. Nat (the best man) came by to get my ring, and he kept his back turned the whole time so that he wouldn't see me. I thought it was funny :) I guess if Patrick can't see me, no man can see me. That's fair.

My dad came down to the room once we were ready to go, and Danielle took some pictures of me and my parents and the Erins outside. I think I smiled for them. I was still a little bit concerned about not being late, though my mom reminded me that it would be okay if we started a little late. I was not convinced. Somewhere in there, we realized that we didn't have the bouquets, but my mom went and found them (phew!), and they looked really great; just what I'd wanted (Swenson and Silacci did a great job with the flowers all around, especially with the meager guidance I gave them--with the arch, cake, and table centerpieces, I just asked for fall-toned flowers, and they came up with some great stuff).

I kept asking people what time it was, and finally it was a little after 11 am, so Tree went and got Patrick's ring. Erin had already gone out to the terrace, where the ceremony was located (she, Nat, and Patrick were all up at the altar already when the ceremony began). Tree, my parents, and I walked up to the entrance to the terrace, inside the restaurant and out of sight (I stepped on my dress hem on the way up the stairs, but luckily I didn't rip it or anything). DeAnna and another very nice Ventana employee worked out a system so that Tree and I entered at the right time (which is good, since I hadn't thought that part through). Patrick says Andrew did a good job cueing the music, for which we are very grateful.

Tree walked out first to a classical guitar version of Vivaldi's Winter Largo. It felt like it took forever for the lady to cue me, but she finally did, and I walked out into the sunshine, flanked by my parents (we walked out to a classical guitar version of the Beatles' In My Life). A little bit into it, I realized I was walking too fast for a wedding processional (I'm a fast walker!), so I slowed it down, and I think we did okay. When the Lower Terrace came into full view, and I saw all the people we love sitting there and the ocean stretching out forever and Patrick looking at me, so handsome, I was just so happy. I couldn't stop smiling :) It was at that moment that I relaxed and started really enjoying the day instead of worrying. I'm glad I did. It was a beautiful and perfect moment, and I was so happy! I hope I can remember that feeling forever.

The three of us arrived at the altar (not a real altar, just a pretty redwood arch rented from Swenson and Silacci and decorated with fall-type flowers and willow branches, per our request), and I hugged my parents, and they sat down (none of that giving away stuff for me!). I walked up to the arch, said hi to Patrick (probably not proper bride etiquette) and almost forgot to give Tree my bouquet, but caught myself and handed it over.

I was so happy to see Patrick and to have him looking at me so lovingly. I felt so lucky :) Erin did a really good job with the ceremony, and the people who spoke said such heartfelt things. Alan went first, with thoughts on life and death and how to be a good spouse. My mom followed up with a reading from a story I wrote when I was maybe 9 years old, which I unfortunately stopped writing mid-sentence--a cliffhanger! She drew lots of good parallels between my story and marriage, and it was really touching. She even worked in a mention of heirloom tomatoes and swiss chard, which I much enjoyed.

Rick (Patrick's dad) spoke next and talked about how the date was doubly special because it was also the date he and Patrick's mom got married (which we didn't even realize when we set the date, but which makes me all warm and fuzzy inside when I think about it). Rick talked about how wonderful she was and how happy she'd be to see Patrick in love, and it was so touching--everybody was crying. I wish she were still with us and that I could have met her, and so much more.

Next my dad read an excerpt from Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of Love, as requested, and did a good job with it, as expected. And then things proceeded according to the ceremony, with vows and rings, and kissing! We went with plain gold bands, which I like a lot. There had been discussion about how Tree and Nat should hand us the rings, and it was decided that they would drop the rings into our palms. But then I forgot about that when I actually got the ring from Tree, and I took it from her instead. But I didn't drop it, so I'm happy.

After the kissing, we were married (whee!), and our recessional started (Ella Fitzgerald's From this Moment On), and we walked back into the restaurant, holding hands, and smiling hugely, I'm sure. And it was done, just like that! Our guests mingled on the terrace while Danielle took us out in front of the restaurant for some pictures of us "smooching," as she called it. We were cool with smooching some more :) And then we got to rejoin our guests and enjoy our wedding food and talk to everybody, which I hear doesn't always happen at bigger weddings.

Waiters brought out hors d' oeuvres one at a time--bruschetta, little artichoke quarters, smoked salmon and mascarpone on brioche (yum! The best, in my opinion), and crabcakes. I managed to eat everything without getting any on my dress, though it took some inelegant leaning over and napkin-under-the-chin maneuvers. There was more picture-taking with our family and friends, and then restaurant-goers started to arrive, and we moved up to the arbor area.

We all sat down for lunch around 12:30. Champagne (or sparkling white wine, technically) and water were poured, and Nat gave his best man toast. It was really good--funny and heartfelt and all that good stuff. And then Tree made a toast that was also really great (and she thought it wouldn't be any good! ha!), about how it's important to respect each other even after you're married. And she told a good story about the crazy lady she rented a room from this summer, which supported her point very effectively (I'm very glad it wasn't the story about the dead turkey and the horse trailer!). We picked good attendants and good friends :) And how strange that both of them had long-distance relationships with their spouses this summer, like we did during grad school.

The first course was butternut squash soup with white truffle foam, which was yummy! We hadn't sampled any of the food before the wedding; just chosen it by its description, but it worked out well. Next we had salad--baby field greens with julienne of apple, candied walnuts (yum!), and sherry vinaigrette. I think it was a dandy salad, but not the highlight of the meal. Loved those walnuts though!

Kate (Patrick's older sister) gave an impromptu toast and thanked me for spending so much time with their family (they live in Palo Alto). It was so nice of her; though it's certainly not a sacrifice on my part; I like spending time with them! I'm glad we all get along. And I'm not just saying that because they know about my website now :)

Next up were the entrees. People had a choice of Pan-Seared California Salmon on Basmati Rice with Baby Carrots and Black Caviar Beurre Blanc or Roasted Organic Chicken with Seasonal Mushrooms, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes and Caramelized Onion Confit. I think 14 out of 17 people chose the salmon. Everybody on our side of the table picked it. Crazy! It was really good though, especially the rice and beurre blanc. I love beurre blanc!

All through lunch, I kept noticing how beautiful the view was and thinking how lucky we were to have such a beautiful place to celebrate at, and that we could share the day with our family and friends (though there were many more whom we would've loved to share it with given more money and time). I was glad that all of our guests got along and had plenty to talk about. It was all just so nice.

After lunch, Patrick toasted our guests (he'd come up with some things to say during his sleepless night the night before, while I just worried about everything going right--there's a lesson in there somewhere). I'm glad I have an eloquent husband, because I couldn't have come up with nearly as good and thoughtful a toast.

Then it was time for us to cut our cake (a cute little 3-tiered lemon cake from Edith Meyer, who we recommend heartily). We started out with our backs to our guests, but luckily DeAnna stepped in and suggested we do it the other way, so everybody could see us. I guess she's done this a few times :) We cut a small piece out of the second tier (the first one is in our freezer right now), and fed it to each other without any smashing of cake in the face. It was delicious cake, though the fondant on the outside was overly sugary for me (I guess fondant is more for appearance than flavor anyway). I'm glad our guests got some good pictures of the cake-cutting, since Danielle left around the salad course (which was cool with us).

A waiter took the cake away and cut it up in the kitchen, and everybody got a piece. It seemed to go over well; I'm glad. I wish we had more reasons to get cake from Edith; she was my favorite vendor (though all the vendors were great).

Shortly after the cake, it was time to leave Ventana. Nat and Sara took care of all the miscellaneous things we needed to return and save (the cake stand, cake top, and flower bowls), which was really helpful. Our changing room had been commandeered by the next bridal party (they sounded much larger than ours), but all of our things were in a tidy pile outside of the room, so that was good.

As planned, we all drove over to Pfeiffer Beach, minus my parents and sister. We all drove down the narrow, one-way road to the beach, and when we got there, the ranger warned us that it was very windy on the beach. And indeed it was! I'm so glad we didn't decide to get married there. We stuck around for a few minutes until everybody arrived, and then we parted ways because the wind was extreme! We all planned to meet up for brunch the next day, so we didn't have to say goodbye yet, except to Erin and Nat and Sara. Somewhere in the shuffle between Ventana and beach, we missed out on saying goodbye to my dad, stepmom, sister, and stepdad, but I'm sure they understand. We'll come visit them soon.

Patrick and I drove back to Big Sur Lodge, where we found a present from Tree and Erin--strawberries, chocolates, cookies, and sparkling cider. It was so thoughtful of them! How'd we get such caring friends?

Once we'd relaxed for a little bit, I realized my hairdo wasn't so comfortable anymore, so I began the long and arduous process of taking all the bobby pins out. Patrick was amazed and dismayed by how many were in there. Then I had a nice long shower and got most of my makeup off and my hair back to normal. It was great looking nice all morning, but it was also great just being me again.

With my bridal hair and makeup gone, I decided it was a bit much to wear my wedding dress to dinner, so I wore something a little more casual. We went to Sierra Mar for dinner--our second time there. That place is awesome. While parking, we spotted a group of deer frolicking in their garden. It made me happy (though their gardener might not feel the same way). We got a great table right next to the window (I guess almost all the tables are right next to a window, since the place is full of ceiling-to-floor windows), with plenty of time to watch the sun set over the ocean during dinner.

Oh, dinner. The amuse bouche was a little piece of toast with plugra (fancy butter), chives and watermelon radish, which was delicious (you really can't go wrong with toast and a big hunk of butter, in my book). Patrick had an iced tea to drink, and instead of giving him sugar packets, they gave him a little decanter of simple syrup. Fancy restaurants are fun :) For the first course, I had a foie gras platter (when else do I get to eat such fancy things?) with toast, quince marmalade, cider gastrique, and apple salad. I think I like foie gras, as long as I don't think about where it came from. Patrick had the same thing he had last time: ahi tuna carpaccio with gribiche and quail egg one-eyed susans. Yum!

For the second course, I had saffron seafood soup with rock shrimp, which was in a cute bowl and was tasty! Patrick had a salad with crispy vegetables (including salsify). For the main course, I had mushroom ragout (yum, mushrooms!), and Patrick had a ribeye steak with potato gratin and swiss chard. By dessert, we were really full, but it's a part of the prix fixe menu, so we couldn't skip it! I had a fig-walnut tart, and Patrick had a napoleon with chocolate and possibly caramel ice cream. And then there were the petit fours, which weren't very exciting compared to the rest of the meal--a madeleine, lemon bar, smores-like item, and oatmeal cookie. We couldn't finish them all. How sad!

We had two awesome meals in one day, and I didn't even have to feel guilty about it because it was our wedding day! What a perk :) We left Sierra Mar, petting the kitty in the lobby on the way out (I was hoping it would be there again, since I loved happening upon it the first time we were there). We stopped in the parking lot to admire all the stars (it's such a beautiful place). Then it was back to the Lodge!

Patrick tried to start a fire in the fireplace when we got there, but there were some problems, so we just turned on the heater instead. I still love him :) And so ended our perfect, wonderful wedding day. It really was a great day, thanks to our family and friends and a year of wedding planning. Totally worth it!

(Selected wedding pictures are available here, thanks to Tree/Andrew, Sara, and Rick--professional pictures should be ready in a few weeks)

Okay, let's do this! (All wedding- and honeymoon-related entries are back-dated)

Friday, October 7, 2005
Wedding Eve

I took the day off of work (my co-workers were surprised I hadn't taken more pre-wedding time off) and drove down to Carmel, enjoying the scenery. My favorite route there is just taking Highway 1 the whole time, but on I took Highway 17 over and then Highway 1 the rest of the way, to save time.

The weather in Carmel was beautiful, and I walked around downtown for a little while. I grabbed lunch at a place I'd never seen before--Julihanh. Apparently it opened pretty recently, and I would've walked right by without even noticing it, were it not for their sidewalk chalkboard. It was a really pleasant lunch. I had a ramen-esque dish and thai iced tea. I wish Patrick could've been there too, but he got a ride down with Nat later in the day.

After lunch, I went to Laurie-Ellen, the salon where my hair and makeup artist (Rebecca) is based. I got my first French manicure, which looked very nice, and a pedicure in a very comfy spa chair. Tree and Erin were supposed to meet up with me, but it took longer than expected for them to get there, so we scrapped that plan, and I just picked up nail polish for them at a nearby Rite Aid instead. During the pedicure, Rebecca told me I should shave my toe hair if I was wearing open-toed shoes. I hadn't realized that well-groomed women shaved their toe hair. Anyway, I ignored her suggestion. I'm just not that kind of girl, and it's not that noticeable anyway. The world of beauty remains a mystery to me sometimes.

After getting my nails done (and miraculously not messing them up!), I drove over to Monterey and picked up the flowers for my hair (stephanotis) from Swenson and Silacci (they delivered the other flowers the day of the wedding, but I needed the flowers for my hair before that). They had no trouble locating them, and they even included an extra flower. I like those guys!

The flowers needed to be refrigerated, so I drove straight to Big Sur (I love the views on the drive there, though I prefer being a passenger to actually making the drive myself) and checked into Big Sur Lodge after meeting up with Tree and Erin in the parking lot. Andrew had lent me his tiny fridge, which I plugged in as soon as we got to the room (Big Sur Lodge is all about eschewing modern-day conveniences like phones and refrigerators in favor of getting back to nature, which is fine with me). It was just big enough for the flowers, luckily.

With the flowers chilling, I was free to enjoy Tree and Erin's company. They had brought a bunch of good junk food, like Doritos (two flavors!) and Pirouettes. But it was dinner time, so we headed down to the Big Sur Lodge restaurant and met up with Patrick, Nat, Sara, my mom, Alan, and Lianna. My mom gave us a wedding present from my Auntie Nance--a handmade quilt! It was so beautiful and such a thoughtful gift, and we totally weren't expecting something so labor-intensive. Auntie Nance is my crafty hero :)

We were expecting Andrew to show up for dinner, so we waited for him in the lobby. We roughly rehearsed the ceremony, since all the key players were there. Tree tried calling Andrew to see where he was (he was driving down from the Bay Area), but his cell phone died a few seconds into their conversation. We eventually sat down to dinner and started with some appetizers (calamari, crab cakes, and bruschetta!), and Andrew showed up soon after, to our great relief. Turns out traffic was just really bad. Poor Andrew--it was his birthday! I'm just glad he made it safely.

Dinner was pretty good. Patrick and I both had ravioli with sun-dried tomatoes, which was very filling on top of the appetizers. After dinner we had a special birthday dessert for Andrew. We had planned on obtaining a surprise dessert (with birthday candle) for him, but he pre-empted that by bringing his own cakes from home! We still got to provide the candle though, and we all sang Happy Birthday to him, somewhat against his will. The cakes were awesome--beautiful and delicious. It's too bad we were so full from dinner! There was a raspberry cake and a chocolate cake, but those descriptors don't do them justice. I can't remember where Andrew said he got them. [edit: It was Masse's Pastries--thanks, Andrew!]

After dinner, Patrick and I shared a long kiss goodnight--our last as an unmarried couple! He was off to stay with Andrew for the night at the River Inn, and I had Tree and Erin to keep me company at the lodge.

Tree and Erin painted their nails, and we watched the first few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 1 (they are Buffy fanatics!). I wanted to keep watching it, but we had a big day ahead of us, so we went to bed at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately, we were too full to eat much of the junk food they had brought.

The mini fridge's power adapter had a warning on it that it should only be plugged in for at most 4 hours, which worried me, though Andrew assured me it could be plugged in longer. Despite his assurances, I put the fridge and adapter in our room's fireplace, just in case they caught fire in the middle of the night. Luckily, the fridge ran all night without incident. I slept restlessly, too busy thinking about everything that would take place the next morning (I was still in controlling bride mode, instead of just sitting back and enjoying things).

Both of us had surprise cake meetings today at work (you know, where you think you're going to a meeting but it turns out to be a party with cake and all your coworkers telling you congratulations). We work with nice people :)

My coworkers gave us a crockpot (awesome! I've been thinking it would be nice to have one for awhile, and now we do), and my boss promised me his recipe for crockpot gumbo. Gumbo! They also gave us what I thought was a really thoughtful present: five bottles of wine, one for each of our first five anniversaries, that will mature at the appropriate time (they're numbered so we know which year to drink which bottle). Right now we're not big wine fans (me more than Patrick), but I'll work on enjoying wine, since I'd like to enjoy the present. I was just really touched by the thought they put into it.

Tomorrow we drive down to Monterey, and then the day after that we get married. Whoa! I don't know if I'll have time to post before we leave for our honeymoon, but I'll be back eventually. This is going to be an outstanding couple of weeks :)

There's nothing left on our wedding to-do list, with three days to spare! Of course, we have to pack for our honeymoon tonight, Patrick has his bachelor party in SF tomorrow night, and then we're off to Big Sur on Friday, so we don't have much relaxing time between now and Saturday. But I'm very glad we don't have to rush around at the last minute. I think we've got everything under control, and if not, it's too late to do anything about it now! I'm glad we don't have to wait much longer for the wedding--I'm looking forward both to enjoying the day and to not having to plan it anymore!

Life is good :) I know our wedding day and honeymoon are going to zoom right by, and I'm trying not to feel sad about that in advance, because that's just silly! I'll just try my hardest to soak it all in as it's happening.

I had a wonderful (and small) bachelorette party today--just me, Tree, and Erin. I don't have as much fun around big groups of people, so this was great. First, we had lunch at Legendary Palace in Oakland. I'd never had dim sum before, but luckily Erin knew what she was doing and picked out some good food for us.

Then we got manicures and pedicures at Diva Nails, a few blocks away. It was my first time getting my nails done. I like the way my nails look, though I'm a little worried about cleanliness at nail places after reading some article about a lady who got a fungus from getting a pedicure. But I'm sure that's not a common occurrence, and this place seemed reputable. My toenails are bright red!

We finished our outing by going to see Serenity. I really enjoyed it. I think it would've been enjoyable even if we hadn't watched the TV series (on DVD after the series was cancelled; Patrick and I weren't cool enough to watch it while it was on TV), but that did make it better, since we already had an attachment to the characters.

Then we went back to Tree and Andrew's apartment and hung out with Patrick and Andrew (who had also seen Serenity earlier in the day and had Top Dog instead of dim sum, and no manicures or pedicures). Andrew picked us up some Zachary's pizza for dinner, which was very nice of him.

It was a good day, and nice relaxing bachelorette party. Just the way I like things!

I wanted to make a note that this applesauce recipe is really good, except it has a little too much sugar in it. That could also be because I used old fruit. We had 9 apples stockpiled from weeks of box deliveries. Not a good scene. But now we have lots of too-sweet applesauce stashed in the freezer for the long winter. It's delicious, in small amounts.