Recently I went out to the beautiful west coast for a wedding. It was a sort of crazy trip from the last minute travel arranging on my end, to me being sort of crazy stressed for a little bit when I first got there. Once I took a breather, however, it ended up being a nice mini vacation! It was the first time I've rented a car myself, so that was a new experience in and of itself. First, I want to thank Alan and Megan for choosing such an amazing spot for their wedding!
The Skamania Lodge is a beautiful destination resort hotel. Even cast members of the Shining stayed there while they were filming. It was an awesome place and I had a wonderful time, however, with better planning on my part, it would have been *superb*. See- I didn't do too much research on the area when I booked my tickets, or I might have spent a whole week there! I did book a horseback riding tour. However, when I got to the hotel it turns out the horseback ride was a 45 minute drive from the hotel. I enjoyed my cute little black Toyota Corolla, but after an hour in the car already, I wanted some rest, but decided to try and make the horseback riding anyways. After checking in, I ordered a picnic lunch from their golf course cafe that I was planning on taking with me for the 45 minute drive. After wandering around not sure I was in the right place, I walked into the golf store. My conversation with the staff in the shop went something like this, including them trying to be helpful and me standing there freaking out for no reason:
"Um where do I pick up my picnic lunch?"
"Picnic lunch? I'm not sure what you mean."
"ACK I ordered one from somewhere from my hotel room I'm running late OMG"
"Um..."
"Isn't there a cafe here somewhere? I'm so confused!! gahhhh"
"Oh, yes the Green Peace cafe is right through that door. I'm sorry- I've never heard people ordering picnic lunches there before. How nice."
At this point I'm running around almost hyperventilating, wanting to make the horse back riding in time. I get in the car after getting my lunch, and drive for five minutes through the little town of Stevenson. At that point I'm trying to eat my chicken wrap and not get it all over the clean rental car. Still stressed. Still kinda crazy. I decide what I really need, is some good ol' R & R. What am I doing driving away from a resort? Hello, Jessie......
I head back into town, parallel park very nicely on the street and eat my yummy picnic lunch outside in the sun. Then I get some ice cream from "Granny's Gedunk". I had no idea what a "gedunk" was until I read the shop's bio on the wall. Cute. Nice ice cream too.
After that I headed back to the hotel to shower and get some rest and TV watching in before the wedding at 4. In the end it all worked out and I even had friends right across the hall to pre-party with!
The ceremony was absolutely lovely. I am not sure if it was the very heartfelt vows, the sun and wind assaulting my eyes because I had forgotten my sunglasses, or a combination of all of it, but my eyes were tearing up for most of it. Pathetic emotional girl moment. I suppose sometimes those are OK, however. Especially at a wedding of two people so perfectly matched for each other like Alan and Megan.
After the ceremony, we all chowed down on some awesome appetizers, including the best bruscetta I have ever had and lots of kinds of meats. The carnivore in me was very happy and excited.
After this, everyone headed inside for the awesome sit down dinner, with wonderful, heart felt toasts and more yummy, rockin' food. I enjoyed chatting with everyone at my table very much, and even had some fun dancing before being so tired I had to go to my room and sleep. Before leaving, however, I made sure to complete my square of the well-wishes wedding quilt that was one of the sweetest ideas ever.
The next day I woke early and came back to Colorado, rested, rejuvenated, and ready to get back to work. At least until my next vacation.....
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