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The Rest of the Wedding Weekend
Jun. 21st, 2009 12:56 pmWe are back home again. The relay back was a quick two-hour trip, car with my mom and Bob to BART, then BART to home. We got in at about 12.30 last night.
Yesterday morning we walked around Gilroy a bit. This was our general plan, to have some quiet time to ourselves between the peopled-ness of the Friday party and the Saturday wedding. We happened to chance upon a nice bike/pedestrian trail down by a creek, and walked that for a while, then cut back into the middle of Gilroy to pick up a snack, then headed back to the hotel to wait for the shuttle to the wedding (which was out at a winery, about 15 minutes from the center of Gilroy).
Though we found that very nice bike trail, I was struck by its lack of use. The only bicyclists we saw in the 30 or 40 minutes we were on that trail were two kids. The people were also few and far between; we saw more homeless people walking the trail (all in one clump) than other folks. But then, Gilroy was generally very pedestrian unfriendly. We didn't even have sidewalks all the way from downtown to our hotel. So if anything, I guess it's the existence of the bike trail at all that's weird, not its lack of use.
Beyond that, Gilroy is considerably more built up than last time I was there. And by built up, I mean strip-mall-strip-mall-strip-mall. US consumerism at its worst. At least that was a marked contrast to the back trails we took, just a mile or two further west. I plan to do some more research on Gilroy to see if I can find any maps of the trails there and northward, as it might be fun to plan a couple of days of biking vacation in and about the Gilroy and San Jose areas (with bike accessability provided by BART & CalTrain, which together can get us down there on a week day).
We took a shuttle up to the wedding at 3pm. There was a bit of chaos because there were two different shuttles, and they weren't exactly on the same page. Once we got up there, Kimberly and I started helping to sort wedding favors. I did my best to be very helpful all weekend, remembering how hectic things can be for a wedding. It seemed to be well appreciated (especially my help the previous day, setting up things for the wedding rehearsal party).
The actual ceremony started at 4.30. Very promptly. I got grabbed at the last minute to walk my mom, the mother of the groom, up the aisle as part of the wedding party. There'd apparently been confusion about who was supposed to do that task, since my other brother, Rob, was the best man. It was totally no big deal, and I was happy to do, but my mom thought it was. Given that I'd been married nine years previous (and stood up for a couple of my friends at their weddings, for that matter), I didn't even think twice about this.
(Glad I got a new suit coat and shirt for the wedding though!)
The ceremony was short, original, and nice. I particularly liked their vows, which they wrote themselves. Especially Lisa's, which had a few funny bits in it. I didn't know she was funny, but then I barely know my new sister-in-law. I told Jason toward the end of the evening that we should really get together, the four of us, as couples. I hope they'll take us up on that, especially as we're nowadays their closest relatives, given that they live about an hour north of us.
After that there was pictures, appetizers, toasts, dinner, and dancing. Kimberly and I danced quite a bit. It's the first time we've danced in years, and it was quite nice. She was a little reluctant, even though she'd been talking about really looking forward to the dancing, but once she got onto the floor, she seemed to have fun. We also got to have some nice dinner conversation with my Uncle Dale and with Mike T., probably my favorite of Bob's relatives, as he lived with us for a bit when I was growing up. We're going to hopefully get together to do some biking out in Contra Costa county this yaer.
Overall it was a beautiful and romantic day. Jason and Lisa both looked so happy, and it of course reminded me of my wedding too. When all was said and done, we cleared out of the winery about 10pm, and my Mom and Bob were kind enough to give us a ride straight up to BART, so that we could sleep in our own bed, with our own cats, last night.
Yesterday morning we walked around Gilroy a bit. This was our general plan, to have some quiet time to ourselves between the peopled-ness of the Friday party and the Saturday wedding. We happened to chance upon a nice bike/pedestrian trail down by a creek, and walked that for a while, then cut back into the middle of Gilroy to pick up a snack, then headed back to the hotel to wait for the shuttle to the wedding (which was out at a winery, about 15 minutes from the center of Gilroy).
Though we found that very nice bike trail, I was struck by its lack of use. The only bicyclists we saw in the 30 or 40 minutes we were on that trail were two kids. The people were also few and far between; we saw more homeless people walking the trail (all in one clump) than other folks. But then, Gilroy was generally very pedestrian unfriendly. We didn't even have sidewalks all the way from downtown to our hotel. So if anything, I guess it's the existence of the bike trail at all that's weird, not its lack of use.
Beyond that, Gilroy is considerably more built up than last time I was there. And by built up, I mean strip-mall-strip-mall-strip-mall. US consumerism at its worst. At least that was a marked contrast to the back trails we took, just a mile or two further west. I plan to do some more research on Gilroy to see if I can find any maps of the trails there and northward, as it might be fun to plan a couple of days of biking vacation in and about the Gilroy and San Jose areas (with bike accessability provided by BART & CalTrain, which together can get us down there on a week day).
We took a shuttle up to the wedding at 3pm. There was a bit of chaos because there were two different shuttles, and they weren't exactly on the same page. Once we got up there, Kimberly and I started helping to sort wedding favors. I did my best to be very helpful all weekend, remembering how hectic things can be for a wedding. It seemed to be well appreciated (especially my help the previous day, setting up things for the wedding rehearsal party).
The actual ceremony started at 4.30. Very promptly. I got grabbed at the last minute to walk my mom, the mother of the groom, up the aisle as part of the wedding party. There'd apparently been confusion about who was supposed to do that task, since my other brother, Rob, was the best man. It was totally no big deal, and I was happy to do, but my mom thought it was. Given that I'd been married nine years previous (and stood up for a couple of my friends at their weddings, for that matter), I didn't even think twice about this.
(Glad I got a new suit coat and shirt for the wedding though!)
The ceremony was short, original, and nice. I particularly liked their vows, which they wrote themselves. Especially Lisa's, which had a few funny bits in it. I didn't know she was funny, but then I barely know my new sister-in-law. I told Jason toward the end of the evening that we should really get together, the four of us, as couples. I hope they'll take us up on that, especially as we're nowadays their closest relatives, given that they live about an hour north of us.
After that there was pictures, appetizers, toasts, dinner, and dancing. Kimberly and I danced quite a bit. It's the first time we've danced in years, and it was quite nice. She was a little reluctant, even though she'd been talking about really looking forward to the dancing, but once she got onto the floor, she seemed to have fun. We also got to have some nice dinner conversation with my Uncle Dale and with Mike T., probably my favorite of Bob's relatives, as he lived with us for a bit when I was growing up. We're going to hopefully get together to do some biking out in Contra Costa county this yaer.
Overall it was a beautiful and romantic day. Jason and Lisa both looked so happy, and it of course reminded me of my wedding too. When all was said and done, we cleared out of the winery about 10pm, and my Mom and Bob were kind enough to give us a ride straight up to BART, so that we could sleep in our own bed, with our own cats, last night.