Jake’s wedding was this Saturday – at 10:30 in morning. Friday after work I picked up Kim around 4PM from Eco Encore and we headed down to Portland through the absolutely horrendous traffic (I loath Tacoma more every time I go through). There we met up with Travis at his new place. We ate dinner at one of the many McMenamins restaurants while we waited for Jesse and Deborah to meet us. I didn’t know there were so many of them but we saw at least 3 in Portland. Jesse and Deborah and Travis and Kim and I all piled into my Subaru around 9PM to drive the remaining 5 and-a-half hours to Jake’s house.
I haven’t done a car trip with a lot of people in a long time and it was a lot of fun. We talked and listened to music. Kim tried to sleep, but it was pretty hopeless. We finally pulled into Jake’s parents’ house at 2:30 in the morning and walked around back to sleep in some tents.
The next morning we woke up early and ate a nice breakfast that Jake’s mom and Sherri cooked for us. A lot of the other people who would be at the wedding were there, but we didn’t meet any of Jake’s brothers or his groomsmen.
Nobody seemed to have very many details on the wedding, including directions to the wedding site. Jake’s dad gave us directions of turn right at the stop sign, left at Eagle Point, and right into the church. I guess when you’re in rural southern Oregon and there aren’t many roads those directions will do.
We found the church okay and sat with Anna, Phil, Jacob and Waleska. There was a slide show of Jake and his fiance Kimmy before the ceremony. Lots of cute photos of Kimmy and lots of photos of Jake making faces and doing funny things. We didn’t have a very good view for the ceremony so I’m not sure completely what happened in some parts. The minister seemed to know them both well and it was a fairly informal speech. Jake wore his navy uniform with a sword and Kimmy was dressed in the usual white wedding dress. Their vows to each other were unusual in the sense that they seemed, shall we say, old fashioned. Kim’s vows to Jake involved promises to obey and pleasure.
The reception was just outside the church. The bride and groom made their appearance, said hi to everyone briefly, and then left. We ate ice cream and then everyone else left too, Phil and Anna straight back to Seattle, and Jacob, his dad and Waleska to the coast, so it seemed time to pile back into the car…
We figured we’d stop by Crater Lake since we were so close. Being the deepest lake in the U.S. just meant that we had to swim in it, so we hiked down the steep trail to the only lake access. The water was cold, but not as cold as most mountain lakes. Kim was actually enjoying the water and not feeling cold – until she started to shiver and feel a tad hypothermic.
More driving, more driving, more driving, stopped for dinner and to see Kim’s friend Matt in Eugene, more driving, more driving, Portland and Travis’s place for the night. Everyone else went to sleep, but I was still a little wired from driving so Travis and I went out for a few drinks.
Deborah treated us to breakfast the next morning. We had planned to go to Multnomah Falls, but I was exhausted and wanted to get home. More driving, more driving, stand-still traffic… More driving.