LA Wedding

Congrats TJ and Pia!! Best wishes on your honeymoon in Vietnam!

There are Pictures here to share with anyone who would like to see. I think it went over well the last time I used Snapfish to share photos with y'all so I'll do it again.

Hazel and I flew to California last Thursday. We rented a car and drove north to see Pitzen, one of my good college buddies who is living and working in Bakersfield (about 2 hours north of LA). Bakersfield is in the middle of nowhere, but the drive through the mountains of Southern California is a unique one. Until you get to the last mountain and then it's as flat as can be through the desert till you get to Bakersfield. We did see a lot of fruit trees (oranges, pears, apples, as well as many grape vineyards) which is definitely not something you see in the Mid West.

Spent Thursday and Friday with Pitzen - through the uncharacteristic Thunderstorms on Friday (including a 2+ hour power outage) and lots of rain. Not exactly what I was thinking Sunny California would be like. Brian showed us around Bakersfield and it was nice to hang out for the 2 days we were there. We learned how fast people drive out there, how expensive gas is, and how people in that area also hate the Yankees and Mets!

Saturday morning we made the return drive to LA and went all the way to downtown Los Angeles. I find it ironic that I knew what the downtown of LA looks like from the movies (has the one tallest building that looks similar to the tallest building in Minneapolis), but when we actually were driving/walking around downtown... most of the movies take place in the "burbs" of LA.

We stayed at the Biltmore hotel which was conveniently located for the wedding - other than the steep nasty hill that we had to walk up in our dress shoes to get to the church! The Biltmore was used many times in the 30s-40s to host the Oscars and there are many pictures of the celebrities of the times enjoying the Academy Award dinner and ceremony at the hotel. Makes you wonder what famous people have shared the room we stayed in?? Don't usually get that thought when staying at some of these hotels in the MidWest weddings:) There are a lot of pictures of the Biltmore from the inside and outside in my photo album.

On the way to the Church, we walked past the Walt Disney Concert Hall which is an incredibly designed structure by Frank Gehry. I was happy to see it after my recent reading and interest into Gehry's designs and how unique they are. It really is a magnificent structure.

The main Cathedral in LA is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. What a beautiful place! The wedding didn't even come close to using the entire space, but it was an honor to be part of a ceremony there. There was a 5+ second reverb from the organ which caused me to become speechless which is very rare. It was a long walk for their little legs, but JP and Caroline joined us in the front for the wedding.

The reception was about a block away from the hotel which made it wonderful to go back and forth without needing a cab or a car. It was an elegant reception that was 100% reserved for the wedding reception. The upstairs had a balcony around the entire main dancing area which provided for a fun atmosphere. Dinner was good, the toasts were made (with emotion and good words of wisdom). It should also be noted that there was no wedding cake, just wedding cupcakes that were AWESOME!!! Easily the best cupcake I've ever had (I had the velvet cake one) Then the dance came!!! Instead of the chicken dancing, electric slide dancing DJ that we are all accustomed to seeing, this DJ was more of a professional. Everything was mixed to give it the club feel, instead of the wedding dance feel. Plus I don't think he played a single song on my list of "Songs that I now hate because they are overplayed at every wedding". This was one of the better dances I've been to in all of my wedding attendances.

Sunday morning we had brunch with everyone at the California Yacht Club. Hazel and I made a special trip to walk out to the Ocean and Venice Beach. It was a beautiful morning to walk out to see the Pacific Ocean. We said our goodbyes and unknowingly began our 2 day trip back to Rochester.

There, that's the wedding of my cousin TJ and his new wife Pia in a nutshell! Enjoy the photos!

Song of the Day - I hope everyone watched the end of the Bears comeback last night. An exciting game and it was the first full MNF game that I've seen this year. I did think it was weird some of their song selection when they go in and out of commercials. A lot of U2 (repeated as necessary) but also they used Johnny Cash - Ring of Fire for a game in Arizona. Whatever works for them I guess. I'll try to put on some Johnny Cash for everyone today!

Video of the Day - Not on purpose, while at Brian's in Bakersfield - we watched the classic movie Dazed and Confused which Hazel had never seen before. She is correct in saying "this movie has no plot" but I'm not sure she fully grasped the humor of the movie. Maybe you have to see it 20 times while enjoying some beers to fully appreciate that movie. Either way, we never realized that while watching the movie with Adam Goldberg in it, that we would meet him at the wedding on Saturday. Along with Pia's sister Christina who was also in attendance (of course!). Hazel was probably the 3rd most famous person at the wedding that day.

Webpage of the Day - In anticipation of the new Nintendo Wii..... try your luck at naming some of the old school NES games from my youth. Spelling matters so be careful. Hazel was not as impressed at how well I did on this game as I was hoping she would be.