Instead of celebrating Thanksgiving last weekend, we went to the US for John's nephew Tom's wedding to Keally, a lovely American girl he'd met in Athens, Georgia a few years ago when he was cycling there.
It was an amazing weekend for so many reasons: to celebrate the wedding of two great young people, to catch up with almost all of the Nank family, and to meet and get to know Keally's family.
I think I'll just go with posting heaps of photos, most of it is self-explanatory.
We flew to Vancouver (4 hours and 4,600 km), then picked up a hire car for the 180 km drive to Gig Harbor, which is just south of Seattle in Washington State, in the Pacific Northwest.
Here's the US border. Crossing it took much longer than we expected. It was a fairly busy weekend and we had to queue to go through US Customs.
We then had to tackle heavy traffic at several spots on the journey, including hitting the Boeing shift changeover where 40,000 cars all enter and exit one part of the freeway.
Eventually, 14 hours after leaving home, we arrived at Gig Harbor. I can't believe it, but I don't think I took any photos of the town and harbour, so you'll have to take my word that it is a picturesque maritime town. After a dinner with most of the two families at Keally's parents place on Friday night, we had time for a quick look around town before driving another hour west to Alderbrook. What a setting.
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| Tall trees everywhere, reflected in the architecture |
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| Our cottage |
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| Across Hood canal |
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| Keally at the bridal shower on the morning of the wedding |
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| The lobby |
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| Jamaican steel drums - fantastic!! |
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| even the baby looked fabulous! |
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| skippidy skip! |
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| dinner |
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| the lovely couple |
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| looking back from the jetty |
We might have travelled a long way, but so did nearly everyone else. As well as Australia, Keally had family come from Georgia, Northern California, South Carolina and Virginia. Have a look at a map of the US to see how far they all came! And the week before the wedding Sean got really really sick and had to be hospitalised, so that he and Bill didn't know until he last minute whether he'd be able to make it. As you can see, they did, but missed Disneyland and flew straight to Seattle the day before we arrived. Whew!
However it all had to end and the next day (Monday) we got up and did it all in reverse, with plenty of time to spare (whew!). Home at midnight, exhausted. But happy.
Wow Angela. You all look great. What a gorgeous spot for a wedding and looks like you had a great time. I have just found your blog... I've been emailing (not sure successfully) but I'll copy and paste our news (not riveting) below in case.
ReplyDeleteHi there, Angela, John, Silas and Clunie. I guess you are now well and truly Cnuks! Thought of you cos Will has his intro to Wesley on 12 November so I have to think about uniforms, books and all that stuff..
All's well this end. Getting ready for the sweet 16 birthday bash.. Sophie has organised a dance party (I am hyperventilating of course!) - come as a film title! 30 invited... Should be good fun though. It's Will's year off parties so we might take him and a friend to dinner at Thai by night and allow him an overnight stay (generous!). Sophie breaks up on 1 December which I think is hideously early and I've told her I don't want to see her around the house too much (read not at all!). She needs to organise tennis or bike rides - something useful - definitely not lounging around inside. Will breaks up at a sensible time - 17 Dec. I might head off with them to Adelaide for a few days R& R then and see my rellies before Xmas. Not sure. We've got the normal round of silly season activities in the lead up no doubt, but it's a good excuse to catch up with some friends we only seem to get a chance to see once a year. You know how it is.
After Xmas, Ian and Sophie have a hot date to the Boxing Day test (cricket) then after that from 2-12 Jan, I've booked us into the Apollo Bay Youth Hostel which we really enjoy. We're going to Allanvale as part of the 20 who normally go around Australia Day weekend then back to school and the usual merry go round.
So that's our social calendar to the end of the holidays. You no doubt will be bundling up ready for the skoodoo-ing and ski season and a white Xmas...
xxxx Cathy