Skip to main content

A McDonough Wedding

Saturday, June 25th – Victoria, British Columbia - Day 134 

Wedding Day! We have been talking about this day since February. When talking about our plan for the trip, we kept saying our only goal was to be in Victoria for June 25th to celebrate the wedding of Matthew and Leah. Our morning was beautifying ourselves before heading to the wedding. 

 Upon arrival, we had a last-minute change, John was invited to be the ring bearer. We said yes but Gen felt terrible about the decision; to be a ring boy he should have worn a better outfit and had more practice. None the less, when the wedding started, there was John with rings on a pillow leading the way and closely followed by the four flower girls, Aisling and Charlotte among them. John was great for the first half of the aisle before taking a U-turn and looking for mom. Gen turned him around and got him moving forward again before a second U-turn. Gen tried to put him with the flower girls to keep walking. Eventually he got there. 


Gen felt that she was in the way and should have been wearing a nicer outfit herself. Matthew and Leah did not seem to mind in the least. They reached the front and the love for each other was shown with the heartfelt looks and laughter they shared in private conversations. Afterwards they thanked John, Aisling and Charlotte for a job well done. 


After the wedding, I wanted to find a nice pub to sit down and have a snack before the reception, Gen didn’t like the idea. She wanted to go back to Pat and Leila’s which I wasn’t ecstatic about since it involved a lot of driving with not much time. We settled on going down to the Fisherman’s wharf to get a bite to eat there. This was a poor compromise for everyone; there was no indoor sitting area for us to sit at. At least the food was delicious. 

 Gen realized that she had left her purse at the wedding. We returned to look in the church with no luck. We figured that someone in the wedding would have the wallet and we’d get it at the reception. When we arrived at the hall, no one knew about the purse. Apparently, they had opened the wallet and my credit card was there, so they thought it was their Uncle Dale’s and not Gen’s, a bit of a mix-up. Gen was still fretting about her wallet, so I volunteered to go back to the church to do a more thorough search. I returned in time for dinner. 

 Gen and I had contacted Paolina to inquire about a babysitter for the kids. She was good enough to line up a friend of a friend to help us. It must have been a unique ask to babysit three kids in a trailer in someone’s backyard. I volunteered to drive the kids back to Pat’s after dinner. Speeches were fantastic; I love wedding speeches. 


While I was listening, Pat asked if I minded picking up a cod from his basement fridge when I dropped off the kids; I didn’t ask why he needed a fish, anything for Uncle Pat. The speeches were done, the kids were rowdy, the babysitter was waiting, time to make an exit. I loaded the kids into the car and went back to our backyard oasis. I got the kids in pajamas, grabbed a cod and headed back into downtown Victoria. 

 As soon as I get back, Pat grabs the fish and rushes it in. Matthew was to marry a Newfoundlander and to become an honorary Newfoundlander himself, he needed to kiss a cod and take a shot of Screech, a strong Newfoundland spirit. He was successful and the marriage could continue. The rest of the wedding guests were then invited to become honorary Newfoundlanders as well. The best part of weddings is Gen and I get an opportunity to dance. We had a lot of fun the rest of the evening.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Desert Forest - Part 4

We finally decided to move to our last destination before the sun set. The Arch Rock Nature trail was next. We reached the parking lot and saw the rocks in the distance, we were debating what we wanted to do. We just started moving and once we did, we found ourselves racing down the trail to the rocks. The kids wanted to play monster and once they started running, everyone else was running as well. We had another poo-mergency with no restroom in sight, the evidence is buried in the desert. There was more climbing on the rocks. We took pictures of the sun setting and took a quick look at the Arch rock before starting back to the car.  Gen was behind the wheel, an hour later we were leaving the park’s south entrance. We stopped at the Ranger station to freshen up in the bathroom and fill our water bottles before heading to our campsite. Luckily, the site was the overflow campsite for the park so was minutes from the outside of the park....
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 3

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Our day was shortening already, our next hike, the Grand View Overlook was closed due to a search and rescue operation. Apparently, falls and accidents happen quite a bit at National Parks; Gen looked up the top ten most dangerous parks and Canyonlands wasn’t there (it was number 12).  We got a recommendation to hike the White Rim Overlook trail, a 0.9-mile easy hike. The kids were running out of energy. They made it most of the way and then decided to stop to climb a rock. Gen and I continued the short distance to the canyon edge to see the sights. Canyon after canyon after canyon was what we saw. We stopped to sit and marvel at the scenery as the shadows started to lengthen.   On our drive back, we saw the sun set and we stopped at the visitor centre one more time to see the view from just across the road. I couldn’t get enough canyons; I was in love ...
1 comment
Read more