It's Been One Week
Wow, a week without writing a new post… maybe the novelty is wearing off? Perhaps... but I have been quite busy since the last entry. Dan and I went to Sacramento to attend Ruth and Eric’s wedding last weekend. We dropped off Gander first thing in the morning at Camp Happy Paws. He headed straight for the gate to the dog enclosure the moment we let him out of the car and he did not even look back at us! I knew right away that he was going to have a great time there (and he sure did!).The flight to Sacramento was uneventful, but I was definitely surprised when we arrived at the airport. I assumed that the capital of the biggest and richest state in the U.S. would have a nice airport, but the terminal we arrived at reminded me a lot of the one in Rhodes, Greece – a very small and blah airport which looked like it was built in the 60’s and was never renovated. Even the exterior of the airport hotel across the road looked like it was from the 60’s. The only thing that made it look ‘modern’ was the Starbucks sign!!
The airport is approximately 30 minutes from the hotel according to Streets and Trips; it would have cost $70 for a cab ride, so we went the cheap way and took the shuttle ($47 including tips). Big mistake!! We waited almost 25 minutes just to get on a shuttle; bad traffic along with 3 other stops before our hotel made a 30+ minute trip into an almost 2-hour ride. We should have taken the cab! We barely had time to get changed and be ready for the ‘rehearsal dinner’. We were not in the wedding party, but Ruth and Eric were very nice and invited us and other out-of-town guests to a Chinese banquet the night before the wedding. Pat, Nikki and Mike were there as well and I got to meet Nikki’s boys, Ethan and Jake, for the first time. It was great to see them and we all had a good time catching up and hanging out. The food was excellent and I definitely ate too much!! After dinner, I was invited to help at the ‘flower party’; but all I did was watch Nikki put the bouquets together and a bit of TV.
I got up early the next morning to help a little bit with setting up the tables for the reception/lunch. And then I went back upstairs to get ready. The ceremony was outdoors, but because it was in the morning and we were in the shade, it was not hot at all and the ceremony was very nice. Immediately after the ceremony was the reception/lunch. I guess because the hotel caters to many weddings each day, they were on a tight schedule – the D.J. played no more than 4 songs after the first dances and he announced the last song… and before we knew it, the lights were turned on (they were dimmed for the event) and we were ‘kicked out’.
I took a bit of a nap afterwards and then we met up with Nikki, Mike and their children and Pat to check out the Historic Town of Folsom, which was just across the road from the hotel. That turned out to be bit of a disappointment. The historic part of town consists of essentially one street; by the time we got there around 5 p.m., most of the stores were closed or were closing. Most of the restaurants were lunch restaurants only, so they were closed as well. The chocolate factory/confectionary was open though, so we went in and got some candy. We ran into Eric’s brother and cousins, so we decided to go to the pizza place together, since that seemed to be the only restaurant open. Once we sat down, we saw Ruth’s parents and 2 of her sisters coming in as well!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and sat out on the patio with Nikki and her family for a while chatting. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them and the children were adorable! We had an early night because we had to leave early the next day; so even though it was a fairly short get-together, it was the quality that counts.
We arrived in Seattle around 11 a.m. on Sunday and we went to pick up Gander from camp on the way home. We were told he behaved very well during his stay and his best buddy there was a Boxer (he seems to enjoy playing with other Labs, Boxers and Great Danes the most). He crashed after getting home and so did Dan and I after we had a bite to eat! The entire family had a nice nap together in the living room until it was time for us to go out to meet Naomi and Mark for dinner before ‘The King and I’.
We had dinner at Sazerac and it was great to finally meet Mark. The food was pretty good and I even managed to have room for dessert after having soup and pasta! I also had wine with dinner and I was concerned that I would fall asleep during the show! But there was no risk of me falling asleep – the show was great!! I only remember bits of the musical which I saw when I was very little; so I was surprised at how many songs I recognized! It was a great show and very entertaining! At the end of the show, the lead actress, Stephanie Powers (from Hart to Hart) offered to match any donations we made to help Katrina-affected animals after the show. So we did our part and gave a small donation on our way out.
For some reason, I was scheduled to work just 1 day after having 4 days off and then I get another 2 days off! So I spent today going to the dog park, grocery shopping and cooking. I tried out a couple of new recipes, including Seared Beef Tenderloin with Sun-dried Tomato Butter. Everything turned out really well. I spent more than 3 hours in the kitchen and barely noticed it!! I also made Apple and Raisin Crumble to consume some of the apples we got from Chelan. The crumble crust still did not work out as I have hoped, so I think I will have to try something totally different next time…perhaps I will use oatmeal instead of flour…
Tomorrow, I have more plans to try new recipes. I also have to get the guest room ready for Nick, Vicki and her sister’s family. They are arriving late Thursday night in order to catch a plane from Sea-Tac to Arizona early next day… I probably won’t see them since I have to go to bed early Thursday night in order to make it to practice Friday morning. Perhaps on their way back…
posted by Anne-Gigi @ 9:07 PM
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