Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 6:Alicia and Luey Get Married!)

Saturday July 23, 2011 Alicia Hazard and Luial Gilbert got married.  It was a beautiful ceremony at the Owasco Country Club on my favorite place next to Fenway Park, Owasco Lake.  It was a short ceremony but the tears were flowing and you could easily see how much these two love each other.  Despite the excessive heat it was a perfect late afternoon.

The maid-of-honor gave the greatest 'speech' I have ever heard at a wedding and I have been to a TON of weddings.  She did a rap to the tune of "Ice, Ice, Baby" and it was phenomenal!  It was the first time that I have ever seen the best man's speech be filled with more sentiment and less humor (albeit there was still a lot of humor in his) than the maid-of-honor.

Once the laughter died down it was time to eat!  The food was great, the DJ rocked, there was no drama and everyone had a good time.  The DJ even said that the next time our family had a wedding he wanted to be invited because he had never seen a family get so crazy out on the dance floor!!!  With an open bar we were worried that our normal "finish every beer on sight" challenge would be tarnished.  But our very large family and very thirsty friends were up for it and we successfully drained the Owasco Country Club of all of their beverages!  Absolutely classic...

With the beer gone and the party dying down there was really only one more thing to do, cake fight!  I may have started this one by putting cake into my sister's face.  I was then on the receiving end and was soon realizing that there were a number of different cake fights taking place!  We all headed back to the hotel for the after party and even though everyone else wanted to go to bed around 2:00AM I didn't want to.  I knew that going to bed meant my vacation was over and that it would be another entire year until I would get a chance to spend time with all of these people that I love spending time with.  I know they probably don't realize it but I cherish every moment I get to spend on that lake, in that town, and with each and every one of them.

It's very hard to say goodbye to my NY family so I had to just take off in the AM without seeing anyone.  But even as hard as it is saying goodbye to my distant family it was even harder saying goodbye to my immediate family.  This was a very long vacation and I started to become comfortable being back with everyone I'm so familiar with.  The toughest part was knowing that I might not be back to the east coast for another full year. 

I flew out of Logan at 7:30 and arrived in San Francisco around 11:00PM  I then had to wait for a train and got my 2 hour drive underway.  I arrived home in Monterey a little before 3:00AM and was at work at 7:30.  I was absolutely exhausted but it was well worth it and one of the best vacations I have had in a long time.

Until next year New England!