adrian is rad

Dave before the wedding

I just got back from 10 or 11 days on the east coast (depending whether you count from the time I left or landed, etc). The original reason for the trip was to go to Dave’s wedding, which was over Memorial Day weekend so I just extended it. I flew in and out of Charlotte, where my parents live now, and drove to Southwestern Virginia where the wedding was. (Though, couldn’t it have been in East Virginia so the song would have been applicable?)

The trip felt like four distinct parts parts and I’ll cover some of the highlights:

Pre-wedding:

painting the fauxtobooth

There was plenty of work left to be done when I arrive for the wedding, so most of the wedding party spent the days leading up to the wedding helping out in any number of ways.

We also needed to get the fauxtobooth v2.0–a DIY digital photobooth–up and running. Andy and Randy wrote code, I debugged a circuit and soldered some to fix it, Dave built the photobooth box. We all (plus Crystal!) painted.

no photos at the court house, but I surreptitiously took one of the application for marriage license

There was a lot of delirious laughing about things, about the situation. Dave was going so strong he forgot to eat on Friday and the rest of us didn’t demand food so we ended up eating our first proper meal at 10pm. A fierce-looking spider crawled up my shorts in the car the day before the wedding. My understanding was that I said some funny things in my panic—I was not focused on what I said.

Wedding:

goofy Jeff at the wedding

After four days of getting ready, the wedding was a different tone entirely: fun, relaxed, good times. The officiant was…interesting. For example, I’m not sure I’ve been to a wedding before where the officiant asked the couple to step aside and gave a twenty minute sermon.

But it was a good time. My ‘hardsoul’ playlist on my ipod acted as a makeshift DJ between the jazz trio and the proper DJ. I hope no one was paying attention to the lyrical content because it contained “Don’t Leave Me” by Henry Lumpkin, “Tears of a Clown” by the Miracles and others that weren’t too fitting to a wedding.

I took some photos in the photobooth; I talked and drank and danced with old and new friends.

Driving and wilderness:

abandoned bus near the Blue Ridge Parkway

The day after the wedding, I headed down the Blue Ridge Parkway for a couple days. The rain had barely held off for the wedding and once it was past, the skies opened. The Parkway looks pretty primordial–dense trees covered in lichen and whatnot–even without the rain and fog, but it looked particularly spooky when I was there. It was very still and quiet. Just what I needed.

it was foggy

right outside the door of the lodge I stayed in one night

wildflowers

vista

lichen and trees

The Parkway ends at the Smokey Mountain National Park and I spent half a day there hiking and looking around.

stream in Great Smokey Mountain National Park

On the way out of the park, I passed through Cherokee, NC, which is a really odd town. Lots of old shut-up motels with stylized signs and discount souvenir shops. There’s a new casino being built. I wish I would have stopped to take photos but I felt like being done with driving around at that point, so I went on..

the Lake:

My parents live on a lake north of Charlotte now. Since I’m not on their dime anymore, I guess they’ve decided it’s okay to spoil me because they did in a way that I never saw growing up. It was nice. I didn’t do a lot, which was what I needed. It was really still and quiet in a way that I don’t think one can find in San Francisco.

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