Cross Country (and Back) Trip Completion

7-5-12 Alameda, CA

It seems like so much has happened since last time, yet when I list everything out the list isn't that long. 
Drive to Cleveland.
Hang out in Vermilion, OH.
Get Married.
Fly back to Oakland, CA.
At the risk of boring most people who are reading this, who coincidentally are the same people who were a part of the majority of the above events, I'll try to keep it short.

After our drive to Cleveland we commenced about 2 weeks of doing very little, yet always seeming to be busy.  This wedding planing stuff is a full time job and I have a new respect for anyone who can plan a wedding and stay employed.  The constant feeding of Brian and Elizabeth continued as it had since we first saw the Grandparents Ridgley a few weeks ago.  Somehow we found some time to relax and enjoy the area.

We discovered the "third Thursday" events of Vermilion and enjoyed listening to the many bands scattered around downtown Vermilion.  After indulging in more than 1 beverage Elizabeth found some nice hand crafted coffee mugs at the art studio that called to her. So we bought them and promptly packaged them up to be put into storage for the next year.

Sunset over Lake Erie from Vermilion

We spent a day at Cedar Point riding roller coaster after roller coaster.  The lines were all short and we just walked on to a couple of the rides.  Perhaps that was due to the stifling 95+ degree heat and 112% humidity.  We had fun conquering the roller coasters anyway.

We watched the sun set many evenings.

Ultimately, all of the work ourselves and our families put into the wedding weekend came together with our wedding on June 30th at Chez Francois in Vermilion, OH. The wedding went perfectly; or at least as perfect as a wedding put together in 2 months from 2000 miles away, at a restaurant no one had eaten at, with an officiator we found on the Internet, where we weren't sure the Maid of Honor could make it due to cancelled flights until 6 hours before the wedding, with absolutely no rehearsal and to top it off the spinach crop was damaged by some high winds and drought and this combined with something to do with farmers resulted in no spinach salads; could go.  In all honestly it did go amazingly and we want to make sure to thank everyone who came to help us celebrate the day and especially thank everyone who helped us make it such a great success and memorable event.  I mean really, before this I didn't even know what an Amuse Bouche course was, or that a tiny dish of Hearts of Palm garnished with spring of "micro greens" could be so delicious.

The finished product looks great

The wedding experience would be lacking if you didn't get to hear the story of the baby Christmas cactus and their little pots.  As a tribute to Elizabeth's love of plants and to do something thoughtful and memorable as a wedding favor we decided to plant 50 little baby Christmas cactus' in little pots coated with chalkboard paint and use chalk to write the persons name on them as a place card.  The first hurdle was that Elizabeth wanted the baby X-mas cactus to be from the original mother plant she had in Reno.  Conveniently enough her brother Geoff had an offspring of the mother that Elizabeth had given him in the past.  He graciously donated 50 little sprigs of cactus and started growing them four weeks before we showed up in Evansville.  All we needed to do was paint some little pots and plant them.  The search started for little pots and took us to at least 5 different locations before suitable pots were found.  Then we experimented with different paints.  Cheap spray paint, expensive spray paint and ultimately Brian got the opportunity to paint them by hand (twice) with a little foam brush and the chalk board paint.  In case you we wondering that took forever.  Then we had to decide on a color for the bases.  More driving around looking for colors and then the bases.  At least these got spray painted.  Elizabeth then planted 50 of these little things. You may notice from the picture that there is a little card and stick completing the presentation.  You would think that was easy, but no.  Finding little sticks to hold the cards was a challenge that Elizabeth and her mom eventually solved.  Then the little cards needed special paper so they wouldn't get wrinkled when you slid them onto the sticks. Card-stock was found and then the design was finalized and printed.  Elizabeth's mom donated some work time to cut them all out. So now we are in Evansville, IN with 50 little X-mas cactus that need to get to Cleveland, OH.  We somehow made that happen and transported the planted pots to Cleveland without killing any of them.  Once in Vermilion the names were added with chalk.  The final operation in this saga is to place each of these pots in front of the place setting of each person who would be attending the wedding and insert the little stick.  So four hours before my wedding I find myself desperately running around the restaurant placing little pots in front of place settings, trying to guess who would like to sit near who and making sure each table has the right people at it per the seating chart.  Somehow it all came together and they looked really nice, unique and memorable.  With any luck everyone in attendance will take their X-mas cactus home and watch it grow.  Eventually they will bloom each winter and someone else will see it and comment on how pretty it is.  And then they will break off a little sprig and plant it for one of their Friends.  So the story of the Reno Christmas cactus will evolve.

To complete the trip around most of the USA, we packed up our stuff and flew back to Oakland on Tuesday July 3.  Arriving in Oakland, CA it was hard to believe that the 2 checked bags and 4 carry ons were all that reamined of all the stuff we brought back to the midwest from Reno only a month ago.  With our trip East completed, it's time to start planning the trip South.