Road Trip Recap: Dreamy and Romantic



That’s how I’ll describe my cousin’s wedding. It was a perfect October day, a beautiful setting, and happiness was in the air. 

They were married outside in a simple ceremony, and then moved the party inside.
Isn’t the cake pretty? The photos all 
around the cake were photos of family weddings–mostly, brides and grooms cutting their cakes. Clever, eh? 
MAM discovered how yummy Shirley Temples 
are, and had fun dancing. She also really enjoyed reading 
books in
 a little lobby outside the reception hall. I’m sure there will be a day where I wish she was do
ing more reading and less 

dancing….but it was pretty funny to watch. She heard the song, “Funkytown” and came to our table and said, 
 “Shrek has that song!” and then went back to her book in the lobby (we could see the lobby from the table, which was perfect). Junior enjoyed the music, I think, and flirting with all the pretty girls. BgK and I enjoyed our selves too. 
And the bride and groom? They were glowing. Just glowing. Don’t you think they glow??
Their first dance was, “Follow You Follow Me” by Genesis, and I have to say, that after really listening to the lyrics, it’s a great wedding song! 
Our first dance was “Kick in the Head” by Dean Martin. That tells you something our romantic relationship, doesn’t it?!?! 
What was your first dance at your wedding??? Please do tell!! (and Sitemeter tells me there has 
been much lurking and not much commenting lately….)

 

Road Trip Recap: Friday and Saturday

Our little fall vacation/road trip went swimmingly well, and now we are back home. I had all sorts of good intentions to post on the road (thus the test of blogger mobile), but that sort of fell by the way side as road trip fun took over. 

We left Friday with one destination in mind: the Jersey Shore for my youngest cousin’s wedding. The kids did amazingly well in the car–it was a looooonnnggg day, but fun. As MAM would say, “everybody’s all together!”, and it was good. 
Saturday we visited my friend, Lucy the Elephant. I remember going there as a kid, and I’m glad we got to take our kids. How often do you see quality Zoomorphic architecture such as this??? The stairs up were incredibley steep, but we made it to the top, where there was an ocean view, as well as into the belly of the elephant, where we learned more about Lucy than any one person would ever need to know. 
Saturday night we had dinner with my college roommate and her family–they drove down from MA since we were going to be in the neighborhood. How awsome is that? She has twin three year olds, a boy and a girl. MAM got along with them famously and they were three peas in a pod. 
That’s it for now…the wedding deservers its own post, as does our trip home. More soon.

Thursday Thirteen: A 21st Century Road Trip


Today I am packing for a long weekend on the East Coast. I’ve done the drive dozens of time growing up and as a 20-something, but this pilgrimage to mecca, the state of my birth, the motherland that is New Jersay is a first for BgK and the children.  I got to thinking that this month marks 27 yrs for my parents as transplants to Indiana, and also the 27th anniversary of driving back and forth. Here are 13 things we’re taking tomorrow that my family didn’t have on that first trek:

1.) Airbags. Ok, we;re nit packing them, Dodge already packed them for us in the van we’re renting. Not an option on the ’76 Buick Skylark back in the day.
2.) A booster seat. By today’s standards, my brother probably should have been in one in 1981. MAM is in one now, so obviously, it’s hitting the road with us!
3.) An Ipod. The Buick had a lot of features, but only an AM/FM tuner. As a special surprise, my parents bought me and my brother tape recorders for the trip. This was before the popularity of Walkmans, so picture one of those heavy-duty dealios–needing 6 C batteries, and weighing more than any laptop today. We listened to Grease and Disco Mickey Mouse til the batteries were dead!
4.) An I-PASS for drive-through tolling. Mom and Dad had to actually stop the car and pay the attendant in Ohio.
5.) A GPS unit. Mom and Dad had to carry a cumbersome map!
6.) Bottled water, juice boxes, milk boxes. I have no memory of what we drank on the trip, but it certainly wasn’t any of those things. Of course, there were no cup holders, so maybe we only drank when we stopped?? I have no idea.
7.) A laptop (or two). Obviously, we’ll need the laptop…
8.) A digital camera (or two). Back in ’81, I believe it was 35mm all the way….
9.) A CellPhone (or two). Holy cow–can you imagine embarking on such a trip without a cell phone?
10.) A Radar Detector. Um, yeah….I think it was our job to look out for “bears”. (eventually we got a CB radio…who needs an Ipod when you’ve got truckers to listen to???)
11.) Portable DVD player. Watching a movie in the car? No way!! They could only do that on the Jetsons in 1981!
12.) Purell. The skankiness that is highway rest stops makes me ever so grateful for this fine modern invention. I think in 1981 all we had was soap…..
13.) A Flat Iron. Flat hair was so not the goal in 1981!
Happy Thursday Thirteen!
UPDATED: Comment #2 KILLS me!! Can anyone top it with another trip down road trip memory lane?!?!