Seth and Rob Get Married (again)

I mentioned in an earlier entry that we went to San Francisco to visit Nora. Our desire to visit dovetailed nicely with Seth and Rob's desire to get legally married. (For future readers, same-sex marriage was and is still illegal in most states; we hope that will change some day soon. And while I'm at it, please let Barak Obama get elected in November!)

So on Monday morning we all trooped over to City Hall. Seth and Rob had an appointment to fill out the paperwork, and then we waited for about a half hour. They were married by the city commissioner who told us he liked to do a couple of weddings each month to be a part of the joy.

The strangest part of the whole experience was running into Richard and Joan Blumberg. Eli grew up seeing them in Maine every year at Hiram Blake Camp. And then we randomly bumped into them 3000 miles away. They were visiting City Hall because their daughter had recently been married there as well.

A Burke Wedding in Nashville

This weekend we went to Nashville, TN for another Burke wedding. This one was for Eli's cousin Ellen and her fiance Brandon Schneider. We left Avery and Zachary with my parents, flew to Nashville on Friday morning, then drove north with Eli's parents to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.

At the park we took a two hour walking tour of Mammoth Cave. It was a fascinating experience. Eli wore Leah in her Baby Bjorn carrier for the whole tour. He had a little trouble when we went through some sections that required you to hunch down or bend over, but other than that it went spectacularly well. She was calm and alert for parts, slept for others, and I even nursed her, twice! Eli thought it was the funniest thing that I nursed her 700 feet below the ground.

Saturday morning we toured a full size replica of the Parthenon which was built during one of the World's Fairs. In the afternoon we drove to Murfreesboro for the ceremony, and then came back to our hotel, the Marriott at Vanderbilt University, for the reception. Leah was passed around among the family, and with no kids to keep an eye on, I danced until I could barely stand up.

On Sunday, everyone we knew went home, but we stayed for a last day to experience more of Nashville. We went to the Tennessee State Museum, the Frist Museum, Centennial Park, and the Belmont Mansion. It was relaxing, although we walked all over the place and wore our already tired feet out even more.

The Biltmore Estate and Wedding Reception

We spent Saturday morning at the Biltmore Estate. It is the self-described biggest privately owned residence in the United States; it has 255 rooms. As we drove up to the house in a shuttle bus, the kids started exclaiming, "A castle! Look at the castle!" much to the merriment of the other passengers on the bus.

It took us about 2 hours to tour the public portions of this enormous house. One common comment people had was about how the bathrooms were so plain compared to the rest of the ornate rooms. Eli was taken with the relative modernity: built in the 1880s, it nevertheless had modern accouterments like electrical lighting, running water, central heat, elevators, intercoms, and an indoor swimming pool. This is one house everyone should see.

At 5pm was the big reception. The party we've been waiting for for the last 7 years (hehehe... kidding). Caitlin and Cullen were actually married in February, but this was their big celebratory shindig and we were happy to be there with them.

Friday in Asheville

Today we got up, ate breakfast on the hotel's club lounge, swam, and then drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to go hiking. Cait and Cullen had picked out a trail called Graveyard Fields, a fairly easy trail that went 1.5 miles out and back. The kids did as well as can be expected. Avery walked most of the 3 miles, and Zach walked about half of it. At the halfway point we stopped at a waterfall to cool our feet and relax for 15-20 minutes.

After the hike, and an hour's drive back to civilization, we went to Rosetta's Kithchen for lunch. It was an an all vegan restaurant, but they managed to create some amazing meals. The boys had cheese-less "macaroni and cheese" that was amazingly similar to its dairy-laden inspiration.

In the evening we had a big family dinner. We got to see Granny, whose health has been on the decline, as well as all of the Burke relatives who were able to make it, and also some of Eli's Mom's family (Aunt Sharon, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Alan, and cousin Emily).

Chimney Rock

After a morning swim and continental breakfast we drove to Chimney Rock State Park, about 25 miles from Asheville. Once we got up into the hills the road was very twisty, and we were stuck behind a slow bus almost the whole way. That made Eli grouchy, but the scenery was so amazing he was hard pressed to keep his bad attitude.

The centerpiece of the park, which has been open for more than 100 years, is the iconic granite outcrop that rises up into the sky. From the top (which can be reached by staircase, or by an elevator shaft blasted into the mountain more than 50 years ago) one can see for more than 75 miles on a clear day. We rode the elevator to the top, and then had a grand old scramble getting back down on the network of staircases that crisscross the mountain.

Driving To Asheville

This morning we packed up the car and drove to Asheville, NC, where Cait and Cullen were having their wedding reception. We stopped along the way at a scenic overlook in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a long trip, through sometimes torrential rain, but we did finally arrive at 4:30. Once Eli got the car unloaded we drove to the nearby Botanical Gardens and had a leisurely walk.

Afterwards we went to dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe, which had a delicious all-organic menu. Even the kid's meals were something special, with items like sweet potato pancakes and grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches (both our boys chose the PB&B, and boy did they taste good). Asheville has a diverse and liberal population, and its eateries reflected that reality. Nearly everything that wasn't fast food was organic, sustainable, free-range, all-natural, etc.

Tom and Zahra's Wedding

At the end of October we had ANOTHER wedding. This time it was Eli's cousin Tom getting married in Raleigh, North Carolina. We left early Friday morning and stopped in Dumfries to pick up another of Eli's cousins, Joe. It was nice to have someone besides me to help Eli with the driving!

Arriving NC, we stopped by Caitlin and Cullen's house in Cary. Caitlin fed us a tasty and healthy lunch, and then we hung out and played with the kids for the rest of the afternoon.

That evening we went to the rehearsal dinner. Mid-way through the meal we heard that Martin and Barbara's flight had been canceled. Since our house is near the airport Eli called and suggested they spend the night at our place. Unfortunately, they could not get in because Sara's parents locked the inside garage door (silver lining: we would have been locked out as well, but were able to make other arrangements).
(NOTE-- because her parents had babysat on Thu night and stayed after we left on Friday)

Overall the weekend went very smoothly. The kids slept well and even slept in through daylight savings. The wedding was beautiful and finished off the weekend with a huge family brunch at Aunt Alison's on Sunday morning.

The Science and Life Museum

On Saturday we had a lovely tour of the Science and Life museum with Aunt Cait. The boys enjoyed the museum, and liked the outdoor park and wildlife exhibits even more.


Avery and Zachary by the bears' habitat at the Science and Life museum in Durham, North Carolina on Oct. 28.


Aunt Caitlin with Avery witnessing the creation of tornadoes.


Zachary and Sara looking through the space capsule at the museum.

Alison and Dave's wedding

Another wedding! We left Virginia early on Friday and arrived in Boston at 3pm. Boston is a crazy city; the traffic patterns and streets were quite difficult to traverse. Thankfully we had the navigation system in the minivan or we would probably still be looking for our hotel! ;-)

Before the rehearsal dinner we had time for a quick visit with our friend Karen from Hiram Blake Camp. She fed us afternoon tea and then we took the kids to a playground and a local ice cream parlor.

Afterward, we picked up Seth and Rob to drive to the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately, Steve and Penny's flight was delayed and they arrived in Boston very late, missing the dinner. They were also supposed to pick up Lisa at the airport in Providence, an hour's drive away. She was unable to get her own rental car and wound up sitting at the airport for hours until Steve could pick her up. Needless to say, none of them got much sleep and they were all very grumpy the next day.

Finding and getting to the wedding ceremony presented another problem. It was held outdoors at the Arboretum, a large nature preserve, and there were multiple entrances from different streets. We made it in time, but Brian and Maggie weren't so lucky and missed the ceremony. But the wedding was beautiful and the kids slept through the ceremony (bonus!).

The reception was at the boat club, which had a beautiful view of the river. We got in trouble later for having the kids by the water on the dock... too much liability, I guess. The food was great, but not enough dancing, which is my favorite part of weddings.

After the reception, Brian, Maggie, Seth and Rob all hung out at our hotel. We went to Legal Seafood for dinner and swam at our hotel pool afterwards (except for me because I forgot my swimsuit :( ).

On Sunday we went to the Science museum, which was awesome. The kids were great and loved touching and playing with everything. They spent 10 minutes at this giant fire fly that lights up, pushing the button. We saw the live butterfly garden, where the butterflies practically land on you, Gabrielle spent an hour in there just watching them! We met up with Seth and Rob and saw the Human Body Worlds II exhibit. Then, drove back home, about an eight hour drive.

Zachary charming a little girl at the reception.

Madison wrestling with Avery at Alison and Dave's wedding in Boston.

Joss and Ed's Wedding

Josselyn and Ed had a beautiful ceremony on the banks of the Kenai river. The electric blue/green water made for a stunning backdrop. About an hour into the reception the skies opened up, rain started to fall, but the party didn't even slow down.

We ate in the rain, danced in the rain, and of course drank in the rain. It was chilly, but booze do warm you up though, oh and so does dancing, oh and the bonfire they had. It was a long fun reception. I think it started around 3 and finally broke up around 10:30 when it became fully dark outside.


These are the people that stayed after the pouring rain. I've never been to a wedding where there wasn't a contingency if it rained.



Eli and Cullen, shopping from the sales rack at REI stores in two different states, ended up with the exact same jacket.

Fishing on the Kasilof

In the summertime, Ed O'Conner is a fishing guide on the rivers of the Kenai Peninsula. For the wedding, Joss and Ed arranged for a bunch of their friends (also guides) to take wedding guests out salmon fishing. I think somewhere between 30 and 40 people went, in groups of four.

On our boat, Eli had the first catch of the day; a Pink salmon. We were fishing for Silvers (Coho), and the limit was two per person per day. The pinks had a different limit, but according to our guide the meat is very mushy and mostly just suitable for canning, so we let it go. You can tell this is a female because it does not have the silly looking hump just behind the head that gives them the nickname humpies.



The next fish into the boat was this Silver I caught at about 10am. We had been sitting on the river for about three hours in misty rain and 50 degree temps. Everyone as freezing cold and I was thinking of calling it a day when I caught this beauty. My mood soared and I went on to catch several more (sadly, the rest were undesirable pinks, but still fun to pull in).



At the end of the day Eli and I each had one Silver. The other couple in our boat didn't manage to catch any. Some boats caught the limit; one or two didn't catch any Silvers at all. The scenery and experience were both amazing, and taking home and eating a fish I caught was awesome! But the next time I go fishing, I will make sure the weather is warmer! ;-)