1600 miles and a lotta smiles

I'm not sure if I mentioned that K and I drove from Humbolt County to Orange County last weekend.  While it sounds crazy, it made the most sense to us for many reasons-- first, that we'd have a car there to help with wedding tasks, second, that we could bring the Pepster, and third that, when we figured in arriving early to airports to fly in/out of either Sacramento, SF, or Oakland (both about 5+ hours away), we wouldn't be spending that much more time driving anyway. So to the roads it was.

The total mileage was something like 1600 miles.  It is about 12 hours each way. Luckily, we are blessed with friends in Sac and Oakland who hosted us for a brief snooze to break up the trip. On Wednesday night on our way down, we crashed for a few hours at Kimie and Vin's place in Sac (which they are leaving shortly for Orange County!), where Pepper enjoyed frolicking with their 6-month old Shiba Inu pup Akamaru.

On the way back, we overnighted with Wai Kiu, Hanh, Mason and 3-month-old Sophia.  On Sunday evening, they hosted a bit of a "graduation" dinner for our friends like Char and Kimie, who are one "residency" year our junior and who just finished their FP training! It is hard to believe it's been a full year since K and I finished last June!

We enjoyed meeting Char and Thad's now-6-week-old baby girl Alexandra, who I am holding slightly awkwardly in the photo as my arms got super heavy from holding her while standing and chatting!

ginger beauties

yummy dinner with our old UCD Friends!

Big brother Mason has grown so much!

Kim & Sophia

Instead of blasting it back to Arcata on the 101 as we usually do, we made the drive a into a bit more of a leisurely trip, having already taken Monday off from work. After scouring the 101-things-to-do-in-Sonoma-County, we decided to stop by the California Carnivores nursery, which houses the largest collection of carnivorous plants in the world; a book written by the owner (Peter D'Amato) is entitled The Savage Garden! We entered with Pepper "at our own risk" and enjoyed checking out the various insect traps.

Venus fly trap

Bladderwort? (JB?!)

  

Cobra plants

Kelvin took some great close-up photos!

  

Pitchers

(I have no idea how Kelvin got Pep to cooperate for this pic!)

Once back in Humboldt County, we decided to stop at the roadside attraction of the "One Log House," which we have passed numerous times.

As you may be able to read from the sign, the house (7 x 32 feet) was created in 1946 out of an old redwood tree. It was a traveling exhibition but, since 1999, has lain by the side of the Redwood Highway (101 North). 

Could you live here? 

The neighbor of the One Log House is the Grandfather Tree, an 1800-year-old coastal redwood.

We thought these "Three Bears" seats were cute...

It was a LONG, but fun trip. We are happy to have visitors here, but want to "stay put" off the roads for a bit!

Kenn and Lisa Tie the Knot

 

   (photo stolen from my SIL, Katherine)

 

This weekend, we celebrated the wedding of Kenn, Kelvin’s younger brother, and Lisa, his (UCLA) college sweetheart.  While they are a couple of years younger than we are, they have been together for about 6 years and it was a pleasure to be part of their special day. As Kelvin reciprocated Kenn’s representation last year by being Kenn’s best man, I helped with a lot of the decorating/setup for the actual day.  Lisa is also Vietnamese and it was fun to be a part of the special Vietnamese wedding traditions, some of which (due to logistics, etc.) we omitted from our own wedding weekend last summer. As is the case a lot of the time when we’re in Orange County, I felt a bit out of the loop as I don’t know much Vietnamese yet (hoping to learn!) and most of the guests spoke Vietnamese!

Getting ready... going to the church rehearsal

Morning of.... groom & best man

In the morning, there is rước dâu, a traditional “Tea Ceremony,” where the groom and groom’s representatives bring gifts (concluding with a roast pig) to the bride’s house where they are accepted. The couple pays respects to the ancestors and elders and gets wedding advice, which is then followed by a reception (sometimes this takes place after a trip back to the groom's house). 

 

The gifts

 

Bridesmaids with the couple

 

In the afternoon, they had a traditional Catholic Mass Wedding Ceremony like we did.

Lisa looked GORGEOUS!! (and Kenn pretty good, too!)

  

Husband and wife!

 

Their reception was held at a beautiful site, Strawberry Farms in Irvine, CA, which K and I had actually briefly considered when we were, at one point, looking at Southern CA wedding venues.

Kenn and Lisa are both very creative, and they and their family members had hand-crafted much of their wedding décor—from paper garlands and flower girl bouquets to glass ornaments within a backdrop, block letters, seating cards, and the cutest cake topper ever! They had a milk tea station (very unique, and delicious on a warm [75] but not extreme [I think it hit 105 on our wedding day!] afternoon.

setting up the ornamental backdrop

 

seating cards

  

Milk Tea (with jars of jelly)

  

photo book

Dessert table

 

handmade cake-topper

 

The flow of the reception was great… they were running very much on time and had a lot of time for dancing!  The grand entrance was fun, food was good, Kelvin rocked his best man’s speech, they greeted all the tables in efficient fashion.

Bridesmaids' entrance

  

Groomsmen (and maid)

Couple's (choreographed) grand entrance!

Best man's speech by my hubby

Chao Ban (table greeting)

 

Siblings (K with Katherine and Theresa)

(us with Tu and Tuong, K's uncles who just moved from Vietnam)

  

This mustache and hat were part of the groomsmen's entrance... but were fun attire throughout the night

Some outdoor shots...

Theresa, Jennifer, Kat

Kat & Eddie

Cake-cutting

It was a fabulous day, and we are so proud to call Kenn & Lisa family!