A Michigan Wedding

Yet another delayed blog!  On Saturday, June 19, 2010, Lora, Dave's sister got married to her love, Amir.  We were just so happy to be able to witness it because Spirit Air pilots decided to go on strike the week before or of (I can't remember) the Friday we left.  They finally returned to flying on Thursday evening.  Whew!  In case of emergency, Lora had bought us Delta tickets, with insurance, with her miles.  So the moment Sprit Air announced they'd be up and running, she cancelled them and got her miles/money refunded.  So we would've made it either way, but we would've felt extremely bad for taking all her miles.

They had a beautiful, intimate afternoon wedding on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor.  I believe they both met at the University while she earned her Doctorate's degree in Electrical Engineering.  That's one smart cookie!  Make that two smart cookies!  I'm not sure, but I think he's a professor or something like that and helped her write up a grant proposal.  Haha, sounds like it came out of a movie!

After the ceremony, we took some photos, and it was so awkward for me!  "Ok, family photos time!"  Really?!  Wow, I'm "part of the family".  So weird.  Apparently, I was the problem child who was usually picked on for not being close enough to the groom.  Seriously, if I got any closer, his hand would be really into my no-no area, rather than just brushed up against it, and I don't think anyone would want us to be that close!  But, for the sake of pictures, I sucked it up for those 30 seconds... for about 10 photos. 

Our dinner was DE-lish!  I had a mushroom-and-cheese-stuffed pasta, which was wonderful!  And Dave took advantage of his chance at fish (unfortunately for him, there's no way I'm cooking fish... yes, yes, I'm from Hawai'i and I hate fish.  What?!) and had the herb-crusted salmon.  I had a bite of his, and it wasn't that bad.  But I still don't like fish. 

There's my pasta!  The reception was more like a mingling party, rather than a dancing party, which was more than fine!  We missed all of the Michigan folk, and it was great to catch up and finally meet Dave's little nephew, Graham.

Isn't he SO cute?  According to all of Dave's mom's friends, he looks a lot like Dave when he was that little.  It would make sense, being that his cousin looks more like Dave's sister than Lora does.  See it?

"I like this," she says... Us?  Ummm... not yet!  Haha, you can't tell here, but he started to cry and push away as I snapped away.

When we got back to the hotel, we realized we didn't take any pictures together, so here's what we got.

We were pooped, being that we got in at 6am that morning, so we took a "short" nap.  When we woke up 2 hours later than planned, we walked on over to the Summer Days festival going on at UM and walked around the college town, winding up at a hip coffee shop.  It was great for people-watching as students were in party mode, just starting the night at 11pm.  Lora was nice enough to lend us the hotel room that I think she used for storing some wedding stuff.  The Campus Inn was the closest place - about 2 or 3 blocks away from the wedding site - she could store anything. 

Unfortunately, we could only spend a part of the weekend in Michigan.  So the next day, we had lunch at Lora and Amir's house with Dave's parents.  Then we all - minus Amir - went to a River Days fair in Detroit (we were flying out of Detroit) to spend time together.  It was pretty cool and filled with various project booths, rides, fancy classic automobiles and a couple of boat tours (an old yacht and a US Coast Guard boat... I'm probably not labeling it correctly).  All of these were cool, but we liked the Ultimate Air Dog show the best!  Well, we only say the dogs take a few test jumps.  Because it was so hot, Dave and I got as close as we could, in hopes of getting splashed.  Here is a Yellow Lab and a German Short-Haired Pointer.

Saying that we want a dog really bad is an understatement.  We can't wait for our little puppy in December!  It'll be our 1-year anniversary present to ourselves.  We're planning on looking at a shelter or two as close to Christmas as possible.

Although short-lived, we had a great time in Michigan and I can't wait to go back.  I just think it's so beautiful there, especially further up north.  And I like that you can see Canada right  across the river!  I'm a dork, I know.  I just reminded myself of Sarah Palin.  Ugh.  "I mean, you can see RUSSIA right there!"