Catching up at Caribou

Lucky for you, Benny "needed" to get his hair cut this morning, so I'm at my favorite Minnesota coffee shop with free Wi-fi and lots of blogging to do.

Sipping on a red tea and raspberry drink, I'm trying to collect my thoughts. Tonight we fly back to San Francisco and tomorrow we drive to Reno to start Tammy's wedding countdown of fun. By Sunday night, our three-week vacation will come to an end and we will be en route for Japan. Where did the time go?

First we drove to Elko, Nevada, with Tammy and Chris (former Yuma Sun reporting friends, who now live in Reno) for Jeremy and Andrea's (Yuma Navy friends) wedding. The jet lag wasn't too bad. After a day we were back on track. After the rehearsal dinner, we stayed at the country club where we watched the fireworks. It was pretty special to be back in the good 'ole US of A for Independence Day.

On Andrea's BIG DAY, Benny and I got up early and attempted a 5K fun run for the National Basque Festival, which was held in Elko that same weekend. Benny did much better than I. I only ran the first mile before I stopped and walked the remaining two miles. I blamed my poor performance on the dry air in the high desert and no water stations on the route. I couldn't be too upset about the dry air though, because with a lack of humidity my hair finally calmed down and looked fabulous and non frizzy for the wedding later that day.

We also went to the Basque Festival parade, which was a great small town parade complete with Basque dancing. The floats featuring the town's baseball team and State Farm insurance agent brought back lots of memories of Garny's Fourth of July parades from my childhood.

After all the Basque fun, it was wedding time. The ceremony was so sweet and well articulated by fellow CEC officer, Chris. Chris and his wife, Val, came to Yuma, Arizona, about three months before we left. We were there for the birth of their son, Jacob. Jeremy and Andrea are really close to them, like an aunt and uncle, to Jacob and his sister, Addison, Chris said at the wedding. Those two cuties were in the wedding, along with Jeremy's nephew, Keith.

The outdoor wedding was followed by a reception only a short walk away. Everything was lovely at the wedding. I would say there was a touch of Dre every where you looked, including the bathroom.

All in all it was a wonderful wedding and a great time was had by all, including the V-Team.

PS. I'm having trouble posting pictures with this connection. Hopefully I can get them up in the next day or two.