Lori's Wedding

I left work around 11 and we stopped to fill up the gas tank and get some lunch before hitting the road. In general the drive to PA wasn’t too bad. There’s obviously a lot of construction between here and there, it being construction season here in the Midwest. The only obvious delay came in Chicago where we got stuck in snail pace traffic for about an hour. Hence the reason it took an hour longer to get there than it did to come back.

After we escaped Chicago we desperately needed a pit stop and in our desperation stopped at the most ghetto McDonald’s ever. Note to travelers: Don’t stop at the McDonald’s right past the tolls in Illinois. Trust me, you want to wait for the first rest area. You won’t regret it.

Anyway, we then drove for miles and miles through Indiana and Ohio stopping a couple times for dinner (well, South Bend Chocolate) and bathroom stops. We got to the hotel around 10:30pm, discovered there was a Fatburger right next door to the hotel that was open until midnight, had some late dinner and went to bed.

Saturday morning we woke up and bummed around longer than necessary. We went to the lobby and had breakfast around 9. It was a decent selection with Jimmy Dean sandwiches, waffles, assorted cereals and breads. After a failed attempt to talk with my dad about plans (my cell phone is a piece of crap) we headed out for some shopping. While planning our trip we had discovered that there were no less than five Marshalls stores in the Pittsburgh/Cranberry/Beaver vicinity. One of them was right across the street from our hotel. So we made it our plan to go to as many of them as possible on Saturday. Adam also was on a mission get Harley t-shirts from two different dealers for a friend at work. We started at Starbucks though. I had somehow managed to get some kind of “feel like crap” bug overnight and needed some warm beverage to wash down the Tylenol cold and loosen up the sinuses. So after a quick stop at Walmart (for the aforementioned drugs) we headed to the first of the Harley stores.

Apparently people in PA like to name their streets oddly and they like to have a 7th street, 7th avenue, 7th boulevard, 7th drive, all in the same general area. Jill (our friendly neighborhood GPS) took us on an adventure through the wind-y hills of backwoods PA and ultimately led us to nowhere. We decided to try a Marshalls in the area and Adam called information about the dealer. Turns out it was on 7th street BRIDGE which was apparently completely different from 7th street. Hmm. After moderate success at the first Marshalls we headed to the bridge. The address given seemed to be part of a car dealership but we didn’t see any Harley signs. Somehow in the process of giving up and heading towards Pittsburgh we found the first dealer. It was probably 3 or 4 blocks further down than we expected it to be. They were having some kind of hoopla with a local radio station there with a prize wheel and a big red and yellow bird named “Pickle.” They told us there were roaster dogs (are those like hotdogs?) and stuff out there but we decided to avoid it and just picked up a t-shirt and headed to Pittsburgh. We found the other Marshalls pretty easily since most of them were in malls. We also stopped at Borders and got a Catholic bible since I’ve been curious about those books left out of the Protestant version. We managed to find the second Harley dealership with almost as much trouble as the first but it worked out.

We stopped for a late lunch at Applebees on the way back to the hotel. I took a short nap before my dad and Cheryl called and then stopped by. They came bearing gifts from my birthday, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. Apparently my dad had been stockpiling them and since we hadn’t seen them since Christmas, this is what happened. After hanging at the hotel for a bit we headed over to my grandma & grandpa’s house. My aunt and uncle were out busy with the rehearsal and stuff so they needed my dad and Cheryl to take care of things at home for a little while. We sat and talked for a while, watched the Derby (we all cheered for losers), and left as they began eating dinner. We stopped for dinner of our own on the way back to the hotel.

Sunday morning was kind of a repeat of Saturday. We hit the lobby for breakfast around 9 again. We stopped across the street at Giant Eagle since we saw they were supposed to carry Kim & Scotts pretzels. We found two new flavors there: Apple Cinnamon and Parmesan Sourdough. We mistakenly thought the Marshalls across the street opened at 10 but it turned out to be 11. So we went back the hotel for an hour and then checked it out. We didn’t find anything this trip and went back to the hotel to watch TV until it was time to get dressed for the wedding. Adam was nice enough to iron my dress while he did his pants and shirt.

We found the elusive fire hall with no problems and got there in plenty of time. We were seated at a table right up next to the head table along with my cousins Jennifer and Joanie and their guests. Well, ok, so their guests were Joanie’s friend Marcy and Jennifer’s daughter Elle. The ceremony started right on time and ran about 30 minutes. My uncle John officiated. It was a nice ceremony although all the music was canned and the DJ seemed to have some timing issues. After the ceremony was over the wedding party took off for almost 2 hours for pictures. There were mountains of cookies and they opened up the bar. We ate, drank, and socialized until the salads were brought out. When the wedding party returned they showed a cute slide show, did the introductions, and then dinner could begin. It was a buffet of sorts catered in by Boston Market. Beans, macaroni & cheese, mashed potatoes & gravy, chicken, and a turkey carving station. Simple, but filling. The cake was cut and dancing started not soon after.

A couple comments: I noticed a severe lack of clanking of glasses or heckling of the head table. Isn’t that what is the most fun for guests? Perhaps my family (or Dave’s) is too polite? After about 3 dances, no one was on the floor and about 45 minutes into it pretty much everyone had left. This is my ultimate fear for our reception. Please people, come and dance and have a good time and stay for more than an hour! Free beer!

Anyway, we left and my dad and Cheryl were supposed to call us after they got my grandma and grandpa home but apparently they were there until 10:30 and by that time we had been in bed for a while. Oh well. We caught up with them on Monday morning as we checked out (at 7:30 – see, we can get up early when we want to.) After another Starbucks run we got back on the long road home. The return trip was relatively painless with only two stops and smooth sailing through Chicago. We got home around 4, unloaded the car, checked on all the furry guys (they’re all fine although Mo managed to knock his water bottle completely off his cage and was waterless for a day or so), and then headed up to Adam’s parent’s house. My mom had sent pictures of her dress choices so I showed them (along with the picture Adam can’t see) to his mom and older sister. We picked up some dinner on the way back home and I busied myself unpacking, doing laundry, and catching up on some DVR programs before heading to bed.

All in all it was a good trip. Adam got to meet a large chunk of my extended family and I got to hang out with people I hadn’t seen in 10 or 15 years. Most of them say they’re going to try and make it to WI in August but we’ll have to see what happens.

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