Last week we were in Santa Barbara, which turns out to be good for a number of things, not the least of which is seeing one’s little sister marry. Santa Barbara reminds me of a cupped hand, the way the knuckles of mountains curve around the bay. The summer fog adds a diffuse softness, burning off into views of stark blue and green by late afternoon. My brother Gavin donated some of his photos for this post. We didn’t take any because the camera was locked in the trunk of someone’s car the whole time. Here’s the wedding site, a hillside overlooking the water:

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And the reception site, also overlooking the water:

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You would never guess, looking at the Princess and Prince Charming, how little sleep they’d been getting in the days leading up to The Big Day. They and their entourage tied hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tiny bows on things and ran no end of errands. The buzz at the reception was all about how perfectly everything turned out, from the gift bags left in the rooms of every out of town guest (except for the two that accidently reached some party girls, who drank all the wine therein before returning them); to the table decorated with round vases filled with candy in the wedding colors (pale pink and chocolate brown), which you could scoop into ziploc bags adorned with the wedding logo; to the basket of toiletries and emergency supplies in the bathroom. There were peonies and paper lanterns and a giant sandbox for the kids. You found your table by pulling your name off of a ribbon tied around an old oak tree. I tell you! And here are the Mrs. and Mr. themselves:

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And the Mrs. dancing (hm, I guess I don’t know how to rotate a photo):

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In addition to wedding-ing, Santa Barbara is also good for eating stuff, especially Mexican food, and outdoorsy stuff like hiking with my brother and parents. Okay, hiking was really hot, but a nice contrast to the hairsprayed-and-manicured previous days. I enjoy both extremes. We hiked along a river on the way out, so we would stop and jump in when we passed a good swimming hole. Nice!

Flying out of LAX on the way home, we had a number of surprises: 1. witnessing cops with their guns drawn by the side of the road, 2. Don King entering the airport with a chestfull of medals (??), and everyone ignoring him, 3. The security people ordering everyone to hold still, all up and down the walkway, as far as you could see. They had the cutest girl out speaking to the travelers (”Excuse me, could you just hold off on walking? Thanks.”) while the rest mumbled and pushed a lot of buttons on their phones and walkie-talkies. After a few minutes they gave the all-clear and we were permitted to move again.

So that’s what I’ve been up to!