Passing through the Redwoods, a Wedding in Yosemite, and a Visit with Tom’s Daughter and Granddaughter

We left the Oregon coast a few days before we were scheduled to be at Yosemite for Tom’s niece Katie’s wedding in order to stop in the Redwoods. Though Tom and I have been there multiple times, those big trees never fail to inspire wonder: You think you remember how big they are and then you see them in person and are stupefied all over again. So we had to stop. We took a couple hikes in Jedidiah Smith and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks mostly to gawk and stretch our legs and we made a mandatory stop at Elk Meadow so I could see more elk.

We then took 2 days to travel to our campground outside Yosemite, getting there the day of the rehearsal dinner. The dinner was a great time to catch up with Tom’s family who are scattered about the U.S. Since I failed to get take many photos are Tom’s nephew Ross’ wedding in June I tried to do better this time but still fell a bit short. I did get a photo with Tom with 3 of 4 of his siblings however which was cute. The day of the wedding we all congregated at the reception location from where we were bussed into Yosemite Canyon to the ceremony at Sentinel Beach. Kate and her husband Will provided both coaches with coolers full of drinks, many of which were also drunk during the ceremony on the beach. I consider this both highly thoughtful and an excellent idea. Though I made Tom and I take a selfie to commemorate the novelty of drinking on the bus I very quickly got bus-sick for the only time in my memory. I so rarely get motion sickness that I actually can’t recall the last time I did, but it hit me hard and made me quite under the weather the rest of the day. Still, I really enjoyed hanging out and chatting with Tom’s siblings, nieces, nephews, and grand-nieces and -nephews.

The ceremony was both beautiful and touching. Katie and Will (who we had recently visited at their home in Nevada this past June) are two of the coolest people I’ve met and their whole wedding was a mixture of heartfelt sweetness and easygoing awesome. I’m insanely happy for them. They also put on a great party, one that made us wish we could have stayed longer.

Finally we concluded our trip with a visit to Tom’s daughter Amy, husband Brian, and granddaughter Evelyn who just moved to southern California. Evelyn is a ridiculously happy toddler nowadays and it was so much fun to play with her. We went out for Japanese food the night we got there and Evelyn worked on perfecting toasting with her dad; I think she’s got a real future as a saki drinker. We walked the boardwalk too, went for ice cream, and met at the zoo the next day. Highlights for Evelyn were (I believe) monkeys, the playground, and the train.