Wedding Archives - Iron Roamer

Daughter’s Wedding

I got out of the hospital in time for my daughter’s wedding! Carllee is my only daughter, so the only chance to walk down the aisle. It would take a lot to miss it.

Rehearsal

The evening before the wedding was the rehearsal. Like every rehearsal I have been to it was lots of fun with lots of joking around. My part is pretty straight forward – walk my daughter down the aisle and “give her away.” I actually hate that phrase. I am really not going to give her away ha ha ha. Sorry Ian 🙂 (her new husband). But Carllee will always be MY precious daughter. She has grown up to be such a beautiful woman both inside and outside.

After the rehearsal we went for dinner. Food is a bit challenging these days. I am only suppose to have soft mushy food. Pizza was the food of the night, however, Ian’s parents were kind and got me some mushy pasta ha ha. I didn’t want to end up back in the hospital.

Wedding

Now Carllee’s wedding part is a bit unique. Her “bridesmaids” consist of one of her best friends, my youngest son Nick, and my oldest son Mike and his wife Amy. That meant they would be getting ready early in the morning and taking pictures before the ceremony.

Carllee and Ian 🙂

Before I left on my motorcycle adventure I gave away everything, including my suits. Luckily, one suit I left for my son’s was still available. That is what I used.

After looking after Mia and Ben while everyone was getting ready, it was time to go to the church for family photos.

Time for the ceremony and my staring role 🙂

There were other stars too, like my granddaughter Mia.

One of the most memorable moments for me was when Carllee and I were at the front together And I squeezed her hand and she squeezed back. Just the last “I love you” before she became a married woman.

It was time for me to sit down and enjoy the special moment.

Ian is a really nice guy and a great addition to the family. The only negative is that he is a police officer ha ha ha. But he keeps the tradition going as my father was a police officer as was I.

One thing I couldn’t put in a previous blog is that while I was at the Arctic Ocean I skyped with Ian and he asked me if he could marry Carllee. As if I didn’t know what was coming ha ha ha. Of course i said yes as Carllee adores him 🙂

Wedding Reception

The wedding reception was held in Yaletown in Vancouver. One of the trendy spots in the city.

I am suppose to talk at the reception. I quickly learned that this was a rowdy crowd! I changed most everything I planned on saying. It was too serious ha ha. While Carllee and Ian may have appreciated it, no one else would. So I winged my talk throwing in funny stuff to keep it interesting. Short and funny is what was called for. Besides, I knew the other parents would take care of the serious stuff that I wanted to say.

The reception ended with lots of dancing by drunken and shirtless cops on the floor. Oh so typical ha ha.

The End

It was time to head home after a day I will never forget. So glad I was able to walk my daughter down the aisle. Love you Carllee!

My Location from January 13 to January 14, 2017

New Year and Back Home Hospital

It is almost the new year, 2017, but I am more focused on heading back home to Vancouver, Canada, for my daughter’s wedding.

New Years Eve

To usher in the new year I planned on going to a Mezcal bar called In Situ.

Mezcal is all the rage here in Oaxaca. There are Mezcal stores, tours and bars everywhere. Tequila seems to have taken a back seat. Unlike Tequila, which is only made with blue agave, the Mezcal varieties are achieved with a mixture of different agave families.

I started my New Years Eve with a walk around town to see what was going on. The Zacalo was buzzing with people setting off fireworks. Unlike Canada, there seems to be no regulations. They were being set off everywhere. Some just missing people watching.

It was getting close to midnight so I headed off to In Situ. To my surprise it was closed! I guess it is more of a lounge than a party spot.

There are lots of bars and clubs in town so I walked around a bit to see if there was anything that would interest me. Most of them were pretty quiet and I didn’t feel like going in by myself. So I went back home.

As midnight struck there were lots of fireworks being set off. Interestingly though, there were more fireworks on Christmas Eve. It appears that the biggest celebrations are reserved for religious events.

Like the old guy I am, I went to bed 🙁

Going Home

More important than New Years was that I was going home on January 4 to attend my daughter’s wedding on January 14. The plan was to return back to Oaxaca on January 18 and stay there until the 31st.

The flight home was uneventful. I picked up a rental car and went to my youngest son’s place in Langely where I would be staying while I was here.

The next day we met up with Carllee and her fiance Ian at where else ….. a Mexican restaurant in Vancouver for dinner.

Hospital

After I got back to Nick’s place (my youngest’s son) I started to feel ill. I thought it may be just travel fatique and perhaps something I ate. As the night wore on it got worse and worse. I was vomiting and had diarrhea. Later rather than sooner I realized this was not an ordinary illness. I was in lots of pain. Nick drove me to Langley Memorial Hospital.

The hospital energency room was packed. There was no place to sit. But I had to sit somewhere. I took a chair that was obviously reserved for someone but there weren’t there now. I didn’t remain seated for long. In pain I went to the floor and vomited. That is one way to by-pass emergency room line-ups! It wasn’t long and I was in a hospital bed hooked up to morphine.

Once the pain had subsided I went for numerous tests. The results? I had a hiatal hernia. Complicating matters was that my stomach had slipped through it and was now twisted in my chest! Apparently this is rare for adults. This would require surgery.

The surgeon at Langley Hospital told me the specialist in this procedure were at the Surrey Hospital. A transfer ambulance later I was there.

Decision Time

For the next three days I had nothing but jello and juice 🙁 And for the last day nothing! The Doctor came into my room and said I could have the surgery right now if I wanted.

After some discussion, he said there would be a 20% chance I would miss Carllee’s wedding. But if I didn’t take the surgery now who knows when I would get in again. That meant my trip could be in jeopardy if it took months. Compounding the problem was that my motorcycle permit in Mexico expired on March 28 which meant I needed to get the bike out of the country by then. In the end though it really wasn’t much of a decision. The 20% chance of not walking my only daughter down the asile were odds I was not willing to take. I said no to the surgery.

With the decision made, and my twisted stomach settled down, I was released from the hospital to attend Carllee’s wedding.

My Location for December 26 to January 3, 2017

My Flight on January 4, 2017

I did make a stopover in Mexico City though.

My Location from January 4 to January 12, 2017

Temple of Santo Domingo Wedding!

After a couple of days of resting and figuring out where things were around my Airbnb, I decided it was time to do some sightseeing at the Temple of Santo Domingo. Pretty much everything here is within walking distance.

A little wall art along the way.

Temple of Santo Domingo

Wikipedia says of the Temple:

As its name implies, the church and monastery were founded by the Dominican Order. Begun in 1575, they were constructed over a period of 200 years, between the 16th and 18th centuries. The monastery was active from 1608 to 1857. In the period of the revolutionary wars, the buildings were turned over to military use, and from 1866 to 1902 they served as a barracks. The church was restored to religious use in 1938, but the monastery was made available to the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. In 1972 it became a regional museum, and in 1993 the decision was taken to undertake a full restoration. This was completed in 1999. It is an exceptional example of conservation architecture. The architect responsible was Juan Urquiaga.

The church has also been fully restored. Its highly decorated interior includes use of more than 60,000 sheets of 23.5-karat gold leaf.

When I arrived I couldn’t explore inside because a wedding was taking place. Perfect! I get to see a Mexican wedding.

Mexican Wedding

What a magnificent place to have a wedding!

The wedding was really formal and included taking communion for everyone who wanted it.

People really got dressed up for it. I loved some of the dresses.

When the bride and groom came out the solemn ceremony ended and the celebration started. I really like how it was all in on both aspects.

After some dancing and celebration on the plaza outside of the church, the wedding party started walking the streets around the church periodically stopping to dance. Pretty cool!