Jaime & Sarah's Wedding

Friday, February 10

David and I few into Nashville (because Frontier doesn't fly to Alabama) where we rented a car and drove to Huntsville. We stopped at Stan's gas station, diner, and bar in Columbia for lunch where we learned Columbia was the home of President Taft and where we bought 2 pounds of smoked bacon.

The evenings events included stopping by Brenda & Greg's for a rest then on to the Macaroni Grill for the Pre-Wedding Dinner.

Saturday, February 10

Saturday morning the "X" clan drove up to Lynchburg (being mildly persuaded by David and I) to visit the Jack Daniels distillery. After the distillery we explored the town (or block) of Lynchburg were many "X" ancestors lived. One such "X" was the town Sheriff and the old Jail House has been turned into a small museum. There are several X's that can be found in the pictures on the walls.

The wedding was an evening ceremony. It was held in a cute wedding chapel in Hartselle.

After the ceremony the Wiseman clan went back to Brenda & Greg's to sample the "commemorative" bottle from Jack Daniels. I believe there was talk of collectively buying a barrel... or something.

Additional photos from the wedding can be found at these sites:

Elain's

Brenda's

Dad's

Mine

end

Mexico 2006

November 14: David and I set out to visit Oaxaca, Mexico. Our flight was scheduled to change planes in Houston, however due to a previous flight cancellation we were going to have to spend the night in Houston and continue on to Oaxaca the next day. When we landed we were informed that our flight home as also been cancelled now so we would need to return to Denver a day earlier... or two days later. We chose later.

November 15: We reached our destination! We shared a taxi with a guy coming home from Florida to be with his family until after Christmas. He was able to interpret all the spray painted graffiti covering the beautiful colonial buildings of city center. There was only one that was in English...

This was written on the side of our hotel. Apparently every year the teachers of Oaxaca go on strike for better pay, work conditions, etc. But this year there were many other political events taking place to make the strike more of a protest. I can't even pretend to say I understand all the dynamics, here is one link to help explain: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6112142.stm

To help us navigate around the protesters we hired a guide. Toni was born and raised in New York City but married a local while in Oaxaca on an archaeological dig. She is now a teacher in Oaxaca.

November 16: Toni, and her husband Javier, picked us up in their van and drove us outside the city to the town of Tule to see a 1,000 year old White Cyprus tree. Then we went to Tacochuaya to visit the Templo y Ex-Convento, which was an early Dominican monastery now a church. Next stop was the town of Mitla where Javier was born and his family still lives. The church in this town was built on top of Zapotec ruins (for more information: http://www.oaxacaoaxaca.com/mitla.htm). We had lunch at a restaurant that makes their own mescal then headed back towards the city with one more stop at Teotilian del Balle where David learned to weave.

November 17: This is the day we went to Monte Alban, certainly the largest site I think I've ever seen. It was built in 500 A.D. by the Zapotecs. (again more info here: http://www.oaxacaoaxaca.com/monte-alban.htm)

We also stopped in the town of San Martin Tilcajete, Ocotlan where we met the family of Jacobo and Maria Angeles Mendoza. The entire family works together to make the most amazing carved animals. We came home with this bird... (photo is of their nephew that helps with the creation of these wonderful animals).

November 18: David's Birthday! This is the day we flew to Puerto Escondido (on the smallest plane I've ever seen... or ridden on!) We arrived just in time for the International Surfing competition. It was a complete change of pace from the busy city as we sat on the beach drinking our cervezas and watching surfers.

November 19: We drank cervezas and tried out the hammocks (they work well!)

November 20: We found a guy that does bird tours, so we spent a morning bird watching. This is a Tiger Throated Heron...

November 21: More cervezas, more hammocks...

November 22: We read about a Turtle Museum about an hour away from where we were. But with no car of our own we figured out the public transportation methods. First we found a bus, and I do mean "found" since there are no bus stops, you just stand on the street corner and wait for one to come by then you flag it down. It works pretty much the same for when you want to get off, you just tell the driver to let you off anywhere you want. We were on the bus for about 45 minutes till we got off at a small village. Then we found a taxi to take us the rest of the way to the museum. It was in a very tiny village called Mazunte. The museum was very interesting, and we learned a little since everything was in Spanish. We found these posters that took us a little while to figure out. Basically they represent that a major reason for much of the elimination to turtles is from their eggs being taken for consumptions. These posters explain that turtle eggs are NOT aphrodisiacs! To get back to our hotel we couldn't find a bus, but there were collectivos, these are pickup trucks with a bench and a tarp, that for about 30 cents you can hop on the back and they will drive you to wherever you need. We took this back to the main road to find a bus back to Peurto Escondido.

November 23: Thanksgiving. We did what everyone does. We found a restaurant with American Football on TV.

November 24: We found another guy to take us on the ocean to look for turtles... we found one!

November 25: The very loooooooong trek home. Back to Oaxaca, back to Houston, finally to Denver.

Our Wedding

Very Rev. Philip Meredith, 1945 - 2007

http://www.archden.org/dcr/news.php?e=418&s=4&a=8778

(posted 5/2007)

Unfortunately we lost Father Phil last month, he was the priest that taught my catechism classes, baptised me (along with confirmation and 1st communion) and performed our wedding. And because we're on the subject - here is a little recap!

Much of the joy from our wedding came from all our friends and family that traveled to share the experience with us!

And a bit of our honeymoon photos to Cozumel & Merida...

Ireland

I found some old pictures from my trip to Ireland in 2000 with Bryan. I thought they'd be fun to post...
We went poor-man style and stayed in Hostels the whole time, this was an 8 people dorm. We usually felt bad for the other poor 6 people that couldn't sleep because of Bryan's snoring (I brought ear-plugs)

I can't really remember the order we went to places, but
this is Blarney Castle & Bryan kissing it.

Kylemore Abbey
can't remember .

The town of Claddagh (just outside Galway) .


the town of Tullamore (where everyman must have his dew)

Aran Island Bryan still has nightmares about me saying "lets rent bikes!"

and Cliffs of Moher

Would love to back some day :)