Wedding Weekend #2 - Part 1

What a trip!!

We had such a great time and there is so many pictures and stories that I am going to have to break this up into two parts (Blogger will not let me post anymore pictures).

We left a little late on Wednesday due to the "lovely weather" the DFW area had experienced earlier in the day. We were supposed to land at 8:30 local time but we did not get to the hotel until a little after ten. We had gotten our room through Hotwire and had already paid for a regular room, but we decided to ask if we could possibly get an upgrade. Since we were only going to be in Reno for one night, they upgraded us to a jacuzzi suite (for free)... it was huge!! I think the room was larger them my whole apartment!

Apparently no one in my family actually looked at a map to see where the Redwood forest was located. I guess we just assumed that if we were in Northern California, there would be Redwoods. The Redwood forest was really four more hours away (toward the coast), but the drive from Reno to Redding, CA was absolutely beautiful! The large white mountain in the picture is snow covered Mt Lassen, an active volcano.

After we had been on the road for about an hour, we stopped at a McDonald's for a quick bathroom break. We had rented three mini-vans to transport us all to CA, and my brother was driving one of the vans. He had the keys in his hand and locked the door. Well apparently the rental car place had given us the wrong set of keys. The wrong keys started the car, but they would not unlock the door. We sat in the parking lot for over an hour waiting for the locksmith to arrive and unlock the door. The keys continued to start the car, we just could not lock the door :)

Friday morning we went to Shasta Caverns. The tour started with a boat ride across the lake and then a ride up the mountain to the caverns. The lake was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun on the boat.

My sister and her husband

Me and Dan

My sister decided to pretend she was on Titanic. The boat captain was quick to remind her that the Titanic sank.

My parents

Inside the caverns

Dan at the lake overlook outside the caverns... isn't he handsome!

There is a large Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River in Redding. We had lunch at the cafe nearby before walking across.they had metal signs in the ground that would intersect with the shadow the bridge made to tell you the time. Our watches were all within five minutes of the time shown on the ground.

We had to take a group picture for my parents of "their kids" at the rehearsal dinner. (My sister, Amy, her husband , Charlie, my brother, Cade, and us) The dinner was held at a country club that overlooked the Sacramento River. We had an excellent view of the gorgeous sunset as well.

I took 98 pictures, so I really am weeding them out a little for you. I will post more soon. The wedding was beautiful too!