More clicks from a trip

Okay, find a seat and get comfortable.

As promised, here are some more snapshots from our recent time away from the office.

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I know, I know. I promised pictures of the wedding. But this picture is wedding related.

That's Connie in the tiny cabin at the kitchen, baking muffins, muffins, and more muffins. In all, she baked seven dozen; she also did all the advance prep cooking for five huge breakfast casseroles.

Why so much food? Because we'd promised to feed everyone at a day-after-the-wedding brunch. We did the same thing at Emily's wedding and had apparently forgotten how much work is involved.

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That's me yelling at the GPS unit in Connie's car. Where were we? I have no idea. Somewhere in central Massachusetts amid a snarl of highways clogged with homebound traffic on a Friday afternoon. At least that's where the GPS said we were.

Of course, the GPS also said we were five miles from our destination and that it would take half an hour to get there. We considered abandoning the car and walking the last few miles, but that would have meant leaving the muffins behind.

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Okay, we're finally here. By "here," I mean the Bement Center, an Episcopal church camp and conference center with deep connections for the groom's family. Somehow it manages to be conveniently located and hard to find simultaneously.

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This shot's a little dark because it's at the bar back at our hotel. We were pooped but stopped for a night cap and ran into Connie's brothers Geoff and David and Geoff's wife Linda. We had a delightful conversation away from all of the tug and pull of the wedding. The next night we had a similarly great conversation with our nephew Ron and niece Susan and their significant others. Sometimes it just helps to step away from the big event.

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It's rehearsal time. You can tell by all the puzzled looks on people's faces. Or maybe I'm the only one who looks puzzled. The priest seems serene, and the twins' friend Allegra, who is in charge of the music, acts as if things like this happen every day. But then she's used to facing chaos with confidence, she's a children's choir director.

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Photo time and Meghan is at work. She also shot the pictures at Emily's wedding, and she's a real pro.

She's also a bit unorthodox, which fits with my daughters and their friends. Just now, she's having the bridal party run in two different directions around the bride and groom, playing a crazy version of the schoolyard game Red Light, Green Light.

The resulting photos were a hoot, and the silliness worked wonders when it came to calming down Maggie and Josh.

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Those are the silvery skies of Massachusetts.

They may not be blue. But at least it's not raining.

With the wedding outdoors in a little grotto beside a brook, we were keeping our fingers crossed. The indoor alternate location seemed a long, long way away.

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That's the couple of course. Maggie looks lovely, and Josh is splendid in his tux. They've been together as a couple for something like 13 years now, knowing each other since they were undergraduates at Williams College. The ceremony, low-key and emotional at the same time, marked the uniting of some very strong families.

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And very loud families. The reception was in the camp dining hall, a place with incredibly bad acoustics.

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Okay, we're cooking again. I'm out making coffee for the Sunday morning brunch. Connie has enlisted about half a dozen of Maggie's friends in cutting up fruit for fruit trays. Muffins are warming, and the first of the casseroles are cooking. Right about now, Connie realized she had forgotten the grapes. Several huge bunches were back in the refrigerator at the cabin.

That's all right. There was so much food absolutely nobody noticed.[[In-content Ad]]