We spent all of last week in the windy city. It was our first trip (besides our honeymoon) together. We stayed at the semi-luxurious W Hotel right across the Navy Pier on Lake Shore Drive. It was fun to get away from California and get a taste of real fall weather. It was doubly fun to see old friends.

One of our highlights was going to the famous jazz club, the Green Mill. Notorious for being one of Al Capone’s speakeasies during the prohibition era, now it has been transformed into one of the nation’s premier stops for all emerging jazz artists. That particular night we went with friends to check out a local big band orchestra playing. We also got a chance to get our 20s groove on with some swing dancing. Needless to say, it was tons of fun.

Taking a Walk

Last week, we took a stroll through the neighborhood because, that’s what married couples do. I think.

it was a nice autumn evening, where the sun was coming down after a hard day’s work. We caught a glimpse before it disappeared in the horizon, and noticed everything was painted red.

We also snapped some pictures. Yes, this is married life.

ewedding.com Website Going Down

People,

Our ewedding.com wedding website is going to be taken down in 24 hours. Thank you for visiting us. One of the nice things about ewedding.com is that it offers decent analytics for the site. We’ve had 1952 unique visits (this doesn’t count for return visitors), 41 comments, 5 direct messages, 120 RSVPs, and a few hundred votes on polls.

Not bad for only being online for three months.

Thanks again for your support.

Life Is A Beach

There were plenty of Margaritas to be had in Cabo San Lucas. Enough to last a lifetime. Not to mention the cervezas. Pacifico, Dos Equis, Sol, and Corona. I imagine they ship by the truckload every second of the day. The bottlers could not possibly keep up with the demand. It is pure miracle, the fairy dust kind. And tequila? How is it not a trip to Mexico without tequila? Don Julio, Patron, Tres Generaciones. They all come in three distinct choices, anejo, blanco, and the local favorite reposado. Just thinking about tequila makes my head hurt. Good thing we waited till our last night to have some. And we managed to share that time honored Mexican tradition of sipping on tequila with new found mexican friends at the salsa bar. Hemingway would have been proud.

We met our new friends, Hector and Rebekah, at the sunset cruise. After some cordial chatting we decided to extend our evening together by going to Sammy Hagar’s bar, Cabo Wabo. It was filed with gringos and a gringo cover band playing typical rock songs that gringos like. We knew this was not our scene, so we moved to Bar Arriba, apparently a local favorite with nightly salsa dancing! The men and women moved gracefully and sensually, shaking their hips and stepping from one end to the other effortlessly. When the live band came on, we also joined the mix of latin lovers and danced the night away.

That is how we ended our honeymoon in Cabo: with new friends, some fine tequila, and salsa dancing.

Addendum: Yes, this blog will continue on.

Buttons!

The buttons are all done! 100% hand made. In place of wedding favors, we will be giving out buttons. And with the money that would’ve been spent on favors, will instead go to UNICEF. Yes, it is inspired by Barcelona FC’s break with their long standing tradition of not taking any shirt sponsors (and foregoing millions of euros in endorsement money), and putting UNICEF logos on their shirts instead. They will be donating 1.5 million euros in the next five years. We won’t be giving quite that much, but it’s the spirit that counts right?

Thanks goes out to Rachel with the designs. And Lisa and Billy helped with handcrafting them. And lastly, check out Lisa and Rachel’s awesome design blog at joliejoliedesign.blogspot.com.

10 Best Restaurants in Seattle

Simple Pie.

We know a lot of people are looking forward to some good eating while in Seattle next weekend. Don’t take it from us, but from the professionals at Seattle Metropolitan. They have Seattle’s 10 Best Restaurants of 2009 published. You won’t have time to go to all of them, but I’m sure it’ll be a treat to visit at least one.

22 Days Left...

Can you believe it? We can’t. There’s only 22 days left till we get married. Our 100 day project or so is on its final stretch. And even though it’s gone by so fast, it’s been quite the journey.

Along the way, we’ve run into some rough patches, have learned tremendously more about ourselves, both the good and the bad, and have realized that it’s not just love that is required to make a marriage work. It requires tenacity, fortitude, and an uncompromising commitment to make it work.

But we’re glad that we’ve gone through all of that, because it grounds us in reality, and yet allows us to enjoy (and cherish) the prospect of becoming one.

This past weekend, we also made a quick trip to Seattle to take care of some things. We ran some errands, went down to Portland, and visited the Puyallup county fair.

We also went to the county office and applied for our marriage license and certificate. It made us feel like true adults and hit us hard with the reality of what we were doing. We paused and contemplated the gravity of the situation.

Then, we went up to the city to watch the Informant!.

Engagement Photos: Part 4

All of our engagement photos are now complete and online! Many thanks to Sergio and Lisa for helping us out, and for Sergio especially for spending many hours post-processing. Check out his work at his flickr site, and if you’re ever in need of a photographer and are in the bay area, he is quite good.

Engagement Photos: Part 3

We’ve uploaded some enagement photos to our wedding website. Click on “Photo Albums” on the left column and check it out. Sergio and Lisa were awesome photographers that helped us tremendously.

We’re also in the process of updating our website to have more complete information. But if you’re looking for our wedding registry, or directions to the ceremony and reception, go check it out.