We got up bright & early and walked from our hotel to the heart of Port Townsend. This ended up being a longer walk than anticipated…8am - 2pm, so wearing flip-flops was a bad call on my part. It was worth every ounce of aching feet though.

Day 2 - Port Townsend Gallery

Day 2 - Wedding Gallery

It was very foggy in the morning as we walked along the marina. The abandoned boat out at one spot was quite eerie in this setting. When we got to the big hill in town, we noticed 2 deer meandering on the side of the hill. We trucked up the hill to discover about 8 more all wandering around the old lighthouse. It was quite a surreal experience seeing them walking in the gate, as if that were their home.

Mom was scoping out all the beautiful Victorian homes, while I continued forward to explore the large red building in the center of town. It looked to be a cathedral from a distance but as I got closer, my guess was a school. I wished the fog would lift because I loved the color. There was a lady reading the morning paper on the steps, so I asked her what the building was. “Our courthouse,” she said, “Beautiful isn’t it?” Oh, I agreed whole-heartedly. I’d never seen such a unique courthouse.

We explored the entire town and every little locally-owned shop. One lady had a camera store with all kinds of postcard prints. They were quite good, so I asked if she’d taken them. She said she takes a trip to somewhere around the world each year, and these were her photos from those. She’d been sooo many places. I went for a sunset photo of a pier in Port Townsend that had been destroyed a few years prior. Next place we ventured to was a glass store. The artist was running the store, and we talked to him for quite a bit. His colors were magnificent, and I was so pleased that he let me take photos of his work, since I couldn’t afford the pieces I really wanted to buy. I settled for a small ornament with orange stripes. He said, “My wife taught me everything I know about color. She picked out all the colors for the first 3 years I did this. Then finally, one day she said, ‘you’re on your own.’” It was quite delightful speaking with him. He walks 8 mi every morning to work, which was hard to believe, since he’s over 60. My poor sister got named Mork by him though after I said my name. We stopped by later in the afternoon, because my mom finally talked herself in to purchasing something and he said, “where’s mindy?” hehe we were already regulars. he was quite envious of my megapixels on my camera though :)

We ate lunch in a lovely lil cafe where the fish was really fresh. My sis and i both had smoked salmon fettucine, and it was really mmm. However, this also marked the place that ruined my day. My sis wanted an interior shot, so I increased the exposure +2 b/c it was really dark. It wasn’t until I was looking through my photos on my laptop that evening that I realized I never decreased the exposure setting, and thus, the entire beautiful blue skies afternoon shooting spree was a complete loss. The sky was practically white. I was SOOO mad at myself. Of course, the next day was cloudy, so I couldn’t make up for my shots. Luckily, mom was taking some photos too, so she captured a bit of it. I took a lot of photos she didn’t though. Oh well, live, you learn.

There was a farmer’s market festival dealio uptown, so we checked that out. We bought lots of prints from a local artist. The colors were very van gogh, and I fell in love. I so wish I could have afforded one of the larger prints.

We finally made it back to our hotel to get ready for the wedding. We did manage to make it to the wedding on time heh. The wedding was outside and it was such a perfect day. Yasi really got a fairytale wedding. It was hands down the best wedding/reception I’ve ever experienced. It was such great fun, and everyone was soo happy. They only invited family and close friends, which I think helped maintain that happy atmosphere. This was the first time we’d gotten to meet/see Yasi, but she greeted us like she’d known us forever. She’s really not the type of girl I pictured Adam with, but he tells us she’s a redneck at heart. heh, they seem really, really happy though, and i know my cuz is a great guy, so i think they’ll be just fine. They’re both really intelligent and lawyers. Yasi seems to actually enjoy Adam’s endless knowledge of american history, which was Adam’s best friend’s clue that they really were 2 peas in a pod.

So it turns out that Yasi is Persian. Basically, this resulted in a reception experience equivalent to my big, fat greek wedding. It was crazy fun! Every member of her family, young and old, was out on the dance floor. They formed a big circle, and eventually nearly all the “oh no someone might see me look silly” white folk joined in. They played tons of persian dance music, and her family was trying their best to teach us the basic moves. They obviously appreciated/enjoyed watching our efforts. One guy told my sis the next day that she really learned quickly. It was honestly the first time I’d ever danced at a wedding. The 2 brothers we were sitting with were also really getting in to it. It was great times! My sister told Yasi’s family that they were all officially invited to her wedding…whenever it may be…so her wedding can be as much fun.

It was a wonderful evening, and it was great to see the two families all getting along so well. They were so similar and everyone was just soo nice. I shall never attend another wedding, b/c they are all destined to be boring letdowns after this one.

I should also mention they played Step-by-Step by New Kids on the Block, which was beyond awesome! And also beyond scary that I remembered the words.