The Triple Wedding: Part 2

Wedding #2: The Drum Circle Wedding

I met Angela & Gary last summer during The Great Barnebey/Sterr Escape 2008. Those few days we spent sleeping on their futon, back when The Sway was still young, were a heady mix of fireworks, Travel Scrabble, and spicy cheese balls; there was even a drum circle thrown in for good measure. Luckily it turned out to be a drum circle party, which is everyone's favorite kind of drum circle.

The big pay off came when Julia's wedding invitation showed up with a strongly worded recommendation that she bring me as her date. I'm going to claim that as a half-invite, and I'm flattered.

Careful planning over the summer ensured that my ORD-LAX-PDX flight would arrive just minutes  after her OKC-MSP-PDX flight, leaving plenty of time to pick up our car and drive out to McMenamin's Edgefield somewhere in the Oregonian hinterlands. Unfortunately Julia decided to take the OKC-DET-SEA-PDX flight instead, stranding us at an unfortunately smelling Super 8 for the night. Over breakfast we played scratch off lotto (I have my own scratcher!) and discussed our playlist options for the coming road trip. Then we got in the car, turned on the GPS, and drove the 8 minutes down the highway to McMenamin's. Beware: objects in Oregon may be closer than Julia believes.

On the upside, our shortened road trip provided just the opportunity we were looking for to break out the Travel Scrabble/wine. When I started to cuddle up to the 200 pt. lead barrier Julia made-up some excuse about a rehearsal dinner she had to get to; I'm still chalking it as a win.

In the morning we needed to get off campus, so we took a drive up the Columbia Gorge, stopped at Multnomah Falls for brunch, and proceeded to gorge ourselves on the most impressive buffet I've ever been a part of. Hopefully you know me well enough for that to mean something. I've never sucked so many crab legs dry.

Later, back at the ranch, there was a ceremony in the grass; short, sweet, and unsurprisingly featuring a drum circle. Later than that, there was a band, and dancing, and jumpshots! I didn't get any compliments from the waitresses this time, which would have been disappointing if there had been any waitresses. I did fall in love with a singer of the band.

Evaluation:

Location: really close to Portland, OR

Highlights: Julia, the buffet, the band, the dancing, the Asian Ringo Starr on guitar, the jumpshots, the sweater opportunities, the Scrabbles

Music: almost Funkiphino good, which is really good.

Company: very in tune with their chakras

Food Discovery: bleu cheese roast potatoes. They're like regular roast potatoes, but much bleuer. And cheesier.

Sway: Jerry's Sway

On a scale of 1-10 Ws: 9 Ws