The Day After the Wedding

Our flights home were set for Sunday, August 3rd so we had all of Saturday to spend in California. So we headed to the local Orange County Fair. It's a fair that runs for about a month, which was amazing in itself. Each of us found something to catch our interest.

First, me with the quilts in the Arts and Crafts building.

The quilts were hung very high up and therefore it made it difficult for quilt enthusiasts to really enjoy them. This wasn't a quilt show, where quilts are hung at eye level, but rather lots of various different crafts. In fact there were many "collections" displayed at eye level and who knew that folks collected such oddities. Sorry I didn't take pictures of the collections.




There were several huge cookers that were being used by various food vendors to cook mostly chicken halves and ribs as well as fajaitas. Those cookers were fairly typical, but then as we were leaving we came upon this cooker that was being used to cook huge hunks of beef that caught Don's eye. We took lots of pictures in case he ever decides to build one for himself.


Besides all the typical rides found at fairs, it also had livestock on display and various food competitions.

Wow they sure can grow huge lemons in California! The largest was a big as a grapefruit.



But they can't grow pumpkins as big as North Carolina. I've seen bigger ones at the local pumpkin patches here in October.

The Wedding

On Friday, August 1st, we attended the wedding that was the reason for going to southern Californaia. It was a beautiful day, sunny and actually not very hot at all, which was a surprise for me! I was expecting it to be much hotter and since it was breezy and dry it was very pleasant.

Here are Tommy and Libby McCraw, they are our good friends and parents of the groom.

This is the mother of the bride, Pat Tingwall being escorted by her son.

The bride, Amy being escorted by her father, Jerry Tingwall.

The bride and groom, Seth and Amy McCraw being presented as husband and wife. (That's Matt Bolinger in the background, the pastor who married them.)

This is Stacy, sister of the groom and her husband, Nate VanWassenhove. This shows what the attendants wore. Each girl had her choice of the style of the top. Nate was also a groomsmen and had on the designated tuxedo.

This was their cake, it was carrot cake. A very nice cake topper of their new initials and a bride holding a key and a groom with a black ball on his leg was at the bottom and interesting.

The wedding and reception were both held at a country club. The wedding was outside on the patio overlooking the golf course. The reception was just inside, behind the patio. That made it very convenient for us out of state guest.

We were treated with a fruit platter and various appetizers as we waited for the wedding party to have their pictures made. Then at the reception we had all previously chosen between filet mignon and either chicken or salmon. The chicken came with mashed potatoes and the salmon had rice with it. Everyone got the filet mignon as well as mixed vegetable medley. This was after we were each served a salad and rolls.

Mr. and Mrs. Seth McCraw making their entrance at the reception, which was filled with lots of music and dancing.

The couple headed off to a honeymoon in St. Lucia in the Caribbean.

California Trip Update

The wedding that we came here to attend is tonight. We did go down to Newport Beach yesterday and had a very nice seafood lunch. We had very delicious shrimp in the shell appetizer and Don had the "World's Best Clam Chowder" both were very good. Then Don had a combination seafood skewer with rice and cole slaw. I had crab cakes with potatoes and sliced tomatoes. All of it was very good, but a little high priced. Oh well it's not something we do everyday. Then after all that fun, we went to the rehearsal so Don could get his video taping instructions and then on to the rehearsal dinner at the local Outback Steakhouse.

Here I am at the end of the Newport Beach pier with the beach in the background.

Definitely too many people for me. But they do have a nice paved strip along the top of the beach for people to ride bikes, skate, walk or whatever. Something we see on television shows.

Then this is where we had our seafood lunch.

Here we are at the wedding rehearsal with Seth McCraw, the one who's getting married that we came to see.

Now off to the wedding at 6pm on Friday, August 1st.