The Pre-Wedding: Part 2

Friday – Friday was a busy, busy day. Cora and I led a group of 23 members of my family, plus Tony and his wife into downtown Seattle.

Yes, we're insane.

Trying to herd the cats to get them out of the hotel was almost impossible. We knew that there would be no way to drive and park downtown, so we opted to drive to the park & ride, and take the bus into town. Now, for some of these folks, this may well have been the first time that they were on a city bus. So, as the doddled thru the parking lot, the bus we needed showed up. It was comedy classics as 25 people filled up the bus. I was toward the back of the bus, and when we finally exited at the stop in Seattle, I had to explain to my 21 year old cousin from Indiana, "No, that wasn't a really ugly woman, that's called a 'utilikilt' and that was a guy." Guess dudes don't wear skirts in southern Indiana.

Our first stop, after a 30 minute bathroom break, was Pike Place Market. And this is where things started to unravel. Some people just took off. Others decided to meet at a certain spot in 20 minutes. Well 20 minutes isn't nearly long enough to see much of anything, but they all picked that time without asking us that knew.

At the designated time, we thought we had everybody, so we headed to the gum wall for some pictures. I told them that they were going to see something that they had never seen before. Some where amazed. Others wished they hadn't seen it for the first time. And that's where we realized the group was down 2 people. In retrospect, we should have just given them phone directions on where to see the gum wall, and then where to head, but I didn't. It was Tony & Maribeth, and they would have been more than fine on their own the rest of the day. But, I went back and found them. Which stalled the rest of the group at the gum wall. After we got everybody rounded up, we headed down hill to Pioneer Square for lunch. We busted up into smaller groups, because no place was going to be able to handle 25. That was the best move of the day.

Cora and I split from the herd and walked to this quaint little sandwich shoppe called "Quizno's" for our grub. (Isn't she adorable?)

After lunch, about half the group decided that they didn't need to be back for the wedding rehearsal with the rest of us, so they were going to take the Seattle Underground tour. The rest of us hiked like fools up 1st Ave, then over to the Mall to pick up the monorail to the Space Needle. (When we arrived, we had given people explicit instructions on what bus and what platform they needed to be on to get back to the cars. Instructions that they almost ignored to their peril later. Why would you ask a security guard for the right bus when you already had written down the number of the bus you rode in on? Luckily, random stranger lady interrupted, and set them back on the right path.)

It was another 30 minute bathroom stop (what is it with these people?) before getting on the monorail to the Space Needle. It was not that long of a wait to go up, but time was starting to tick by as we had to be back by 4:00 for the rehearsal. Up most of us went, and the view was pretty good, though Mt. Reiner was obscured, like I'd warned them. A leisurely walk around the sky deck, and some time in the gift shop, and it was right on time for us to be heading back. We caught the monorail back, and were heading down the bus stop with our group strung out over about 100 yards when the bus we needed to make it back shows up. No amount of shouting and waving could encourage them to actually walk down the escalator, and there was a train behind the bus, (in downtown Seattle, they share the same transit tunnels), so he couldn't wait. Next bus? Scheduled for 20 minutes. It finally came. On the bus, this crazy woman started having a very weird conversation with my uncle Bob. Turned out, she had a blu-tooth headset on under her hoodie, but I still think she was nuts. We also checked that all the cars in the group had some sort of navigation device to get back to the hotel and change before heading to the country club for rehearsal.

Cora and I hit the ground running. (Or as close to running as Cora can do since the whole "blood clot on the spine" incident.) We ditched those jokers in(I hadn't gotten my room yet), and tore off for the country club before anyone else had the parking lot and tore @$$ to the hotel, where we quick changed in the lobby bathroom even gotten there. We made the rehearsal right at 4:01. Right on time. No way being one minute late like that would ever burn you, since you can't be sure that everyone's watch is set EXACTLY, right? (If you smell foreshadowing, congratulations, you were paying attention.)

NEXT: The Rehearsal and my Rehearsal Dinner speech.