Date: 2016-07-21
From:  Port Clinton

To: Steamboat Springs Colorado
Miles today: 0.0

I took a week off from hiking the AT (July20-27) to attend the wedding of my niece (Missy) to her boyfriend Mike. I have been looking forward to this event for several months. For some events, the anticipation is greater than the actual event merits. That was NOT the case with Missy's wedding. That event met and even surpassed my expectations. Both Missy and her Dad (My brother Tom) expressed surprise that I would interrupt my hike for this event. The truth is that I wouldn't have missed this event for anything. Missy is very athletic. She had a problem in that one of her favorite 5km (3.1 miles) footraces was on the same day as her wedding. Fortunately for Missy, the race was in the morning, and her wedding wasn't until 2:30 in the afternoon, so she attended both events, although she dressed considerably more casually for the morning event. (A wedding gown is pretty tough to wear in a footrace.) I think my brother also ran in this event. The wedding was held outdoors in Steamboat Springs Botanic Garden. They say that at least one thing goes wrong in every wedding. In this wedding, the thing that went wrong was that my brother Tom seemed to be suffering from some kind of lip irritation. I say this because he kept biting his lip as he escorted Missy to be married to her boyfriend Mike. (wink, wink) Missy likes to involve everyone in her fun, and she could see no reason to exclude her dog (Zeplin) from the activities. Zeplin looked radiant in his/her floral dog collar, and was a very dignified "dog-of-honor." Unfortunately, it was a hot day, and Zeplin looked at the pond right next to where the wedding took place, and just knew it was the perfect time for a swim. Zeplin was held in check by two very small but determined flower girls who almost got pulled into the pond trying to restrain Zeplin. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the bride and groom rode to the reception in a pedicab, followed by a procession of friends on bikes. The groom (Mike) made a terrible mistake in that he made both of his brothers his best man. The first brother rose to (allegedly) propose a toast. However, this devious man had other ideas. He first said that he would probably be much briefer than the long winded brother who would follow him. He then launched in to a lengthy but VERY humorous accounting of every prank and misdeed the groom had been a victim of growing up as the youngest of three brothers. To be honest, it sounded like a roast. I glanced over at the groom, who had a smile on his face that seemed to say, "this is probably going to be a LONG evening for me." When the first older brother finished, his other brother took center stage. After first chastising his co-best man for accusing him of being long winded, when the first brother's speech had been everything except brief, the other brother then launched into an even longer but hilarious recounting of yet more of poor little brother's misdeed throughout his life. The groom's father then rose and announced that he wished he had one more son to marry off so he could find out what other terrible misdeeds were done by his kids when he wasn't home. I would have thought that my brother, being the bride's father would have immunity against the barbs of his son-in-laws family, but I was wrong. At one point, a sly remark was made that the color purple was chosen for one of the wedding colors because it was one color that my brother would never wear on his ski racing bib. I think that purple is the color that the very elite skiers wear on my brother's favorite yearly ski race (that he has participated in for 25 years) the Birkebiner. My brother then rose for his speech and announced that he was NOT going to embarrass his daughter at her wedding. He then added that he would wait until the last week in February to do that. This was his threat that his daughter had better watch out, or dear old Dad might beat her in the next Birkebiner. Missy did not seem too worried that this might happen. I wish I could report that the newlywed couple got off to a good start as good, decent, law abiding citizens, but alas, this would NOT be the case. They had been married only a few hours when they were stopped by the police. They were walking home from their wedding reception (not entirely sober) when the police stopped them to caution them that a crime had recently been committed in the area they were walking.