Such a Perfect Day, Part 7

We spent the three days after the wedding sleeping, beaching and eating—all necessary requirements of a post-wedding recovery regiment. We wandered around aimlessly, with no projects to complete. It’s funny that after the wedding and house building major tasks were finished, we all sort of felt like our lives had no meaning. We were sleepy and confused when the day had no decisions to be made other than what to put in the cooler.

The Wednesday after the wedding brought only the second day of rain in the two weeks. And, of course, it was the day of the friends/family/neighbors picnic. We cleaned up the house a bit; Dad and Bill worked on what would be a mastery of pulled pork; and, we enjoyed doing generally nothing for most of the day. Late afternoon, guests started to arrive, and another incarnation of wedding celebration began.

We drank wine, listened to music, talked with everyone, gave tours of the new house, had people sign our engraveable “guest book” frame, and at a wonderful inside picnic of sorts. When the rain stopped, we all eventually found ourselves on the deck, telling stories about our childhood – the Keefers reminiscing about Poppy and Nana, and the five siblings and their crazy adventures.

The Frenches, The Coopers & The Keefers

Everyone filtered out, we cleaned up, and then crashed and burned. Matt and I had decided to go on an impromptu, one-day, quasi-honeymoon, road trip the next day. We woke up, threw a few things in a bag, and headed out. We took the long, but scenic route to the 1000 Islands region. I hadn’t done this trip since I was a kid. We took the 2 Nation Tour on the Uncle Sam Boat Tour.

2 1/4 Hours – This international tour will take you on a 22 mile round-trip through American and Canadian waters – what is considered the ‘heart’ of the 1000 Islands. This trip will give you the best overall view of this truly unique geographical area shared by two nations. We cruised the St. Lawrence River, over historic sunken wrecks, and by magnificent summer homes of the rich and famous. We learned local historical facts and folk lore, and about the area’s geology, environment and native wildlife. At the end of the cruise, we disembarked at Heart Island for a self-guided tour of Boldt Castle.

After buying ice cream and knickkancks, we headed back to our glorious hotel room at the Edgewood Resort, where we just stared at the crystal clear river, enjoying the boats, scenery and general beauty of the day. Our balcony was right at the water’s edge, so we could really feel at peace after our crazy wedding weeks. We took out time doing everything, eventually heading down to the hotel restaurant for an extremely leisurely Italian meal. We finished our evening with a bottle of 2005 Carmel Road Pinot Noir back in the room.

View from our balcony

The next morning, we found a horribly slow and only slightly serviceable diner for breakfast, then headed back to Sandy Pond. Even though it was just for a day, it was really great to get away, just the two of us, and have that moment as the sort of final memory of the wedding festivities.

As soon as we got home, we packed our stuff and then changed into our bathing suits for the final few hours at the beach. This is always the worst part about the pond…leaving it. But, we were able to enjoy beautiful weather and a wonderful last swim.

This is actually from a different trip, but is a perfect example of how you feel when it's time to leave...

We headed home, packed dad’s car, and left for Pittsburgh. We had a generally silent ride home, arriving around midnight, exhausted and sort of sad.

 We went to sleep that night knowing we were back in the real world…