we went up to the Windy City (lil’s first real trip there) to go to her Christmas party, and enjoy a weekend of frigid temperatures and high winds – less than 5 days after returning from St. Lucia. the party was nice…..but growing up at andersen consulting, you get you to the Christmas party being a lavish event where new hire puke in the restrooms and some partners wife is dancing a little too close with a consultant…so anything less than that always feels like, “eh, it was a nice dinner.” : )
it’s good to know you can find the comforts of home wherever you go….even at this little establishment that seems somewhat curiously placed right off of rush st.
we walked in a loop around wrigley looking for a bama bar…..we knew there was one nearby.
jackpot – the houdstooth. now, that’s what i’m talking about – comforts of home!! a welcoming place to watch us take on the gators and urban meyer, and tim tebow, and all the little leper kids that tim tebow has healed.
here are lil and i before kickoff in front of a faux deer horn chandelier.
a video of the excitement that is bama football in chicago and a surreptitious display of a texas tech symbol by my wife.
the game didn’t work out well for us in the end, but we had a good time regardless (as evidenced by the videos).
here’s a view from the window of our room at the sheraton.
here’s lillis in front of the famous lion (or one of the two famous lions) that greet visitors to the art institute of chicago – probably my favorite museum in the world. they have one particular room (the helen birch bartlett) that is hands down my favorite anywhere. monets, the famous seurat, van gogh’s bedroom and picasso’s guitarista. solid stuff. unfortunatlely, all of those things (except the seurat) were not showing whilest we were there due to construction : (
we did get to see this, however….i’ve always liked the positioning of the oldenberg statue an the lichtenstein.
and their stellar collection of remingtons
not pictured are the fabulous winslow homers and georgia o’keefes, or any of the 1,000 times i checked my nose to see if it was running…..did i mention it was cold….i mean COLD!
after all the planning and stresses of trying to pull together a wedding in about 3 months after both starting new jobs, lillis and i were MORE than ready to get away for the honeymoon. i actually didn’t get flights settled until about 10 days before we left (and btw, they were donated buddy passes from mike – thanks again, mike) and a few days after that, i confirmed our hotel. i went with trip advisor’s top rating, which belonged to stonefield estates – it didn’t dissapoint – sitting in the shadow of the petit piton. we flew in, got pulled out of the security line for some reason (they probably thought lillis was a visiting dignitary or something) zipped past regular security and picked up by a driver. we were at our place about 45 minutes to an hour after we landed. our villa was about 20 or so feet from the next closest villa and was completely enshrouded in palm and banana trees. we had an outdoor shower (something lillis loves) and a giant hammock on the porch (something lillis loves) a private deck and plung pool (which lillis would have loved, but it was a little colder in the pool than one would have thought – probably owing to the banana tree over it) and our own refrigerator (which lillis loves).
here was the view coming in……in the far left of the frame are the two pitons (which are a Unesco World Heritage Site). our villa was around the north end of the second (petit) piton.
oh, and i’m assuming everybody knows, you can click on a picture and it will enlarge to full screen
here we are on the drive in. our driver alba had just finished dropping off some food for his roosters with his son. apparently there was a big cock fight coming up that weekend and he wanted to make sure “little jerry seinfeld” had his strenght up.
we got in not too long before sunset, so lillis just settled in and made herself comfortable in the hammock until we headed over to dinner
this was the view from our bed
dinners at the restaurant were beautiful, peaceful and romantic. one amazing quality of the st lucians that is certainly worth noting is how amazingly courteous and punctual they were. drivers were on time. at the restaurant, the kept your glasses filled, dinner came right after the appetizer and they brought the check promptly. and the front desk took care of anythig we needed and even billed us centrally, so we never had to pay for a cab or a cruise or anything until checkout. it was wonderful….anyway, this was the restaurant.
we ate most of our meals as an almost all inclusive there at the resort. they had a beautiful little restaurant that served fabulous food. lillis liked that the birds would come and visit her. she called them “friendly birds” where friendly is used as a name and not as an adjective….so, more like “bengal tiger” than “scarey tiger”. it was cute. mostly, they were friendly b/c they liked to eat the sugar off your table. if you didn’t have sugar sitting out, they were barely even courteous birds.
so, for day 2 we hopped the shuttle to jalousie beach (about 10 minutes away) situated right in between the two pitons (not a metaphor). it was ridiculously beautiful. lillis really liked that they had a platform out in the water. she was actually quite resentful when anyone else dared get on her platform.
after we sunned on the platform for a while, we went snorkeling. the following are a few of the day 1 snorkel pics. the place where we snorkeled was along the piton that is directly behind us in the preceeding picture. it’s only about 100 feet wide and probably 300 feet long, but it has really amazing coral and quite a bit of fish….particularly given that it’s on the shore of a busy beach. it drops off pretty quickly to well over 50 feet, but we stayed in 5 to 25 feet of water there.
these were calimari…um, i mean squid. i guess they’re called squid when they’re alive. it is weird though, b/c deer are called deer either way. : )
that night we went on a sunset cruise. it was pretty awesome. we sailed along for a couple of hours, had some champagne and watched dolphins who took a break from their feeding to chase us.
a full sail of wind heading northward.
nothing like watching the sunset as your boat slides through the water.
the dolphin were literally swimming on all sides of the boat and on several instance leaping 3 or 4 feet into the air. i shot this guy as he was landing from a leap about 15 feet off the bow of our boat (shot with a camera, not a gun).
my feet were the first thing to make it back to land
the next day we got up and i took a few pictures from our balcony while lillis lazed around.
then we headed off to climb the piton. normally, it’s a reasonably difficult hike, but when your guide is in a hurry and you do a 2+ hour hike in 1 1/2 hours, it’s a freakin killer. luckily it rained on us the entire second half of the climb up, so we could see almost nothing at the top. i suppose that’s the worst thing that happened to us the entire trip though, so all in all, i’d say we did pretty well. here was the view from the top. lillis was chilly so we swaddled her with a beach towel. martinique is not seen, hidden by the clouds behind us.
on the way down it had started to clear up though…this is halfway back down gros piton.
as we were walking back to the base i shot this scarey looking black and white shot of the mountain we’d just climbed.
i also took a picture of this not so scarey flower we walked past.
i had the driver pull over (at what turned out to be his on place) to take picture of this several hundred year old remnant from a sugar mill.
on the way back, we got the driver to just drop us back off at jalousie. we chilled on our platform for a little bit (after the pretenders to lillis’ throne had vacated) and then i went for a little more snorkeling after getting a shot of the beach for posterity.
it didn’t take this guy long to tire of me following him.
here are a lobster, and a fish hiding behind some rocks in an entryway guarded by sea urchins
and then sun set on lillis’ platform and we headed back home,
where we had our romantic in-room dinner (part of our package with stonefield). it was a phenomenal meal and we also drank our complimentary champagne.
the next day we were up and off to see the volcano, the sulphur springs and the diamond waterfall (which sparkles and is multi-colored from all of the minerals – many volcanic – that flow over the walls).
here is the volcano. churning out a pretty good bit of sulfur, it had quite the smell, but it DID work WONDERS on our sinuses.
then we walked over to the sulfur springs (which were hot as all get out) and took a little mudbath. i always wondered what lillis would look like in “white face.”
and then on to the diamond waterfall.
we smelled pretty ripe from the sulfur so we went back to jalousie for a swim. and for diving practice.
lillis had the opportunity to do her headstand (which she insists is going to be a tradition that will persist).
then we got a group portrait
before going for some more snorkeling. the water was 81 degrees, so i stayed in for about an hour or more…..lillis got cold after about 30 or 40 minutes and headed back up to sun herself on a rock.
we attempted 5 shots of the two of us in front of that giant spongey looking thing. this is the only one where it didn’t look like i was about to kill her, and even still i think my hand looks menacing.
as i mentioned, in general, lillis did not take too kindly to people on her platform, but she did like josh and emily (honeymooners from columbus) who we met on said platform. they were a great couple who had met at their 5 year college reunion. this is a picture of them playing chess in front of the sunset as seen from ladera (a resort in between the two pitons) overlooking jalousie beach.
the next morning we got up and headed over to anse chastenet which we were told had fabulous scuba diving. it didn’t dissapoint. what DID dissapoint is that i got INSANELY claustrophobic when we went for my check out dive (i’m certifiable, but not certified). we were in 5 feet of water and i was STUGGLING!!! i had to pop my head out of the water twice and felt short of breath. had i not known how important it was to lil, i totally would have bailed, but that, plus the fact that i knew i had been able to go under in costa rica pushed me on.
ultimately, lil was right and once we got moving i was fine. i will say that on the first dive i used 50% more oxygen than she did, but by the later dive i was only 20% less efficient than her, so that’s a victory.
right after we got going we ran across this moose that someone had buried at the bottom of the ocean. poor moose.
this was a moray eel that i got a little too close too (i wasn’t the best at maintaing neutral bouyancy).
for part of the dive we were cruising along a wall that dropped to well in excess of 120 feet. i stayed at 45 feet or so, not wanting to have my lungs explode if i freaked out.
some of the colorful coral
here’s the diving video from the weekend. it really was pretty neat to see the reef and all the sea life around it…..why two copies? b/c some people can’t see the youtube one.
then it was back to the villa. here lil demonstrates terrible cannonball technique. when one is as skinny as lillis’ is, you MUST have proper cannonball technique if you want to get a good splash….i was dissapointed : )
the view from the plunge pool.
that night (our last in st lucia – or “the lu” as i’d like everyone to call it) we decided to go to the fish fry at anse la raye. the sun was setting as we waited to depart soufriere.
lillis is pretty in any country
even when she’s not looking at me.
the fish fry was pretty cool. we had a great meal of lobster, crab cakes, vegetables, and a couple of different fishes. they had music in the street, kids shooting basketball at what appeared to be an old toilet seat attached to a phone pole, and some really sketchy looking guys playing dominoes and leering at me. well, it was awesome except for that last part.
the next morning we went to breakfast (where i shot a pic of this bouganvilla in front of the piton)
then we went and got manicures and pedicures (my first). oh, and i figured i’d put in a picture of lillis’ lovely little outdoor shower.
we had an absolutely great time and are so blessed to have had the opportunity (and to have everything work out given how late we waited to plan it).
here’s some video from the week…..nothing too exciting, just some views of st lucia and what we saw and did there.
it was definitely great to have one restful week before heading back to the din that has surrounded our lives for the last few months. coming back, we knew we had a few short weeks to get lillis ready for her series 65 exam and get things sorted out for christmas and new year’s plans. no problem! oh, and if you’re just itchin’ to see more photos…they’re here.
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soooo, you may or may not have heard that lillis and i got married. yep, hearts are breaking all over america….i’m off the market. the weekend was great. we had her family come in on wednesday, and my brother and some of my friends got in on thursday, so we had a pretty long week of it. dinners, golf, rehearsals, entertaining. lillis was quite the trooper (her idea of fun typically centers a little more around being able to interact with just a handful of people at the time). she was sleep deprived and overloaded with places to be and people to see, but she was a joy the whole time. i even checked her foot temperature consistently and they never seemed cold (she wouldn’t allow me to use a thermometer, though). anyway, here are some pics from the wedding. someday i’ll get some video up here, but for now, i suppose the pics will suffice.
lillis’ dress. if you think it looks great here, you should see it with her in it!!
here, jeremy and i are hanging out before the ceremony
here lillis’ dad looks out the window wondering if she’ll actually go through with this…either that or he’s texting someone.
i think this is a picture of lillis, but i’m not sure cuz i can’t see her face.
here are lillis with her maids and matrons….rachel, lacey, lil, melissa, blake, and monica. for some reason the photographer had lillis bend over like she has scoliosis. also, the girls are wearing the scarves that i brought back from vietnam.
here are me and my groomsmen, dietze, jeremy, doug, brad, drew and jason.
here i am trying to talk lillis out of hopping on a horse and riding away.
this is what my wedding party would look like if we were all 1000 feet tall and lived on a tiny earth. of course, brad would be 1500 feet tall.
this is us with some people thrown in as background
this is a picture representing what it feels like for lillis every time we kiss
here’s the clubhouse at the horse park
these are our rings. mine was ordered off of amazon (along with two other rings…..i didn’t know my size) about 10 days before the wedding. lillis being worth any expense, i even sprang for expedited shipping.
our wedding was a big deal….even sarah palin came. lillis loves sarah palin.
even though they were knocked out of title contention by a questionable pass interference call, brad had the penn state game playing on his phone for dietze.
lillis has pretty hands, too!!
here, her bridesmaids are praying for her before the ceremony. across the hallway, my groomsmen were mocking me.
rod (my desert travelling companion and friend) did the ceremony. he did a lovely bit where he takes input from our wedding party about who THEY think we are and wove that into the ceremony. he got rave reviews, but there is no video evidence. after i listened to everything and then repeated a bunch of stuff, i got to kiss lillis. that was probalby my favorite part. i had been instructed that i would be told when it was ok to kiss her, so i waited for my cue. i think at that point we were married.
lillis likes her grandmother’s hands.
our hands reach towards the camera. there are a lot of hand shots here.
here a bunch of hands are seen disassembling lillis after the ceremony while lillis tells sara she can’t believe what she’s gotten herself into and sara tells her that it will be ok.
here we have our first dance…..ben folds – the luckiest
erin, congratulates lillis with a BIG hug.
lillis makes more funny faces.
lillis covers my mouth…..but i thought we were in the trust tree?
lillis doesn’t like that her mouth was open in 90% of our photos (not counting the hand shots) but i think they’re lovely and capture her energy and personality.
here we are in the dark in black and white
and in color we look even more colorful.
here we are dancing. lillis’ mouth is open again. she was hesitant at first, but later, really embraced “billie jean.”
we share a tender moment outside…..before lillis explains that “holy crap, it’s cold out here!!!” and we go back inside.
then we walked off, esconsed in bubbles. the weird thing is that happens everywhere lillis goes.
it really was a great time. i was SO glad to have so many close friends there sharing the event with me. it was a wonderful weekend and a wonderful day. we’re so thankful for the time we got to spend with everyone and sorry to those we didn’t get to spend much time with (where does it go?) thank you all for taking the time to be a part of our special day….those of you who always knew lillis would find the guy for her, and those of you who always wondered if there was a woman who could put up with me for me : )….what a wonderful way to begin life together.
oh, i almost forgot….full pics (including many more of lillis with her mouth open) are online here. enjoy!!
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sooooo, i was able to convince john and stephen that it would be a good idea for us to spend a weekend out in the woods with no food and no hair dryers (more a concern for stephen than for me - and less so every day). we found our way up to the greater […]
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well, i'm sure everyone was jonesin for an update on the fantasy baseball draft update. i know it's like a monkey on my back. well, we were very excited that our draft angel was still there this year and had not indeed been killed by the fans of the Dominican team last year. as you […]
soooo, i decided to wing on up to DC to check out the WHO at Verizon Center with my friends Jeff and Todd and my brother Jeremy. We had a pretty fun weekend there, highlighted by either the girl who claimed she had political asylum, or the one whose belt was "Hermes" (as i was […]
all apologies for my lateness in getting this post out. the lesson here? i'm a slackass. a special note, going forward, all blog pictures will be clickable. clicking them won't make you smarter, but it will increase the size of the photo. this service i supply to you free of charge.sooooo, stephen, jason and myself […]
soooo, as you may know (if YOU are indeed reading this, and it's entirely possible you're not) i am now coaching volleyball. i'm coaching a girls 13's team that plays out of Woodward. often times those practices are the highlight of my week. there's something really amazing about having 12 people scream your name every […]
i usually try not to really mention what i'm thinking here, as it is my general supposition that no one really cares, but today will be an exception. i'm not even going to pretend that any more than 3 people in america might find me insiteful, but i figured i'd just put it out here. […]
nothing really to tell here. drew and i went fishing. i caught my first bass (more of a fly fisherman, i am)you may remember my phat hat as being the same one i won for catching a barracuda on drew's bachelor party. it still looks every bit as good as it did the day i […]
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Hope you enjoy the site. Below are links to different content on the site, and to the left are the latest posts from my blog at charlesbreland.blogspot.com. My pictures are on picasa, and I've just completed building my professional photography site at charles+camera.com.
