Journey Across the US

Just after we were legally married in Detroit

Us & friends at Cathy & Jon’s wedding

We took our time heading to Argentina.  After spending a week cleaning, preparing, and packing for the trip, we sadly left Sacramento (and our cats) for Detroit, where we wanted to spend two weeks, including Thanksgiving.

I volunteered to make the turkey, mostly since I’d never done it before and wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  We brined it in buttermilk (don’t tell aunt Meg) and it turned out beautifully.  Mmm!  Cara couldn’t make it to Detroit for the holiday, but we got to spend lots of time with the Cicurels, Sterns, Alperts, and Grandpa and Betty.  Plus, Kristen found a latent passion in home jewelry making, so she spent multiple days and nights making jewelry for our wedding, as well as gifts.

Near the end of our time in Detroit, we got legally married.  Now, the plan is to get properly married with a ceremony involving both our families in Argentina.  But a not insignificant amount of internet research revealed that a wedding is not valid in Argentina unless at least one person is a resident, which neither of us will be.  So, our only choice was to get legally married in the states (that is, sign the documents) before heading to South America.  Luckily, one of my dad’s best friends (Paul Saginaw) is an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church (which isn’t really a church), and he agreed to act as our legal officiant.  After a two-sentence ceremony, in which we exchanged Ring-Pops (our wedding rings hadn’t been delivered yet), and which Paul ended by saying “by the mysterious power vested in me”, we signed the papers and we were technically married!

After Detroit, we flew to Baltimore to attend the wedding of our friends Cathy and Jon, which turned out to be a great reunion with many people we hadn’t seen in ages.  Afterward, we took a taxi to DC to stay with our friends Ben and Trisha for a couple nights, and then on to New York via Amtrak.

In NYC, we stayed with our good friends Rob and Nicole, who we hadn’t seen since we left NYC in June.  And what a great reunion!  We got to hang out with them a ton, and we were also able to see Cara and Keenan, our friends Corey and Sheila (who also just got engaged), our friends Ryan and Liz, and of course CJ.

Whew!  It was a whirlwind few weeks, involving lots of couch-crashing, but it was a blast.