Honeymoon in Vancouver, BC!!!!!! -- June 2006

The honeymoon story begins the morning after our wedding in the parking lot of the Crescent Hotel where this awaited us. Yes, someone actually wrote "el humpo" on the tire. And the 20 feet of beer cans tied under the car. And I could barely see out of any of the windows.



So, we get underway pretty early because we were flying out of Tulsa airport which is about a 3 hour drive, just under. Except when you have to stop in a car wash and scrub your car windows for 15 minutes so you can see the road. After getting lost in Tulsa for about 20 minutes we finally find the airport and come to a screeching halt in the unloading lane. I leave Jen and all the suitcases there and book it to the long-term lot, pull into the first spot I find, jump out of the car, and take a deep breath as I prepare to sprint the 1/2 mile or so back to the terminal. At that particular moment, the universe granted me a small favor and some crazy shuttle jockey pulled up right behind and said, "Get in, you look like you're in a hurry." So, I hopped in and said, "Get me outta here!" and he replied, "Compliance, navigator" and that dude put that shuttle through some first class maneuvers, allowing the unwieldy bus to slide through the thick atmosphere....uhhh....anyway, we got back to terminal fast and I slipped a five-spot in the dude's tip jar as I jumped down the stairs.

So, we hustle inside, find our airline, and get in line. The details are a little fuzzy but I'm thinking we had about an hour before the flight was supposed to take off. Of course, there's one girl working and two other empty counters so the line is moving slow. After 30 or 40 minutes we're getting close and we're also getting very ancy. There was a nice couple in front us with their two kids. We asked them if we could go in front and we even used the, "We're on our honeymoon ploy" for extra guilt. Being nice, friendly people (and like 3 hours early, wtf?) they let us cut in line. So, we finally get our tickets and head upstairs to security, after a near homicide of a guy with a first class ticket that cut in front of us when we were next in line. Security at the Tulsa airport moves pretty quickly and was a relatively pleasant experience, except for the bizarro lady in front of us arguing with the security employee. After about five minutes of this they started calling our flight and so I leanded over and said, "Excuse me, but that's our flight so somebody needs to check our bags, now." The security agent, a very nice lady, made bizarro wackjob stand aside and wait and man was bizarro pissed. Also, Jen had packed scissors in her carry-on that they had been using to make centerpieces for the reception tables. Jesus. That provoked a massive search of all of our crap, and we had a lot. I told the lady, "You keep the scissors, I don't even want them." I think they went in the trash after she stared at with a blank stare that reminded me of McMurphy, post lobotomy. Then we walk/jogged across the entire terminal to our gate, we may have crossed into Kansas at that point cause it was pretty far and made it to check in just in time to board. Sweet. The flight was pretty uneventful, changeover in Dallas, yadayadayada, on to Vancouver.

Moving on, our hotel, Lonsdale Quay (pronounced key). http://www.lonsdalequay.com/
This place is awesome. Reasonably priced, next to a ferry, and great views from the restaurants. The hotel is on the third floor. The first floor has fresh food from dozens of cafes and small booth type kitchens. Fresh baked goods every morning to wake you up! The second floor had a couple decent dinner restaurants and some very overpriced tourist shopping. Plus, the building is right on the water and next to a neat little sea wall trail with a park. Across the street was a great Thai restaurant as well as one of the best Italian restaurants in the city.

The only negative aspects of the stay were some small scale construction on the first floor which was noisy at time and annoying. We also learned the perils of booking your trip through Expedia. Apparently, they give you the crappiest rooms in the place due to the discount pricing. All of the rooms had harbor views except for three, guess which one we were in. We tried to upgrade but we would have had to move twice, too much hassle. Expedia sure didn't mention that and I would have paid the difference. Hell what's a hundred more bucks when you're slapping down a couple thousand in credit card debt anyway. Regardless, still a very nice room. Clean with good amenities.



Some pictures of the Vancouver skyline across the harbor and the area surrounding Lonsdale Quay.
Us!

There's a restaurant in that pointy thing.

A sweet picture of Jen.

Modern art failure. I don't know what they were going for here but if it was unintentional comedy then I consider it a smashing success.


Vancouver has some of the most incredible natural beauty imaginable. You can stand in one spot and see the ocean then turn around and see mountain peaks covered in snow. The "sea to sky highway" is the main route running north/south that starts in Vancouver and heads up the coast. We went as far as Whistler where we had hoped to do some light hiking and maybe ride some of the ski lifts up the slopes to take some pictures. As luck would have it, we picked the weekend that all of the lifts were closed for maintenance, all of them. So, we just walked around the town and enjoyed the atmosphere and did a little shopping.

Some other things we did:

Capilano suspension bridge is thrilling and great fun. I have to admit I made it sway back and forth a little on purpose.

Jen, not looking too sure about going across the bridge.

Justin's Bachelor Party-02/2008

Names have been changed to protect the innocent, okay, not really. I don't care that much and lets face reality, no one that I hang around is "innocent", ever. At least not in the bachelor party context. One important point about this whole debacle, we picked the coldest weekend of the year.
We're talking bone-chilling, single digit night-time temperatures. Not to mention that the shack is about as high as you get above sea level in the Ozark Mountains. Not for the feint of heart, family friend JR actually thought we would all freeze to death.
Ha ha, what a sissy!

This picture pretty much sums up the scene as it was when I arrived. Miscellaneous piles of dead brush stacked everywhere. Thankfully, I had Nelson with me to help clear all this crap.



Quick picture of the "shack" and my old truck. I kind of miss that truck and it definitely was a nice looking vehicle.



Nelson and I cleared all the above brush, gathered a ton of rocks for a fire pit, and collected and stacked a manly pile of fire wood. The results of our hairy chest labor can be seen below. The fire pit has two cooking areas and a large open space for a decent bonfire. The rock wall supporting the rear structure is about three feet tall and two feet wide at the base. You could cook a whole cow on the thing if you were so inclined. Nelson and the fire pit:

Update: So, my Dad decided to rebuild the fire pit and needless to say he made mine and Nelson's attempt look like it was built by Corky on a Mt. Dew binge. And somehow a 61 year-old man can lift and move rocks that would give me prolapsed rectum. Ha ha, gross! But it's no surprise that Dad's back goes out all the time.

Pile of wood. My wood.



Major kudos to Nelson for toting a pony keg of Diamond Bear all the way from Little Rock. That pretty much made all the work worth it.

So, what else did we do that weekend? I'm glad you asked:

Beer: Justin going after the Diamond Bear


Spades:

A note on spades. David and I went on an epic run and owned the entire room finishing the weekend undefeated. Including a come from behind win where we were down 300+ points. Later, David got so drunk he took his socks off before he went to sleep and then nearly got frostbite on his toes. I'd say it was a win overall.



Cribbage:

This was a beautiful end to a game. I can't remember who was on my team but I know we pegged out to win and left the losers in the stink hole. They had first count.



A bunch of Justin's friends showed up to support him handing his man-card off to his future wife. Hazen, Nathan, Jones, Eli. Notice the two people drinking Busch, one is an engineer and one is a chiropractor. I guess a dollar doesn't go as far as it used to. My dog seems interested although he's more of a bourbon drinker.



I don't remember what the question was but the answer is two, apparently. Thanks Pat, ya drunk baasstad! Also, good work on donating the smoker. Hee hee hee.



mmmmmmmmmm, beans. They were still in the same skillet 24 hours later and still delicious. Now, I'd like to point out the cast iron stove. That wasn't there until Dad, Nelson, and I busted ass to get it put in and run the vent pipe out and over the shack. We didn't have the correct tools to cut the pipe, we had some tin snips which worked, kinda. So, we weren't sure that we had a good enough seal on the inside of the shack and thought we might all die of carbon monoxide poisoning during the night. However, once we got a fire started there seemed to be a pretty good draw pulling the smoke out. I admit I was a little nervous and actually slept as far away from the stove as possible the first night. Also, cast iron stoves need to cure and smell pretty bad when doing so. Guess we should have known that. Anyway, the stovepipe was still standing as of last week surviving multiple severe thunderstorms and pretty intense straight line winds, held up by a partially buried 4X4, tied to a tree and counter weighted with cinder blocks on the roof.



Did I mention it was cold? Dad always turns up in the best pictures. I'll have to post the "f*** you tourists" one if I can find it.



Uncle Rico was there. I'm pretty sure he could throw a football over those mountains. Actually, I think this is our neighbor's deer stand. I'm only guessing but there was a feeder on the other side of the field.



There was, of course, tons of hilarity I didn't include here because it's already long enough. Just to keep them in my memory I'm going to list a couple things:

1. Pork tenderloin =/= beef tenderloin.
2. Smoking meat in 10 degree weather is hard when morons keep opening the firebox.
3. David taught us all the importance of family and looking out for one another.
4. The Marshall Tucker Band may be the greatest group of musicians ever assembled.
5. Socks are a fickle companion and may desert you at any time.