and Christel
Gallery photo
maid of honor
Anthony, ushers
Carol's mother |
Christel Murdock It's been so long since I've e-mailed you, but we've been home from our trip for more than a week now, and I promised I would get my account of our trip to you for the next Muse. Alison and I embarked on our very first real trip together in the last week of September. The weeks before that trip were harried and quite busy, because my Mom was planning her wedding and we were trying to tie up loose ends. The Wedding: Actually, I'll start with the wedding. We ladies showed up a little bit on the late side, because our limo to take us to the church was late. The men were all on time and looked amazing in their tuxedos and suits. Dee and Anthony were ushers, along with my uncle Rob. Payton, Kaitlin (12), Sarah (11), and Faith (11) (the last three are our new step-sisters), were the flower girls. Reilly was the ringbearer, and Don's brother Brian and I were, respectively, the best man and maid of honor. It was a beautiful ceremony. Robert (my brother) read scripture from the Bible, women cried, they said I do, and suddenly I was richer by a step-father, three sisters, and another grandmother. As Don and my mother walked out of the church, we blew bubbles at them instead of rice (save the birds), and my Mom looked absolutely glowing as she stepped out over the threshold with her new husband. We went to a reception at the Coronado Yacht club, where the decor was a beautiful beach theme, complete with kissing glasswork fish favors for each guest. The family did the macarena with Charger beanies on, to honor my brother and his kids' love of our home football team. Later, guests stood and welcomed Don to the family and told their stories of watching the love between these two blossom to the beauty that it is now. All night, people took pictures at the tables and danced to a small, but very good, band, while we ate a delicious fish or steak meal, and had a beautiful time catching up with old friends. Around 8 pm, Alison and I had to leave to catch our plane to the East Coast, so the newlyweds cut the cake. None was slung by the lovebirds - one of my favorite parts of the ceremony, but it was good nonetheless. At that point, Alison and I dashed off to our plane, our once perfect dresses the casualty of our haste. [Ed. note - More photos from the wedding can be seen in the Muse photo gallery for Nov.-Dec. 2007. - - RDM] New York, and the Yankees: The ride toward the east coast was relatively uneventful. Having been up for quite a while, and looking forward to a long day, we slept most of the way. We made a quick connection in Chicago and headed to New York. When we arrived in New York, we had a car waiting for us. Alison and I planned carefully and shared one checked bag between the two of us for efficiency purposes. We claimed our baggage, got in our town car, and headed to town. When we arrived at our destination – The Vanderbilt YMCA – it was around 11:00 AM, too early to check in. We left our baggage in a secured area, took a romp around town, found Grand Central Station, and made our way to the Yankees’ ball park for the game. The day was a bit warm for our taste, and I realized that I’d forgotten my sunscreen in my suitcase at the YMCA. I’m quite fair skinned, so I knew this wasn’t going to do. The only sunscreen they had at the park was five dollars for one ounce of SPF 15. I usually prefer more protection, but I grumbled a little bit about the price, purchased it, and slathered it on. Better safe than sorry. The game was not what we’d expected. The Yankees’ fans were kind of on the dull side that day, we were in the bleachers, and it was just scorching hot! So, we cut out a little bit early. We arrived back at our hotel after a brief ride on the subway, checked in, and headed to our room, which turned out to be a closet-sized room, with a bunk bed, a television, and a dresser, with just enough room to squeeze between them to the small sink behind the bed. The restrooms were down the hall, dorm-style, but we had a good view of the street! Legally Blonde: We’d had a long day, with no clean-up opportunities after the wedding. With three pounds of hairspray in my hair, I was happy to get a chance to shower. Alison and I cleaned up and headed toward Broadway to see Legally Blonde – the musical. My expectations weren’t incredibly high. Normally, musicals made off of movies are quite cheesy, but this show was so much fun! The cast had a ton of energy and the dialog and songs were even a bit catchy. After the show was over, we were bubbling over about how much fun it was, and heard that people were getting in line to have the cast sign some autographs. We had nothing better to do and were energized by the show, so we stood around and waited. I got my picture taken with several of the cast members, but alas, Alison’s favorite cast member – the little Chihuahua – did not emerge. She resigned to taking a picture with a poster of him, and then we headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night. Protest at the U.N., and Good Food: The next morning, we woke up to the sounds of people chattering and walking quickly down our street. Alison (on the bottom bunk), peeked out the window to investigate and saw people carrying flags and signs toward the United Nations building. Since we had planned to have Turkish food for lunch, we got dressed quickly and headed out, but our curiosity got the best of us, so as a young couple passed by, headed away from the protests, I asked them what they were protesting. He said they were protesting the President of Iran’s ideas… among them, that the Holocaust didn’t happen. Alison and I headed toward the U.N. to take a closer look. There were holocaust survivors with signs, Israelis with flags and signs, and all manner of people bound together by a belief. Alison and I were handed American and Israeli flags, and we waved them together with the protesters. We took a picture of a Holocaust survivor, thanked him, and finally headed out as the protest lost its numbers. We had a beautiful lunch at a Turkish restaurant called Dervish. Now, Alison and I have a thing for trying new foods, so we like to try a new type of food as often as we can, and this was our first time seeing a Turkish restaurant, so we had earmarked it the night before as we walked from Grand Central to our hotel room and were delighted by what we found when we finally got to sit down and enjoy it. The food was like a combination of Indian and Greek food, dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), okra, curries, and dill yogurts were all on the menu. After a beautiful lunch, we happily carried our leftovers to the Mets’ Shea Stadium. I guess I might say here, that our reasoning for this trip was two-fold. Of course, Alison and I love to travel, and she’d never visited the east coast on her terms. Also, Alison has this dream of visiting all of the major league ballparks, so we thought this would be an easy way to knock a few out. And finally, I love the east coast – the people, the art, the culture, the history – all the things that make it so different from California. The Mets: So, back to Shea Stadium… The stadium is set to be replaced by a new park coming soon, so we were glad to get this opportunity to check out this part of Mets history. The park seemed significantly nicer than Yankee Stadium. It was comfortable and colorful, and the fans seemed a little friendlier as well. I should add that this was a night game, so the fact that the temperature was a lot more bearable might have some sway in how I felt about the matter. We enjoyed the game, but were sad to see the Mets lose. We headed back after the defeat and wandered around our hotel area, where the police were protecting a perimeter around the United Nations, and they guided us in the direction of late night eats. We got some food and headed back to our room for our final night at the Y. Bus Trip to Baltimore: Morning number three, we took our last dorm-style showers of the trip and headed out to the Greyhound station to get ourselves to Baltimore. We hopped in a cab in front of our hotel, running short on time, and after sitting in the cab and not moving for a five dollar fare, we hopped out, paid the driver, and swiftly set off to the station on foot. We made it just in time to hop on our bus, but with no concern, as there were still plenty of seats left upon our arrival. Alison and I slept on our way to Baltimore. In Philadelphia, we had a little bit of a layover, so we went to the Reading Market around the corner. I found some beautiful fruit butters for my Grandparents, but when I unzipped my backpack to get my purse, I realized that I had left my purse on the floor in the bus! I ran out of there, one woman commenting about a poor old man with a cane, telling me I should just let him walk. I quickly explained that I’d left my purse on a bus and didn’t mean to be rude, and left them in my wake, hoping they’d understand. When I arrived at the bus terminal, after a slight bit of confusion, we found out that the bus had not yet left. I was escorted onto the bus to get my purse, and all was okay. I even had the opportunity to go back to the market and buy the fruit butters for our future hosts. After another two-hour trip, Alison and I arrived in Baltimore unscathed. However, Grandma Murdock was on crutches, a fact that somehow had eluded me, and Grandpa, of course, had his cane. I was so happy to see them and to have the chance to let them meet Alison, so we gave them hugs and hopped in the car, chuckling a bit as the navigator and driver gained their bearings and we all headed to Camden Yards for the Orioles game. On the way, we decided to stop at Harborplace for some crab cakes (well, Alison and I would have crab cakes, Grandma and Grandpa would have their choice of food), but once we arrived, we went across our parking structure and found we were on the second floor, the escalator out for repair, and the stairs probably a much-too-daunting task for the group, so we settled on fast-food Thai instead. The Thai food was delicious. Alison and I scarfed it down in minutes, leaving Grandpa and Grandma to try and catch up. At some point, we all had finished eating, and wanted ice cream. The ice cream shop on our floor was closed, so Alison and I headed downstairs to grab some ice cream for everyone. As I headed upstairs, Alison and I lost each other, and somehow amidst some confusion, Alison lost her phone. We did eventually all end up in the same place, walked through our parking structure, and took a cab down the street to the ball game. The Orioles at Camden Yard: Camden Yards wasn’t much to look at from the outside. A relatively nondescript brick building, but at least it was clean. Once inside, however, the place transformed. Gardens, flowers, beautiful green wrought iron gates, a clean facility with incredibly friendly employees who let us in the VIP entrance instead of making us walk around to the side gates. Alison noted that security wasn’t as tight at the ball park as it was at The Padres’ Petco Park. At Petco, you wouldn’t make it two sections from the baseline seats but, although at each step, the ushers asked if we needed anything, they let us through when we said all we wanted to do was take some pictures up close. This delighted Alison quite a bit. The Orioles took quite a beating at the park, so the four of us had to quietly turn our heads and exit after the fifth inning. It was a great time, though. Even Grandma Murdock said it was the most fun she’d remembered having at a major-league ball park in quite some time. [Ever!--NAM] Murdock “Treasures”: On our way home, we got to talking about Grandma’s quilts and Alison had a perfect introduction to the treasure trove of Nancy Murdock original art at 4-D Fallridge. That night, we read through most, if not all, of Grandma Murdock’s quilt books, regaled with the stories of each individual piece and how they came about. We went to bed relatively late that night and somehow ended up sleeping well into the morning. Grandma Murdock made breakfast for us. We got to taste the fruit butters we’d brought, and we enjoyed our morning together, with more good Murdock-family stories. The parting was sad, as it seemed altogether too soon, and we promised to keep in touch and hoped to see them on our next trip to the East coast. Philadelphia: We arrived at our bus pretty late, so when we got on, there were no two consecutive seats open, so Alison and I had to split up. She sat next to an older gentleman, and I sat next to a young man and his book. Not really sure about the etiquette of busses, I struck up a brief conversation with the man I was sitting next to. I found out his name was Zu, he was going to school at LaSalle, and the book he was reading was for his philosophy class. After our conversation, I left Zu to keep reading because I didn’t want to contribute to the delinquency of a college student… it’s difficult enough to hit the books and stick to the work. We arrived at a brief stop in Delaware (now I can happily mark Delaware off as a state I have visited). Some people got off of the bus and Alison and I were able to sit next to each other. I hopped into another seat and Alison joined me. While on the last leg of our bus trip, a friend in Philadelphia that we were supposed to go to the Phillies’ game with texted me saying that she was sick and wouldn’t be able to go. So, I went back to Zu and asked him if he and a friend would like to go. He called a friend, who was unavailable at the time, and later told me he and his friend would meet us at the game. We had a great time! The ballpark was beautiful, and the fans had soooo much energy! The Phillies were in second place at the time, and closing in quickly on the first-place Mets. We had official Philadelphia cheese steaks at the park, which I shared with Zu, took lots of pictures, and we all walked back to the subway together, but parted ways at the Independence Hall station and Alison and I headed back to The Omni, our beautiful four-star hotel, and crashed. Our last full day on the east coast, we met up with one of my friends from the last time we’d gone. We had a nice little lunch in a busy college-area Cosi and caught up on good times. We got a picture together and went our separate ways. After this, Alison and I went on a tour of Philadelphia’s history. We saw the Love statue, with the “o” a little bit crooked – “because love is never perfect.” We saw the Liberty Bell, Reading Market, Hard Rock Café, the Franklin Institute, The Philadelphia Zoo, several museums and other Philadelphia sights. On our tour, we passed through a place the tour guide affectionately called restaurant row, and Alison and I noticed a restaurant with cuisine from Afghanistan, so we headed back to our hotel room, tidied up and hit Kabul for our first taste of this delicious food. That night was a Thursday – reportedly the best night to go to a local bar called Sisters. I had been there before, but Alison was very much impressed by her first visit. We did a little karaoke, got some free food and a couple of drinks, made a few friends, then walked back to our hotel, full and happy, around 1:00am. Our very last day was quite rushed. We started the day at a by-the-pound buffet restaurant. After paying for our food, we realized they must make a killing on their foods! We took our food back to our room, packed up, wrote some postcards and took another half turn on the bus tour we’d taken the day before. We hopped off the bus at Reading Market again, grabbed a cab, and were finally on our way home. Summing Up: The trip overall was a lot of fun. Alison and I had a plethora of new experiences and really enjoyed each others’ and our hosts’ company. We learned a lot and walked away having accomplished exactly what we set out to accomplish. Our next trip will be a New York only trip, in September of next year. We’re looking forward to it! |
