We left mid-month to visit my family in Southwestern Virginia and to attend G’s sister’s wedding in Louisville, KY.
Since it had been six months since I visited, and more than a year since G’s last visit to the US, my family took off work in rotation in order to maximize their time with us–and fun! Grandma threw an impromptu “Welcome Home” party to celebrate our visit. My brother came in from Northern Virginia. We played mini golf and LOTS of card games. Mom cooked our favorite meals. And that’s just the start. And despite my age I still couldn’t stave off the tears on Tuesday morning as we started on our journey to Louisville, KY.
Luckily for my parents who were in the midst of a severe drought, our drive to Kentucky was lined by Fall color drenched in RAIN. Along the way, we made a pit stop in Blacksburg to see all the recent growth on our old campus and were pleased to see the orange and maroon Hokie spirit all around.
The drive to Louisville was lovely, but LONG. G kindly drove the whole way (likely due to the fact that I’m a novice driver after over a year off the road!—Though, I did renew my Driver’s License while in the States). I think we last drove that distance in one go during our Spring Break trip in 1999!
Upon arrival in Louisville, we suffered a bit of hotel drama. But all else ran smoothly as we had a wonderful dinner with G’s sister, Cynthia, and her fiance, Will, on Wednesday night, had girls and guys nights out on Thursday, the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday and , finally, the wedding on Saturday.
The evening wedding ceremony was beautiful with autumn colors, musicians and a soloist. G’s sister and her new husband seem very content and excited. And we’re very excited for them…and wish for them the happiness that we found in marriage.
We’ve written many times about the benefits and drawbacks of living in London. Louisville is ~10 hours from Raleigh/Durham and DC. G’s sister’s new husband, Will, has a fear of flying. We live in London on one income. These factors and others led to an unfortunate circumstance. During their ~2 years of dating/engagement, we had only been briefly acqainted with Will prior to our arrival in Louisville for the Wedding festivities. Not ideal, but you do what you can…hence, we arrived in town a couple days early in order to have dinner with them as a couple, to become a bit more acquainted.
And thank goodness we did! As is always the case at family weddings, our family time and interaction was very limited. The bride and groom and G’s parents were frantic with wedding arrangements, details and hosting out of town guests. SO we took advantage of our spare time. We drove through horse country, ate at favorite restaurant chains (PF Changs, Cheesecake Factory, Panera & Qdoba) and shopped like crazy.
Thanks to G’s parents’ quick thinking and pre-booking, we were able to visit at Churchill Downs to witness opening day, we watched the horses from a lofty Skybox. While it wasn’t my first horse race (Royal Ascot was earlier this year), it was fun to have a bit more time with the other wedding guests who remained in town…and to see the famous and iconic spires of an American Institution, Churchill Downs. A great time and we only lost a few dollars 🙂
Now, we just need to put another American visit on the calendar to conquer my homesickness…having a timeline seems to help.
Click here to see additional photos from the wedding weekend. Click on the individual photos if you’d like to see the caption.