Wedding in Chico

The only good thing I can say about being at home in bed with some searing abdominal cramps (hey, wait, why don't I take a painkiller? - Didn't even think of that one yet!) is that I can catch up on the blog. Last week was so busy during the week, and I decided a handful of days away from the blog world would be a reasonable thing.

Conrad and I returned last night from a weekend in Chico, CA. Hands up those among you who have been there or who have thought you might one day go. Hmmm, yes, me neither. Chico. What the heck is a Chico? The name lends itself to a nice wealth of jokes and puns, I think, but otherwise it was a faceless northern California town that was likely to be some dusty open main drag and all the life sucked out to the shopping mall. What else could it be?

Hmmm. How about a thriving small university city with some handsome pre-1900s buildings, the third-largest city park in North America, a terrific farmer's market, a compact and walkable downtown full of interesting storefronts, and a lovely community nestled amongst hilly country, orchards, and rice fields? Ah yes, that would be Chico.

In other words, we had expected to go to an old friend's wedding and otherwise not much else this weekend, but from start to finish, the trip has made us seriously consider adding Chico to any extended northern California trip in the future.

But let's go through chronologically and pictorially. The lead photo is from our hotel following drinks with Grant and Malinda the night before their wedding; Grant is someone I've known from back home for about a dozen or so years now, and I'm delighted that he and Malinda (beautiful woman with a good career in nursing and a couple of young sons) have met and married. The second photo shows Conrad with some strawberries purchased at the Farmer's Market. Up next, the trip starts with a shared limo ride to the airport Friday morning with Gil and Rakhael:
We stayed in the Hotel Diamond right in the heart of town. From there it was an easy walk over to Creekside Cellars - not a winery but a good wine shop that was hosting a Friday night tasting. The wines were hit and miss, but we brought back two for ourselves. Note to self: find the Husch Chenin Blanc they'd sold out of.
Once home from the wine shop, we found a message from Malinda that resulted in us joining the wedding rehearsal dinner. That was a nice treat, and I will compliment The Albatross on its simple but very good preparation of salmon. Not at all overcooked, letting the good flavour of the fish shine. After dinner, Conrad and I went back to the hotel with Grant and Malinda for a drink. I had to apologize to Conrad the next night: I haven't seen Grant in a handful of years, so much of our chat was him and I going over old times. Neither he nor Malinda got much chance to get to know Conrad this time. Sorry everyone for that.
The wedding was at 6:00 on Saturday evening, so we had plenty of time to get around town and see the sights. The hotel breakfast was pretty sad (though the room was quite fine), so we ended up foraging a bit more. The Farmer's Market was an early stop, but we drove and walked around all over Lower and Upper Bidwell Park. This immense city park built along Big Chico Creek stretches out into hot, dry open country. The lower park is cool and shaded along the creek and includes numerous paths and part of the creek dammed and converted into a pool.Regarding the hat: yes, it is a Bob Daugherty hat. Sue me: it was well over 90 degrees there (in fact, it got up to 103 that day) and it takes a lot to maintain my pale pasty complexion. Also, somehow I think I look like Jeph's BF in a small way. Weird. Not a bad thing though. No, we didn't swim at the pool, only felt the temptation. We eventually did the second of two workouts that weekend at the In Motion Club where we had guest privileges from the hotel. 8 lanes outside, not busy. Wonderful. Too bad we could only do 15-20 minutes for fear of a bad burn!

Upper Bidwell park was stunning - in the city, but out in the country with hill formations that looked like a cousin to the Sedona landscape. Lots of volcanic rock around there, of course. The creek has some pools for swimming, and we did view some, but the heat radiating from the black rock was obscene!
What else did we fit in? Gosh: browsing for used books (CG and Jeph, I found a couple of goodies for you two), lunch at the Upper Crust, a bakery/cafe with ridiculously marvellous "granola bars". Let's be real, they were snack cakes, dense and sweet with an apricot filling. Our last one sits in the fridge right now - we picked up three yesterday morning - and I was tempted to bring even more home. Finally, though, we drove out to the almond orchards of Malinda's Dad's ranch for the evening wedding.

So, some wedding photos. And a few quick comments:
I think I look good, just need a bit more slimming and toning maybe? No more granola bars for a while?
A bit blurry, but the couple gets photos done before the ceremony.

Most of us got some shade, but Grant's family resorted to the fans all guests received to get a little relief.
Brent, the guitarist. Conrad and I sat with him the night before and chatted more with him after the wedding. Nice young man of 20, and let's be blunt: darn cute!
The pastor is Grant's ER supervisor. He did a "Joey from Friends" and got certified online to be able to perform the ceremony. Malinda pulled together the vows from disparate sources to stunning effect: Grant barely made it through his part without crying.

No photos from yesterday, just a nice morning stop at Upper Crust again and a pleasant trip home. Bad airplane movies in both directions this time, but I'll get over it. I am dismayed that France lost yesterday, but I will carry on just the same. In the end, though, terrific weekend and we look forward to a return visit to the newlyweds one day!