What was to be happily ever after

During the Spanish colonization of California, the Franciscan and Jesuit orders built missions to spread their religion and confirm territory for Spain.  As you would imagine, they started in San Diego merged onto I-5 then took the 405 exit north and onto the 101 in Los Angeles,  this they followed North, building their missions and eating at In-N-Out along the way until they got to the Sonoma Valley where they stopped. 

Why did they stop?  Why not continue to consolidate their dominance of wine country and journey into the Napa valley?  All historians in my office as I write this agree, that to do this they would have had to take highway 29 through Robert Louis Setevnson State Park.  And though these were men who had ridden the stormy Atlantic, could force unpaid laborers to build without ever feeling sick to their stomachs; that road just made them way too queasy.

 The map below probably does not do justice to the experience, because what you need to understand is that this is straight down/up hill at 40 to 60 miles an hour if my dad is driving late to a wedding. 

Being braver or more foolhardy than any monk or conquistador, we traveled this road at breakneck speeds to make it on time to my cousins wedding at a vineyard in the Sonoma Valley.  We got there about a minute before the wedding was scheduled to begin, but luckily other more important people were late too, so there was time to say hello and take our seats before the procession began.  Which was good, because I was feeling very sick from my journey down the road which could have served to uncork any of the fine bottles of wine at the bar. 

So I was not particularly focused as the family members and friends came down to the aisle, and it would be a few minutes before I was really up to taking in what truly beautiful scenery surrounded us. And now, if you'll allow me (and I think you will because it's my blog) I'm going to get sappy for a bit. 

You spend so much time watching Hollywood's approximation of wedding-day love in the eyes and faces of two people that it is almost surprising when you see it for real in person.  Not the manic passion of adolescent infatuation, not the disturbing fervor of the co-dependent, and not the sort of unexpected resignation so common in today's romantic comedies.  It's a kind of excitement, muted by time and commitment, but enhanced by the events of that day. 

It's has a light to it that somehow makes the sunniest day and most beautiful vineyard a little dimmer in comparison, and you almost wish you were in a plain cellar somewhere so there wasn't so much distracting you from their faces.  And you definitely wished it on that day, because it was hot as hell out there in that suit.