Friday, July 12, 2002
Leaving San Jose airport was great. We got to long term parking, found a space easily, and checked our bags at the convenient curb-side baggage check-in. Security made Mike get 'special screening' because his metal coffee cup set off the metal detector (duh). Next time, he's using a plastic cup. The flight was long (non-stop from San Jose to JFK), but fine.
JFK was full of busy, grumpy, unhappy people. And, just to make it a little less hospitable, the terminal we were in was under construction. We eventually got our luggage, then made our way through the crowds of grumpy people to the curb where the Hertz rental van picked us up. Then we got to endure the twenty minute ride back to the Hertz building, courtesy of our driver, Captain Kangaroo. Speed up! Slow down! Speed up! Slow down! Speed up! The average period of one of these cycles was four seconds. We were dizzy by the time we got to Hertz, but we found our car, and took off through rush-hour traffic to Connecticut.
OK, 'took off' wasn't quite it. One does not simply 'take off' through rush hour traffic trying to leave New York City on a Friday. But we did eventually make it to Greenwich, CT, where Malcolm, Ellen's boyfriend, and Ellen had prepared dinner and a place for us to stay. We got to look at lots of pictures from their Yale Glee Club African tour.
Saturday, July 13, 2002
After Meredith and many other former Yale Glee Club members rehearsed the pieces they would be singing in the wedding, we all went to lunch at Town Pizza, another first for Mike.
The ceremony at Battell Chapel and the reception afterwards, at the Graduate Club, was lots of fun. The happy couple ran a 'guess where our honeymoon is' contest. The correct answer turned out to be 'Southern England'. Wonder if anyone got it?
Sunday, July 14, 2002
We met up with Texas and Ellen, ate lunch, and then wandered around Yale. Since Mike had never been to Yale when it wasn't January or February (i.e., freezing) before, it was his first time to really see the campus. Ellen took us up in the bell tower, where we got to see the carillon where she's played. We also got to wave at people taking the real tour, far, far below us.
Despite leaving in what seemed like plenty of time, we still pushed it really close getting back into JFK. Traffic into the city sucked, and even on returning the rental car, it took forever to navigate around JFK to where we needed to be. But despite that, we made it home, safe and sound.