Thursday, May 26, 2005
thelma and louise
Okay, so the backpack saga has been put on the back shelf for a week while we attend to family business.
First up was the wedding of Ms Love's brother, Jay, to Helene. Breaking new boundaries for having your wedding in the middle of nowhere, they got married in Thunder Bay. For those, like me, that thought Thunder Bay was the town where Aussie soap Home and Away was set, it is in fact almost in the exact geographical middle of Canada (ie pretty damn far from anywhere else).
True to the North American theme, the wedding was held outside. I'd not seen anything like it since Madonna got married to Sean Penn on a cliff many moons ago. Helene is French Canadian so there were a few customs that we had not seen before. Apparently, if your younger brother gets married and you (the elder brother) are still single, then you have to dress up in a pair of multi coloured socks with bells and dance a solo jig around the reception hall. Unfortunately for him, but to the amusement of the rest of us, Ben (the elder brother) had to perform said jig. Though judging by the enthusiasm with which he threw himself into the task, it actually seemed he quite enjoyed the whole thing. And I'm equally sure that the rules can be adapted next year so that younger brothers have to perform the task. Better get sock shopping Sam...
Though not exactly possessing the world's most vibrant downtown (2 weeks here and I know all the lingo), Thunder Bay did scrub up well when the sun came out. Perfect bright sunshine over the lake and a slightly bumpy hill in the distance that the locals like to call a sleeping giant (much like Crystal Palace really).
Post wedding, we embarked on a road trip with the outlaws. 20 hours of driving spread over 2 days. Lots of lakes and trees along the way, then even more lakes and trees. The highlight being seeing a bear crossing the road. To pass the time, Courtney and her mother embarked on a brave attempt to break the world record for how long 2 people can continuously talk about weddings. With only 25km left till Gravenhurst they finally rested, with a morale sapping 19 hours 35 minutes of continuous wedding chat on the clock. Bryan treated us to his array of classic Canadian canoe songs. He must not have especially enjoyed my CD selection, so much so he couldn't bring himself to suggest playing it again till we were about 10 minutes from the end!
First up was the wedding of Ms Love's brother, Jay, to Helene. Breaking new boundaries for having your wedding in the middle of nowhere, they got married in Thunder Bay. For those, like me, that thought Thunder Bay was the town where Aussie soap Home and Away was set, it is in fact almost in the exact geographical middle of Canada (ie pretty damn far from anywhere else).
True to the North American theme, the wedding was held outside. I'd not seen anything like it since Madonna got married to Sean Penn on a cliff many moons ago. Helene is French Canadian so there were a few customs that we had not seen before. Apparently, if your younger brother gets married and you (the elder brother) are still single, then you have to dress up in a pair of multi coloured socks with bells and dance a solo jig around the reception hall. Unfortunately for him, but to the amusement of the rest of us, Ben (the elder brother) had to perform said jig. Though judging by the enthusiasm with which he threw himself into the task, it actually seemed he quite enjoyed the whole thing. And I'm equally sure that the rules can be adapted next year so that younger brothers have to perform the task. Better get sock shopping Sam...
Though not exactly possessing the world's most vibrant downtown (2 weeks here and I know all the lingo), Thunder Bay did scrub up well when the sun came out. Perfect bright sunshine over the lake and a slightly bumpy hill in the distance that the locals like to call a sleeping giant (much like Crystal Palace really).
Post wedding, we embarked on a road trip with the outlaws. 20 hours of driving spread over 2 days. Lots of lakes and trees along the way, then even more lakes and trees. The highlight being seeing a bear crossing the road. To pass the time, Courtney and her mother embarked on a brave attempt to break the world record for how long 2 people can continuously talk about weddings. With only 25km left till Gravenhurst they finally rested, with a morale sapping 19 hours 35 minutes of continuous wedding chat on the clock. Bryan treated us to his array of classic Canadian canoe songs. He must not have especially enjoyed my CD selection, so much so he couldn't bring himself to suggest playing it again till we were about 10 minutes from the end!
// posted by courtney and pete @ 17:45 
