I remember telling Nick Adamson at one time that there was no reason he should ever expect me to visit Texas, not in a million years. But I was wrong, because Elisa and I made another trip to DFW last weekend. This trip was for Nick and Karen’s wedding, which was awesome.

Let’s start with the airline story. Our flight into New York was a little delayed, so we were running the risk of missing the connection. After we landed we spent forever waiting for both our suitcases to show up on the carousel. Elisa’s arrived, but mine never did! 😐 Bummer. Plus now it was already five minutes since our connection was supposed to have departed. I asked somebody about whether we could get on a different flight that night. He said that actually we couldn’t, because the last flight of the evening was canceled due to snowstorms in Dallas. Really??? In Dallas? I thought he was joking. I had checked the weather forecast two days earlier, and it was 60 and sunny all weekend long! This sounded like some yarn they spin for anybody that is late for a flight, so I didn’t trust him too much. Then he said that our original flight hadn’t left the gate yet, and they were going to hold it for us! 🙂 Whew! Now we knew that luck was on our side. We sprinted all the way across JFK, up and down stairs. I was very proud of myself, having been practically bedridden for the last few weeks. We weren’t even the last ones on the plane, because some other Zürich passengers hadn’t had the resourcefulness to cut in the passport control line. 🙂 I think we were the only ones who sprinted too, mostly because we didn’t actually trust them to hold the flight for us. So we waited at the gate and then finally took off for Dallas. About two hours into the flight the captain turned on the intercom. It’s never a good thing when the captain’s message includes the words, “In my 21 years as a pilot I’ve never had to do this before.” The snowstorm had indeed arrived in Dallas, earlier than expected. The airport was clogged, with planes expecting an 8-hour wait on the tarmac for gates to open up. Visibility was 1/8 mile. (Really??? In Dallas?) So the plane turned around in the air and brought us back to JFK in New York! How lucky were we really to make the flight? We found a hotel nearby and finally got to bed at 11 pm. For us, coming from Zürich, it felt like 5 am. Then we got up before 5 am New York time to attempt to stand-by on a 7:40 am flight. This time we made the flight and we got to Dallas.

We arrived in Dallas at about the same time as Michael Scoville and Merrick Schaefer. Nick met with us and treated us to a Tex-Mex lunch. Oh, it had been so long! It was nice to eat real, good food all weekend that neither Chad or I had to cook. Then we shopped for a formal for Elisa, and she did really good at finding something. I take forever to find anything usually and then go back and forth whether to buy anything forever. We must have found a modest gown, jewelery and shoes in under an hour. That has to be a record, especially being 3 months pregnant. That night was the rehearsal dinner. I made Nick late because I needed him to drop off some of his clothes for me. (My luggage didn’t show up until the night before we left.) Pretty much all weekend we were eating delicious food until we couldn’t hold any more. The rehearsal dinner was at a Sushi place where Nick and Karen went out together for the first time. They must have brought out 14 or so courses. I just started to taste everything because there was no room left to eat and I was so tired. It was a lot of fun to get to know both Nick and Karen better and their families too.

Saturday morning we got to dine at another American restaurant that we have really missed: Denny’s! Considering how much we like good food, I’m really surprised that’s one of the ones that we miss. But Denny’s has good breakfasts and they’re big enough to share. Then we bought some DVDs to keep us company on the long flight home.

Saturday afternoon we all met up for a Russian banya experience. Wow, those are cool. The banya near Nick’s house is co-ed (and non-nude) so the partners could all come. We’d like to find more of these near Zürich or Seattle. The Banya was a completely relaxing experience. When you think of going from the high dry temperatures of a Sauna and then dunking into a tank of freezing water, you do not think the word “Relaxing” but it was wonderful. I especially liked the Turkish steam bath and snacking on all the Russian food in between. I got to know the guys and Cristina a lot more and I really hope we can all do a couples trip sometime soon. After that I had to go participate in a bunch of picture-taking, so Elisa got to get her hair done at a spa.

And finally, Saturday night was the wedding. The ceremony was really well done, I am so happy for Nick and Karen. They had dancing and fake gambling (with charitable donations involved). So it was entertaining, like all good weddings. 🙂 I was hesitant to play along with the Black Jack but it was a lot of fun doing it with every one else. I was only bummed when everyone started dancing like crazy to the fabulous 80’s music. I was SO tired by that hour that I could only watch and be entertained. Next time! Nick and Karen looked really happy. Nick never seemed nervous. It was fun to sit with Merrick and Cristina, and to get to know Cristina better. We really like her.

Sunday morning we had to leave right after breakfast. THANK GOODNESS that the hotel clock automatically adjusted for daylight savings time! We had no idea! (Daylight savings time here in Europe starts 3 weeks later. It’s hard enough to remember when it is in your own time zone.) It was nice to arrive home, and receive all our luggage, and sleep in our own bed.