My mom was born in Seattle, and I have many relatives there. The last time I was there was August 1999: I had graduated from Cal, and my friends Glenn, Sanshiro and I drove across the country because of a road sign in Sacramento. However, that's another story. :-) Anyway, on the drive back from Maryland we had stopped in Seattle for about a week.This July (seven years later), I was glad to visit Seattle again. The main reason was that my cousin Chris was getting married!
I arrived on a Friday; the wedding rehearsal would be that night, and the wedding would be on Saturday. I was an usher! I really like this picture from the rehearsal; everything seems so simple and intimate. The bride is Olivia Cheng, my new cousin!
The wedding was nice, of course. Grandma read some Scripture from the Bible. Two young people sang the duet "The Prayer," by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion. I had never heard it before, and I really liked it. (The girl had an especially beautiful voice.) And of course, Olivia wore an elegant dress. After the wedding, there was a special tea ceremony. Here, Auntie Nancy welcomes her new daughter.
Olivia really likes Hello Kitty. The pastor even mentioned it. "Why doesn't Hello Kitty have a mouth?" he asked. "It is because she speaks from her heart." Awwwwwww.
For the reception, Olivia changed into a Chinese dress.The next day, I visited some old friends. This picture is of me, Possu Huang, and John J. Love: We worked together in the Mayo lab. John now runs a lab at SDSU. Yes, technically it's called "The Love Lab." Nice picture, John!
I went to the wedding with my friend Angela Hillier. We met at the GDC, a conference for video-game developers. Angela now works for Microsoft: that's where we took this picture of her and the Master Chief from "Halo."
I had dinner with my cousin Jason, Chris's younger brother. Then, my friend Glenn flew in from Sacramento! I had recruited Glenn to drive with me from Seattle to Sacramento. But there was still lots of time before leaving Seattle.
Possu, Glenn, and I visited my friend Marc Facciotti, who is a postdoc in Leroy Hood's lab. Marc's from Davis, and he was my grad mentor when I worked in Bob Glaeser's lab at Cal. In hindsight, Marc and Bob were extremely gracious and kind to me while I was working there.
My relatives treated me to a lot of wonderful, free food. One morning we had waffles! Here's my Uncle Paul, who is Chris and Jason's dad. Uncle Ron was also there. I'm very, very lucky to have so many faithful relatives.
The night before Glenn and I drove back to Sacramento, my cousins Brian and Michelle hosted a family dinner. It was fun, and we got to relive one of the wedding's highlights: the video!
The video came on during the wedding reception. It was Chris and Olivia re-enacting their courtship, with some creative editing included. I don't have any video pictures, but some memorable moments were:- Chris asking Olivia to be his girlfriend by rapping to her
- Chris's quadruple-take when Olivia said, "I'm glad we can be such good friends"
- the flower from church that Chris gave Olivia
- Chris thanking God for creating Olivia (aww!)
- the song "I Will Be Here," by Steven Curtis Chapman, that they used while showing their photos together.
Incidentally, I really like "I Will Be Here." It's the second Chapman song I've learned. (My friends Gretchen Lee and Jenn Hibst introduced me to "The Great Adventure," aka "Saddle Up Your Horses!") It was strange how I interpreted the song, though. I guess it's a man promising to always be there for his wife. However, I didn't hear those parts of the song when I first heard it; I thought it was God promising, "I Will Be Here." In any case, I was happy to be reminded of that promise. I hope I can believe it . . .We must have watched that video fifteen times; just thinking of it makes me smile. :-)
The next morning, before dawn, Glenn and I left Seattle . . .Next up:
Seattle to Sacramento: What adventures await?
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