Bonzers

On the Thursday before the wedding, many of our friends started rolling into town. As a warm up for the weekend, we went to Bonzers, a germanesque pub in Downtown Grand Forks. Every beverage is served in a goblet (see below). For a meer $2.25 your goblet could be filled with rum and coke or the beer of your choice. Needless to say, it was a late night.

Final Countdown

Before posting any photos of our amazing wedding day, we must first admit that it would not have been possible without the hard work and style of my mom and her best friend Star. Not only did my mom take a week of vacation to help out with the wedding, but Star did too, showing up every morning to weed flowers, set up lights and work wherever needed. We couldn't be more appreciative of all of the sweat that went into the yard, flowers and little details that made it such a perfect day. Thank you! We are also very thankful for my mom's brigade of friends and our own who folded napkins, hung lights and chipped in to help so willingly. It was quite a three-ring circus at times in the tent but it definitely all paid off.



We would also like to give a special shout out to those who risked their lives for the sake of a good, well lit party!

San Francisco Treat

Following Zach's wedding, Passenger Le, Erin, and I set path to SF. We decided to take our time on this lazy Sunday and took the majestic Pacific Highway 1 from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. It was brilliant and definitely one of the three best drives I have ever taken.

We spent a night in Menlo Park with Kamie and John on Sunday night. John made some scrumptious pork chops and salad to cap off our journey. We set off for SF proper the following morning, meeting B-Riv for lunch and roaming around the North part of the city (North Beach, Telegraph Hill, Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, and Chinatown). We met up with Brett and his co-worker for an evening in Oakland watching the A's-Toronto game. Outdoor baseball is amazing, can't wait till the Twins stadium opens!

Trolley Rides:

Chinatown:Coit Tower (from Riv's bedroom window believe it or not):The A's game:

The following day Erin and I woke up and walked to a nearby cafe and had a latte and a pain au chocolait, before we hit the bikes for a top-10 day!

Brett and his roomate graciously borrowed their bikes to us to tour the golden gate bridge. Actually, the GGB was only a small portion of our bike marathon. We biked from North Beach (downtown) across the GGB, and another 15 miles to Tiburon, a quaint seaside fishing town on the other side of the bay. The entire ride was so picturesque and we had such an amazing time, even though Erin and I hadn't biked for years! We ate some terrific mexican on the water, walked around the shops and relaxed in the grass before heading back. We hooked up with Tim Burr that night after dinner with John and Kamie to cap off an amazing vacation!! Thanks to all our friends in SF!!!!

Sunny Santa Barbara

Last weekend, our whirlwind adventures took us to Santa Barbara, CA for Zach and Megan's wedding!!! After complications with our flights and luggage, Erin's favorite chauffeur, Christopher Wargakis came to the rescue and swooped us from LAX, where we had missed our transfer to Santa Barbara. Dispite the frustration with American Airlines (never use them if you can avoid it), we made it to the elegant Motel 6 just in time to head to the rehearsal fiesta at Megan's parents amazing locale complete with ocean views.

The following morning (wedding day), we grabbed some breakfast and hit the sand to try and play sand volleyball.

After volleyball and finally getting our luggage, it was party time! Their wedding took place at the Four Seasons Biltmore and was absolutely amazing! The ceremony was outside in a private garden where the "priest" recounted Zach and Megan's path until the wedding; it was a very personable touch that everyone enjoyed. After the ceremony we had a splendid cocktail hour followed by a knock-out reception! We all had a great time Zachary, thanks for the memories.

Big Fish on a Hot Grill

Erin and I faced our cullinary fears today and conquered what was long in the making....grilling a whole fish!!! It wasn't cheap, and it wasn't easy, thankfully our friends at Whole Foods gutted, gilled, de-finned, and scaled the Sea Bass for us, so the dirty work was over, but that doesn't mean it was a walk-in-the-park. With Roger (we named him Roger) staring at us, we preped him for our friend Mr. Weber:

We are still ameteurs as Roger lost most of his skin during cooking, but it made the filet that much easier to gobble up (Before):After:

It was most delicious, but we have some perfecting to do to be worthy of any top-chef awards!

Romantic Myrtle Beach

Erin and I spent a fabulous weekend away in the beautiful city of Myrtle Bea....oh wait, I mean....I thought that's where I was going, but my favorite people in the world tricked me!!!! It was the best trick imaginable, as Borgie planned a Fish Lake retreat for myself and 23 (at least) close friends to spend a weekend celebrating my last days as a single man. We parttook in many traditional games and activities such as sunbathing:

croquet:

Horseshoes on the beach:

Multiple rounds of golf:

Mulitple hot dogs:

Jeff Cirillo (yeah, the hot corner ladies), sporting a beautiful 1970's Fiddle Faddle deluxe:

Dancing:

Drinking (not too much of course)

and Dano:

It was a very successful weekend given there were no objectives but to kick back and relax. I really appreciate all you guys coming up to enjoy the weekend. It was a great segway into what is to come this Bastille day; lots of friends, fun, and fiddle faddle. Borgs, thanks again for rounding up all the homies, and boys, thanks for making the trek to Wisconsin to make it happen. I hope everyone was sterilized upon re-enterance into Minnesota. Thanks again fellas!!

Fiesta Fiesta

Alas the summer has hit and we have had several recent BBQ's!!!!! We decided to tee off our June with a South-of-the-Border grill out consisting of some grilled steak and chicken fajitas, along with some of our award-winning guac and some knock-your-socks-off Margheritas!! We pulled game 5 of the cup finals to our apartment window and had a spectacular evening with Bobby, Petz, Jenny, Meat, Leslie, Hall, and the Gurtner family! Great friends, terrific food (as always)!!

Last night, the Grimasuckaravencrofts had some friends over to enjoy the finer things in life...burgers, brats, and brewskies, and feeding human food to dogs. The usual suspects were once again in action and it was a relaxing early Saturday evening.

Bridal Tea

While Lou flew back to the Midwest for bachelor party madness at the infamous Borgestad cabin in Wisconsin last weekend, Linsey came down from Boston to attend a bridal tea being hosted by my girlfriend Sheila and lounge around our pool. We had amazing weather all weekend for sunbathing, feasted at a local neighborhood restaurant and the tea couldn't have been more quintessential with cucumbur sandwiches, tea, scones, smoked salmon tartines and cookies. I am so lucky to have such great girlfriends in DC (and a sister nearby) and can't wait for them to visit Minnesota for the wedding.

Guns and Graduation

Normally guns and a graduation party do not mix. However, in northern Minnesota we like to throw caution (and sometimes common sense) to the wind. On a recent trip home for Jenna's graduation, my dad seized on our friend's Chris and Melissa's curiousity by giving us a lesson about what life would be like as a sharp-shooting, NRA-membership-holding, gun-slinger like himself. A thorough safety lesson was followed by an all out competition as we raced to shoot clay pigeons (Future boyfriends of my little sisters please note our families excellent marksmanship.)

The competition continued as we played a round of one hole golf in the yard.