photos from california
August 17th, 2006 by Lawrence David
finally found the time to download, cull, and upload the photos from my family’s recent trip to california. it’s gotten bad – i take far too many pictures and spend an inordinate amount of time deleting a majority of them.
in any case, i thought i’d share some of the photos i took and use them to remember things i liked about california:
[above] my ever-amusing sister, stephanie, proving you don’t need to buy something to have fun in a gift shop. steph and i were inseperable for nearly all of last week. she’s 5 years younger than me; consequently, i missed out on seeing a good chunk of her formative high-school years. luckily, something clearly went right during that time (perhaps it was my absence) as she evidently developed a wonderfully off-center sense of humor.
[above] the wedding of my cousin francis and his bride, rashmi. the primary cause of our trip to california, francis’ wedding proved to be spectacular. easily the best wedding i’ve ever been to. it was a mostly traditional indian wedding, with saris and henna and a massive, hirsute hindu priest who looked like the embodiment of some hindu demigod. the ceremony was laced with all sorts of bewildering and yet endearing customs, such as the part where the priest spent five minutes blessing a coconut only to suddenly smash it to the ground, sending husk flying everywhere. i especially liked the sequence where the groom walks away from the alter, acting out the life of a 2000-year-old ascetic who suddenly breaks off his engagement to find krishna. (i hope i got that story right – the translator was working real fast at that point.) the bride’s father is forced to chase after the groom and convince him to marry his daughter.
yet, what ultimately made the wedding wonderful was seeing two people clearly meant for one another get married. in his wedding speech, francis declared that this was “the happiest he had ever been” – he then broke down crying, a recurring motif repeated throughout the day [below]:
it should be qualified, however, that high “emotional quotients” run in the family. francis apparently cried when optimus prime died. mom cries all the time to get out of traffic tickets. heck, i even get verklempt watching inspirational commercials.
perhaps the only downside to california was finding out how much i liked it there. the scenery was beautiful:
[pebble beach]
[muir woods]
[view from my aunt's deck, where i slept one night in my sleeping bag]
so that’s it. good trip. lots more lovingly selected photos here.
oh, and i nearly forgot the obligatory, “i’ve got the cutest cousin in the world shot [below]”
For some reason I cannot resolve any afraid.org domain at home (Roadrunner cable) I think it has something to do with that DDOS attack they suffered a while back and Time Warner has been sitting on their ass on updating their DNS servers or something.
But anyway, Great Pics. I’m very glad you are getting along with your sister so well. The love of the sport has brought my sister and I very close together as well.
Does your cousin Francis play the acoustic guitar? =P
afraid.org is having issues with their DNS servers – some idiot(s) are still DDOSing them.
and no, he doesn’t play the acoustic guitar – he’s actually a professional artist in brooklyn. close!