Bill and Tracy Gallogly got hitched on the most spectacularly sunny of days, and looking through the photos you will see just how happy we all were. The bride looked gorgeous (bride and groom looked TAN), and everyone was smiling. This visit I especially liked reconnecting with my cousins; I think some of us naturally drifted apart over the last decade or so, as people moved away, got new jobs, got married, and got busy lives, but something in that process has stopped or even turned around. We're all still very different, but I loved the easy-going family thing that we seem to have aged into. The other excellent bit was how easy it was to drop Dave into the middle of the family chaos. I think he knows more names of distant relatives than I do, and I didn't have to worry at all when I wandered off and left him to fend for himself. So yes, bravo Dave, and bravo rest of family, you all work out nicely.
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| USA trip September 2013 |
After the wedding weekend, Andy headed back towards Japan while Dave and I joined my parents for the long drive home to New York. There we ate a LOT (it turns out I actually do like dry rub BBQ ribs), drank a fair bit (wine tasting out east at Channing Daughters winery), and enjoyed the sandy beaches and pumpkin farmstands of Long Island in the fall. One glorious day Dave and I invaded Brooklyn to gossip with the lovely Kate Stocker and putter across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. It was perhaps my best visit home yet (having Andy would have been icing on the cake). I was sad to leave after only a week, but while in transit at Dublin Airport we managed to catch Bill and Tracy on their way back from their Ireland honeymoon. Not even a week of driving on the wrong side of the road could dim their newlywed happiness :)
