Wedding Wishes

This week, we flew to the Seattle-Tacoma area to gather with friends and family for the wedding of Paul’s great-nephew, Derek, and his bride, Heidi. In addition to the wedding celebration, we went out a few days ahead to spend time with our life-long friends, Pat and Steve, from Bismarck, ND. They had driven to Seattle and then planned to take the long and scenic trip home via the Canadian Rockies. We took the hydrofoil, Victoria Clipper, across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia. The weather was perfect and from the ferry, we traveled by bus to The Butchart Gardens. I had dreamed of visiting these gardens for almost 20 years but was totally unprepared for the beauty and sheer magnitude of Jenni Butchart’s gardens. Constructed over 11 years as a reclaiming of their limestone gravel pit, the grounds encompass a total of 10 magnificent gardens, including the three we were able to see in our 4-hour time limit: the Rose, Japanese and Sunken Gardens. The incredible variety of flora was overwhelming and smell of roses and blooming flowers was everywhere. We stayed overnight at the Fairmont Empress hotel, opened in 1907 under the guidance of Queen Victoria, and of course, participated in their famous High Tea event.

Saying goodbye to dear friends, we drove to Tacoma to be with the Kinsley-Hirsh families and help prepare for the big event. After a week of sunshine, we had our first drizzle of rain as we walked across the lawn at Hillside Farms for the outdoor ceremony! The rain didn’t last long, though, and it turned out to be a glorious evening in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains near Olympia, WA. For the special event, I painted a picture as a gift for the couple. The painting, Hillside Barn, 7”x10” on 300 lb. watercolor paper, features an evening – quite like the one when we were there – with the wedding pagoda and barn lights beaming on a special occasion.