Jane and I were invited to celebrate Gus and Tru’s wedding this past weekend. It was one of the finest weddings that I’m sure I will ever have a pleasure to attend.

Gus is a riding buddy of mine on Thursday nights. He is a talented woodworker and a pretty stand up guy. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting his (now wife) on a number of occasions in and around Seattle. They both seem to make a fine couple.

The event was unique from the start. We were required to hand over all of our camping equipment by September 1st so they could set them up ahead of time on Tru’s families property. As it turns out, they own 100 acres (and seem to be the only inhabitants) on Cypress Island. They own a real house on Anacortes and boat out to a little cabin on the island with a free roaming horse. It almost isn’t real. The whole set up feels like some corny television show. It is beautiful.

We van pooled with some Georgetown friends to Anacortes where they picked us up in a boat that had a D-Day Higgins boat style opening on the front to load and unload passengers.

The weather was pretty much perfect all weekend and the views were stunning. You could see all the way out to the Canadian Cascades from the beach front we were dropped on.

Gus and some friends had come out ahead of time and built 3 outhouses for guests and a number of dining tables that looked very sturdy. Handy men they are.

Our campsite was all set up with a big wooden “Georgetown” sign denoting our superiority to the rest of the guests. Jane and I set up our new sleeping pads and got out to mingle with friends and new family. I suppose we got into the keg a little early, but there was a party to be had.
The ceremony was lovely and again… the scenery….

Now to get a little low brow on you. It was established pretty early on that we would play “Wizard”. We had talked about it while watching the Tour this year, and it was settled that the game would happen at some point. You basically drink a canned beer and tape the finished can to the bottom of your new one. When you have a staff taller than you are, you… uh… win? You are pretty magical by that point anyways. We started after the picnic style dinner was served.

The family seemed to be in on the joke because right away people were asking, “Are you playing Wizard?”. It was pretty amusing to me at the time (of course, I might have been amused by just about anything at that point).

Around 7 or 7:30, the guests that weren’t staying overnight took off and left us campers to our business.

I was starting my eleventh beer when the tape ran out. I am pretty sure that is a good thing because I was getting very stupid by that point. I think Chris and Dave gave me the win by default, but I still think it was going to be a close race. Either way, the sorcery was in the air.

We spent hours dancing before Jane dragged me back to the tent. I’m glad she was there to light my path. Things got extremely dark without any real lighting on the island.

We all woke up in sort of a stupor, but things were helped with some coffee and breakfast foods provided. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted so badly to take a shower though. It would be a while before I would have that luxury.

We spent the morning soaking in the views and the clean air until a ferry came to pick us back up. The choppy waters didn’t treat anyone very well on the boat.

Seriously, probably the best wedding I’ve ever been to (my own excepted of course). The next person to get hitched is really going to have to step it up.

p.s. More photos on my flickr account.