Hello everyone
When Mike
was late home from a work trip to New York in May last year, Louise suspected
immediately it was because he had met someone special. But none of us expected
back then that we would be flying in from all over the world to see him get
married to Julie 10 months later.
We decided
that we should all go to California to the wedding, despite the very long
journey and the cost as it was going to be a once in a lifetime occasion – and
boy were we right. We set off from Malawi on the 14th of March and
after 30 or so hours of flying arrived in LA with Joshi grinning at Melissa and
Nick, our hosts, covered in melted chocolate chip cookies. We spent the weekend
in LA chilling out with old family and friends – the Traub family who are amongst the
Dreyer family’s oldest and closest friends from South Africa and whom have mostly relocated from
London to the West Coast (with the exception of Jason). It was fabulous to
see them and spend the weekend hanging out, although it was too cold and rainy
(!) to go to Venice beach and we were too jetlagged to do anything else
touristy like seeing the Hollywood sights/go to Disneyland/Universal studies
etc.
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| It didn't look like this on 90210! |
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| Mez Gav Joshi and Jill |
We also managed to catch up with my cousin Jane, who is an actress and her gorgeous family, although we sadly missed my other cousin Akure who was away. I tackled the challenge of what to wear to a posh California wedding after 18 months of pregnancy/breast feeding by booking a personal shopper at a local upmarket department store, which was so much fun and I came away with some fabulous clothes- although I didn’t buy the size 10 Jimmy Choo’s (anyone who knows how much I love shoes and how many problems I have buying them will understand how excited I was to try them on!) I was seriously tempted. I think we were the easiest guests Nick and Mez had ever had, as we were excited by the hot water pressure in their shower and the bagels in the kitchen. Thanks so much guys for such a restorative weekend.
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| Joshi checks himself out in the 4 way mirror at Nordstrom |
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| Cousins! Emma with Jane plus Joshi Jack and Freya |
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| Joshi, Gav, Jill and Melissa chat to granny Louise on skype |
When we
were over our jet lag we set off for our road trip up the coast from LA
eventually ending up in Calistoga in the Napa Valley for the wedding. We took 3
days to drive from LA to SF along highway one which was totally stunning. We
managed to see elephant seals, whales and a sea otter from the car, ate a LOT
of seafood, walked on the beach, admired Hearst castle from a distance (sadly
we missed the tour), had lunch in a winery near Santa Barbara, drove through
cattle ranching land with spectacular scenery and circling condors and soaked
up a lot of scenery- I had no idea California was so beautiful, and so cold! We
loved Monterey town, but arrived too late to get to the famous aquarium as we
had stopped too many times on the way to admire the beautiful views along the
coast, especially around Big Sur.
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| Mountains near Santa Barbara |
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| Fabulous views |
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| Joshi and Gav check out the US relatives |
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| sunset from our hotel room on Pismo beach |
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| San Simeon on highway 1 |
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| Giant slugs or comatose elephant seals? |
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| Stunning scenery and whale watching on the Big Sur coastline |
We had
lunch in San Fransisco admiring the golden gate bridge from Crissy Fields and
then had a terrible lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf in town (huge tourist trap a bit
like Leicester sq by the sea), where Gav tried to find a fabulous place he had
been to on a conference 5 years before and we ended up in a hot crowded dingey
overpriced fish restaurant. It was however the only bad meal we ate on the
entire trip, so we can hardly complain. We spent the night with an old
University friend of mine from Bristol, Matt, who is a SF native and his wife
Lonnie and their two beautiful girls(3 years and 2 weeks old) and had a lovely
evening catching up and hearing about life in the US under Obama – thanks again
guys for having us with a newborn in the house.
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| Downtown San Fransisco from the Golden Gate bridge |
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| Golden Gate bridge from Crissy fields park - sunny and gorgeous! |
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| Matt, Lonnie, Leiyali and baby Nyiali |
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| plus Joshi |
We drove
onto Napa the next day and managed to meet up with Stephen and Louise who had
flown in the night before at a deli outside of the main town. It was really
lovely to see them and for them to see Joshi whom they last saw when he was 4
months old. We managed to catch up before the wedding whirlwind started. To get
to Calistoga in the Napa Valley where the wedding was being held, we drove up
the Silverado trail through the wine country. It was another stunning drive of
winding roads, canyons and snow capped peaks, with beautiful wine estates
dotted on the slopes.
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| One of the many vineyards on the Silverado Trail |
The wedding
was being held at a spa resort ‘The Solage’ outside the town of Calistoga – a
large complex of small wooden chalets connected by paths and a giant heated
swimming pool. We spent the next 48 hours before the wedding meeting Julie
(Joshi and I for the first time) and getting to know her warm and welcoming
family, as well as catching up with old friends and family, and relaxing in the
gorgeous spa (me!). We were so grateful to Mez for giving us some of her son
Dash’s old warm clothes for Joshi as it was much colder than we expected –
somehow I expected California in March to be just like I had seen on TV where
everyone is permanently tanned and wearing shorts – the reality is that Napa
felt like England in March (weather wise only) cool and chilly even with the
sun out.
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| Dreyer family reunion at Solage |
The
traditional pre wedding dinner on the Friday night was held at the Clos Pegase
wine estate, and we ate in the cellar next to the wine barrels. It was a
stunning dinner, and Joshi who, after coming to the drinks reception, bedded
down in his cot in the (heated) winery laboratory. Louise and Gav both made fabulous
speeches that night, along with Avivith the mother of the bride and the maid of
honour.
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| Joshi gets ready for bed in his strangest bedroom yet - the wine laboratory at Clos Pegase |
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| Dinner for 140 by candlelight at Clos Pegase |
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| Louise gives her lovely and moving speech to Mike and Julie |
We spent
the day of the wedding socializing, preparing and organizing as the seven
wedding planners had Louise, Stephen and Gav on a strict schedule, and my job
was to make sure Joshi had some semblance of a routine in the build up. He was
unbelievably good throughout the trip, snoozing in the back of the car, putting
up with all the schlepping around, and loving meeting all our friends and
family along the way. Mike and Julie posed for photos before the wedding and
still managed to have the outdoor ceremony they planned thanks to the
transparent marquee and the hired heating and we waited inside for our turn to
pose with the happy couple.
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| It's official - we travelled the furthest to come to the wedding |
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| Stephen and Louise keep warm waiting for the ceremony and looking v glamorous |
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| Joshi and Gav model their matching African waistcoats |
The ceremony under the Chuppah was simple,
beautiful and traditional and despite the cold the couple were glowing with
happiness. Joshi was brilliant during the ceremony and looked adorable in his
smart African get up. Once he was in bed we could all let our hair down and
enjoy the fabulous party that followed the wedding, with everyone dancing and
both the bride and groom’s parents being lifted up onto the chairs in the traditional
Jewish wedding dance – something I don’t think Louise and Stephen expected or
had done since their wedding in 1970! Julie and Mike did a hilarious and
totally original wedding dance and it was wonderful to see Mike dancing in
public looking so happy.
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| The groomsmen walk down the aisle |
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| Julie walks down the aisle with Bill and Avivith |
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| Julie circles Mike 7 times |
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| and they are married! |
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| The gorgeous cake even matches Julie's dress - magical |
Sunday
brunch the next day was lovely, catching up properly with all the friends and
family who had travelled so far and who we see far too infrequently at the
moment- along with the opportunity to eat nearly Joshi’s weight in smoked
salmon between us J. After such a wonderful trip it seemed all too
soon that we were driving back to SF to get on a plane for another 3 day flight
back across the world, stopping for a night in a vile New York airport hotel,
the absolute antithesis of the Solage. Joshi saved his fed up screaming for a
perfectly timed customs inspection back at Blantyre airport when he yelled so
loudly he put off the customs man from rifling through our bags of shopping and
waved us through- back to the Malawian sunshine, chaos, diesel queues and our
lovely house with a bump.
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| Mike and Louise at brunch |
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| Family and friends at brunch |
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| The new Mrs Dreyer/Drufe/Juyer with her new family |
Thank you
so much to Louise and Stephen who made our trip possible and to the Oppenheim family
who made us so welcome, along with Mez and Nick and Matt and Lonnie who put us up along the way – we had a fabulous time and will definitely be back to
California one day. This month coming up is Joshi’s 1st birthday on
the 11th and Stephen and Louise will be here for it which will be
wonderful.
Proper
Malawian news in the next update
Lots of
love to all
Emma Gav
and Joshi J
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| Joshi and Gav contemplate the child size pizza we ordered him at Solage |
