On Friday Sam and I made the long journey to LAX from Hollywood and took a tiny Delta plane to Phoenix. We finally arrived to our destination at almost midnight. We had been invited to the wedding of on of Sam’s coworker a few months ago and my old college racquetball opponent, Rufus, invited us to stay at his house while in Phoenix. Rufus bought at the right time and now has a gigantic house with many bedrooms and bathrooms, so our stay was very comfortable. I enjoyed catching up with my friend that I hadn’t seen in nearly ten years. Coincidentally he was invited to a different wedding on the same Saturday, so our schedules worked out perfectly.
Sam’s coworker, Sara, got married at a nice golf club east of Phoenix in Gold Canyon. Behind the golf course is a mountain called Superstition Mountain. The wedding ceremony was held on a grassy area beside the club, overlooking a man-made lake, the course and the mountain. It was a quick and fun ceremony. As it wasn’t religious based they could play with the format a little and it was a more accurate representation of them as a couple (at least based on my limited previous interaction with them). It was refreshing to just see two people declaring their love for each other in their unique (and familiar to their guests) way instead of bringing a bunch of bronze age hogwash to the table to bore everyone to death. It was about them, as every wedding should be, but rarely is.
Because the bride works with Sam at Belldini there were many other Belldini employees in attendance.
After staying behind to take pictures we eventually went to the reception in the clubhouse.
After the cake ceremony there was about 90 minutes of “dance party” time. While Sam danced with her friends I excused myself to take photos of the club and then eventually the dancers.
The next day we went to two different mountain hikes on the south side of Phoenix. I don’t remember the name of the first one, but we didn’t hike for long because there was an archery station by the parking lot. We only got to shoot once because more people (and lots of children) showed up after our first try. Unlike in Thailand where they gave us the equipment and basically said “have at it,” here we had to learn a bunch of whistle commands and abide by 15,000 laws and regulations, etc. It was so tedious that each group of six people took as much as 30 minutes to cycle through. We eventually decided to give up on waiting for a second round.
Our next hike was much better, although we didn’t last long because we’d already been in the sun for too long waiting to shoot the arrows. The second trail was the “Mormon” trail. A trail up a slight grade over small rocks and boulders. This trail is very similar to the trails north of Chatsworth around Stoney Point. Unlike in Chatsworth, you must yield to Mormons.
From the top of the hill you get a good view of Phoenix. (see my Flickr account for larger versions of all photos in this post)
