Yesterday my niece, Katherine, (John Hugh's daughter) got married on a boat in the Baltimore harbor. The weather was simply glorious, the bride was lovely, the groom handsome, and most important of all, the food at the reception was delicious.
The actual wedding ceremony took place dockside then the boat (a big paddle steamboat called the Black Eyed Susan, of the kind that used to traverse the Mississippi river) left for four hours cruising around the harbor. The scenery was fascinating - from the French Quarter type party of Fells Point to the Inner Harbor to the working port of Baltimore - and the sunset was gorgeous. There was dancing on the upper deck (Yes, I did my crazy aunt thing and made all the girls do a conga line to "Dancing Queen" because it threatened to be an all wallflowers reception. I had to take action) and the bar and food on the lower deck.
There's no such thing as too much crab for me so I was thrilled to see backfin crab cakes as the centerpiece of the dinner. They were fantastic - just big lumps of crab with a little something to hold them together but no bread and nothing weird like wasabi or coriander. Can you tell I'm a crab cake snob? At any rate, I was really surprised they were able to turn out such a good meal from what had to be a very small galley kitchen but the crew did a great job.
Larry and Justin made it up from New Orleans so I had a lot of fun reconnecting with them. It seems incredible that we haven't seen in each in the flesh since Mom died in 1997 but it was just as if no time had passed at all (except for the grey hairs we all seem to be sporting these days). Many fences were mended in both the bride's and groom's families and everyone seemed to get along swimmingly. I even found myself with a tear in my eye as John Hugh and Katherine had their father-daughter dance to "Mack the Knife," not your typical wedding number but they really did quite a rug cutting routine. When we finally disembarked after four hours cruising, John Russell (John Hugh's son) handed us each a tiny gold box with two delicious truffles in it as a favor to savor on the way home.
All in all, it was the happiest afternoon/evening I've spent in a long time. I didn't even get a parking ticket even though I was over on my meter by an hour so obviously the universe was watching out for us wedding goers. I was so relieved I gave my truffles to a homeless man so someone else could enjoy a tiny piece of our wonderful day.
Sadly, none of my pictures turned out particularly well so I'll add some illustrations once I get a few from the thousands of other photographers who were snapping away.
The actual wedding ceremony took place dockside then the boat (a big paddle steamboat called the Black Eyed Susan, of the kind that used to traverse the Mississippi river) left for four hours cruising around the harbor. The scenery was fascinating - from the French Quarter type party of Fells Point to the Inner Harbor to the working port of Baltimore - and the sunset was gorgeous. There was dancing on the upper deck (Yes, I did my crazy aunt thing and made all the girls do a conga line to "Dancing Queen" because it threatened to be an all wallflowers reception. I had to take action) and the bar and food on the lower deck.
There's no such thing as too much crab for me so I was thrilled to see backfin crab cakes as the centerpiece of the dinner. They were fantastic - just big lumps of crab with a little something to hold them together but no bread and nothing weird like wasabi or coriander. Can you tell I'm a crab cake snob? At any rate, I was really surprised they were able to turn out such a good meal from what had to be a very small galley kitchen but the crew did a great job.
Larry and Justin made it up from New Orleans so I had a lot of fun reconnecting with them. It seems incredible that we haven't seen in each in the flesh since Mom died in 1997 but it was just as if no time had passed at all (except for the grey hairs we all seem to be sporting these days). Many fences were mended in both the bride's and groom's families and everyone seemed to get along swimmingly. I even found myself with a tear in my eye as John Hugh and Katherine had their father-daughter dance to "Mack the Knife," not your typical wedding number but they really did quite a rug cutting routine. When we finally disembarked after four hours cruising, John Russell (John Hugh's son) handed us each a tiny gold box with two delicious truffles in it as a favor to savor on the way home.
All in all, it was the happiest afternoon/evening I've spent in a long time. I didn't even get a parking ticket even though I was over on my meter by an hour so obviously the universe was watching out for us wedding goers. I was so relieved I gave my truffles to a homeless man so someone else could enjoy a tiny piece of our wonderful day.
Sadly, none of my pictures turned out particularly well so I'll add some illustrations once I get a few from the thousands of other photographers who were snapping away.
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