October 19, 2002
A Bed of Roses

We made it to our lovely hotel, the Jameson Inn, at about 5:15pm this evening and were greeted by the informal and friendly girl at the front desk. She gave us a room with a fridge at our request; it's quite nice, and would make a good bedroom suite in a house. Its only drawback is lack of high-speed Internet access, which means that this entry and the ones that follow likely won't be posted until we arrive home in Mountain View.

After dropping off our bags in the room, we called Al's cousin Marcus, who manages the Wedgewood Golf and Country Club about a mile or two from the hotel. He invited us to drop by and say hello, which we did. We caught his mom, Mrs. Shin, on the way out and gave her a hug, then continued up to the pro shop to see what Marcus was up to. A wedding on the first tee was about to start, so we got to see the the bride having a pre-ceremony cigarette, the course staff moving the getaway golf cart into place, and the groomsmen (wearing what looked like umpires' uniforms, complete with black baseball caps) lining up.

We then stood in the doorway of the pro shop, which overlooks the first tee, and watched the ceremony itself. It was over rather quickly (was ours that fast, too?), and I wished I had my camera on me as the bride and groom sped toward us in the golf cart, being chased by three young boys in white shirts and suit pants. My favorite part of the wedding was the bagpiper who played before, during the processional, and after the ceremony. He was great.

After agreeing on a tee time for Sunday with Marcus, we left to find a GAP and a grocery store. One of my goals on the honeymoon has been to buy some new clothes; while I have a full closet in Truckee and a half-full one in Mountain View, the lineup of items that actually fit is meager. I need to do some shopping and some weeding.

I took us the wrong way on US98 (mainly because I hadn't noticed an obvious mall on the way in on 98, and thus figured that it had to be south of our current location), so we drove around for about 15 or 20 minutes looking for the mall and admiring the local neon. Once again I ardently wished I had my cameras (both film and digital), because the signage was unique. We passed the First Baptist Church, housed in what appeared to be an abandoned Sears department store (a fact that was seemingly confirmed by the large sign that announced:

First Baptist Church
at the Mall

We also saw an old-style Arby's with a very photogenic sign, and a new one on us: the Hooters Inn, next to the Hooters Restaurant. (I wonder if this is the Hooters where, as Marcus told us, the bride and groom from the golf course had met.)

We finally found Lakeland Center, tucked behind a wall of chain restaurants, and discovered a GAP inside it. Though it didn't have any more flop-V-necked shirts or the striped socks that I should have bought zillions of when we were in Santa Fe, I did buy another couple long-sleeved, midweight men's shirts. They're really comfortable, and they fit better than the women's long-sleeved GAP shirts often do (I have broad shoulders and long arms, which apparently aren't typical among women, or at least among women who shop at the GAP). Anyway, we continued on to the Wal-Mart Supercenter for water and donuts and to the Publix for a microwave meal, and then headed back to the hotel.

When we opened the door, Al noticed three roses and some baby's breath on the sink counter (which is to the left as you come in the door) and said, "someone left us flowers." I think both of our mind's jumped to the Oreo Incident—did I mention this before? At the Hampton Inn in Dallas, we each went to the room separately for different things on the afternoon of our arrival day and noticed that there was a bottle of water and a pack of Oreos on the hope chest/luggage rack. Each of us assumed the other had put it there, but when we compared notes later that evening, neither of us could account for it. We didn't know if it was intended as a gift from the front desk, or if it was left by someone who'd entered the wrong room and didn't figure it until after he'd set down his Oreos. We thought it was weird, but nothing was taken, so we just shrugged and smiled over it.

Anyway, back to the roses in our room at the Jameson: As we got farther into the room, it was clear that these roses hadn't been left by accident: there were more in the recliner next to the bed, on top of the TV, on the desk, and on my nightstand. As we found each bunch, we remarked to each other that this was definitely weirder than the Oreo Incident. On Al's nightstand was an amazing bottle of champagne and a rose in the ice bucket, but no note. We suspected Marcus to be behind it, but we didn't know for sure.

It was only after we realized that the bed was covered with rose petals—and I'd photographed the scene—that Al located a note from Marcus under the roses on my side of the bed. This find lessened the weirdness factor, and let us instead see it as a romantic gesture rather than another Oreo Incident. Very sweet.

Photos from Day 12

Posted by Lori at October 19, 2002 06:56 PM