Our Weekend Getaway

Keith and I went down to the lower mainland this last weekend.  Because it was Thanksgiving weekend, Keith had an extra day off.  It was a short trip, as we headed down Saturday morning and were home Sunday evening, but we had a blast.

We had a little snow on the way down...

We were supposed to make it in time to go to a temple session on Saturday, but we got a late start and didn't get into town until well after the last session of the day began.  We ran around a little bit, trying to get a replacement to the new malfunctioning laptop we had bought online.  Luckily, we got it all sorted out without too much trouble.  We had time to eat a really late lunch with Keith's cousin, Jade, before checking into our hotel.  I had booked our lodgings on one of those websites where you select the price, rather than the hotel, and don't quite know what you are getting.  I was secretly delighted to find that instead of one big bed in the room, we had 2 doubles.  I love my husband, but I really love having my own bed.  We quickly changed and freshened up, and headed out.

So close!  You can actually see the border crossing from the freeway.

The event for the evening was the wedding reception for Keith's coworker, Tariq, and his bride, Shazia.  Tariq was born in Fiji but moved to Canada when he was a child.  Once he reached marriageable status, his father returned to Fiji to find him a bride.  Tariq and Shazia were married in Fiji over a year ago (just a week or so after Keith and I got married), but had troubles getting Shazia into the country.  She finally made it in, so they were finally celebrating.  I'm not exactly sure all of their cultural ties, but both Tariq and Shazia are Muslim and East Indian, though they are both from Fiji.  There were a lot of people at the wedding reception, perhaps 250-300.  Out of all of those people, only 10 or so women were wearing Western-style clothing (me included).  All of the other women were wearing beautiful saris.  Some women had their heads covered, but all of them looked wonderful in their cultural dress.  It was so neat to see, even if I was the minority.  Shazia's dress was the most extravagent (of course, as she was the bride).  It was beaded and sparkly the whole way down.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

Shazia's dress was amazing!

Sunday morning we went to sacrament meeting at the chapel next to the temple.  We then headed toward home, stopping at the graves of Keith's Oma and Aunt Yvette.  It was a jam-packed mini-vacation, but it was great!  Then, to make the weekend even better, we had Thanksgiving dinner on Monday.  Delicious!

A beautiful Sunday morning

P.S. Another item crossed off of my life list!  I've always wanted to go to an Indian wedding.  Even though this was just a reception instead of a ceremony, I'm going to count it.  I think it is the closest I'm going to get.