It was not a very promising morning. The little sun that had been showing early gave way quickly to heavy clouds and strong winds. And then the sun shone. And went behind the clouds. And so it continued throughout the day.
I had decided to drive north to find the dunes: mistake! Firstly, they were a tad too far away; secondly, my trusty iPhone satnav decided to die and I was lost, afraid to veer off the main road, though I did venture to a couple of lakeside settlements and even found some of the smaller dunes in the distance with sand-sailors enjoying their sport.
I did panic somewhat when I realised I had missed the turn off the highway to the hotel! Fortunately, I recognised a few of the place names near the town so didn’t travel too far south- but far enough to become concerned about time!! I laughed later when we realised how close I had been to the location of the wedding ceremony.
And so the event that had brought us here had arrived and our US sojourn was half over.
I was grateful to find the bridegroom’s sister leaving the hotel at the same time as us, so that, satnav de[rived, I could follow her: she knew where she was going! And I was even more grateful when we saw a ‘road closed’ sign right where we needed to be. ‘Just drive round the sign, if it’s there’ I’d been told: but I was much happier with someone else leading the way….
The ceremony took place right on the shore of Lake Michigan on the most blustery day of our stay. The skies remained grey – but not the moods. Despite a fairly bleak view of the lake, spirits were high; smiles were there in abundance as the windswept bride took her place beside her groom, her hair styled by an uncle whose sole aim had been to make her as beautiful as he could for such a special occasion – success!
The ceremony was short and quite different from a UK wedding and the lakeside setting made it different from anything I had been to previously: apparently it was the place where the bride had always wanted to be married and the groom and his men had spent a couple of hours levelling the sand to make it possible for everyone to be comfortably (and safely!) seated for the occasion.
So her dreams were fulfilled and their unique ceremony was witnessed by an array of family and friends – a couple even from Thailand where they had met.
In many ways, this picture captures the mood – a relaxed, enjoyable celebration of traditional vows genuinely made. Long may that happiness continue!
Back to the hotel for the meal and more socialising, until we called it a day and began to think about the next stage of our journey. We were on our way to Niagara. I had no idea how many miles I would drive in the next few days.
Living the Journey 