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On Saturday, Kate and I hid a Geocache on Fox Island, which is a steep almost-island connected to the shore by a narrow isthmus. Kate and I parked our rented jeep in the town of Champney’s West, and walked up the rocky path, meeting lots of dogs and berry pickers on the way.

The first part of the trail is easy, up to Fox Island’s “porch”, where remains of 17th- and 18th-century fortifications have been found dating from Queen Anne’s War between the English and French. Then, there’s a precipitous hand-and-foot climb up to the top, where a couple of cairns have been posted. There’s usually a flag posted on each cairn, which lasts until the winds cut it to ribbons. This year, a red turtleneck sweater had been stretched over the pole. It could only have been there a couple of days; it hadn’t even started to unravel yet.

We hunted around until we found a deep recess under a flat rock, thrust the ammo box deep underneath, hid it with more rocks, and posted the coordinates to the Geocaching web site.
On your next trip to Newfoundland, grab your GPS and go visit the cache! There’s a bunch of good stuff inside.

The House on Bar Point

The house where Kate and I are staying is on a spit of land called “Doctor’s Point” by the locals. My stepmother, Risa Benson, bought the land in in the late sixties, and various family members have contributed to the construction of the house. My brother Sam Benson, he of the Unimogs and TIG welders, did the lion’s share of the framing carpentry, under the direction of local carpenters Alf and Jack Bellows. Sam and his friends Mica, Christian, and Hahn, lived in tents the summer of 1990, subsisting on vats of peanut butter, loaves of bread baked by Alf’s wife Alma Bellows, and large amounts of Screech, the local Newfie rum. My sister Bridget and her husband Tony Dattillo came up for their honeymoon after a week at the Shelter Institute in Maine, and together they built the deck in front of the house. Later, Sam and I paneled most of the interior of the house with twisty juniper tongue-and-groove boards.

This is the third honeymoon in the house, counting Bridget and Tony’s and my father and Risa’s. We’re not digging ditches this trip, though — we’re more sticking to hiking, Yoga on CD, and eating out^*. My construction activities are limited to building panoramas. The image below is a panorama that I created from disposable camera pictures (taken a few years ago). The house is green now, not tan, and there’s some more deck on the side of the house, but you get the idea! You can click anywhere inside the image and drag to look around.

if (navigator.appName != “Netscape”) document.writeln(”); Click in the image and drag to look around

^*Note: we are emphatically not making cappuccinos with an at-home cappuccino machine, nor are we sampling the local wines. However, I am using a thera-band when I do the Yoga on CD. Which means my coolness factor has plummeted to previously unplumbed depths. If you want a nice antidote, go read Alejandro’s website. Though, now that I think of it, he told me about taking a naked Yoga class in Manhattan. Oh well, I bet he got away with it.

Thursday was grey and rainy; Kate and I visited the Trinity Loop amusement park. Half gravel pit, half miniature train ride, half garden-gnome repository, in the rain it’s like a minigolf course designed by Ingmar Bergman. I took a couple of pictures; here they are!

Kate and I took a hike on Skerwink yesterday, which is the arm of land that forms the northern boundary of Trinity Harbor. You can see some photos here!

(You might have to sign in or register with Ofoto to see the pictures.)

Wedding pictures, hurrah!

Kate and I made it to the house in Newfoundland this afternoon, unlimbered the laptop, and discovered that there are wedding pictures online! I’m now going to post links to the pictures. Which is one step away from putting pictures of your cat online, I know, but I’ve already done that, anyway.

• Genevieve Futrelle’s pictures, with captions.
  
• Will Ronco‘s Odyssey (text)
  
• Dan Check’s pictures (and the birthday party he attended the very next day.)
  

Still to come are the photos that the Official Wedding Photographer took. I’m especially looking forward to the ones of Kate’s brother Matt and my cousin Martha on Matt’s scooter, both making goofy faces in response to my strident and repeated demands. They’re both really good at on-demand goofiness, as it turns out, so I hope I can sell the pictures to the Museum of Schtick, or something. I’ll post them when I get them!

In a surge of absolutely glorious weather (bookended on either side by cool, rainy days), Kate and I got married at Downingtown Friends Meeting. On the way to Northbrook and back, I had been repeating my vows over and over again in my helmet, hoping that I wouldn’t forget my line:

In the presence of God, and these our friends, I, John, take thee, Kate, to be my wife,

promising with divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband so long as we both shall live.

…which is important to remember, since there’s no clergy in a Quaker service, so you’re up a creek if you blank on your vows, or make Comedic Wedding Vow Errors, transposing “Wife” for “Husband”, et cetera. But all went well, we signed the certificate, and our friends and family (who traveled from Colorado, New Mexico, Maine, Texas, Germany, and points in between) had wonderful, heartfelt, and touching things to say. The service was incredibly beautiful, and I’m honored and thankful that so many people came so far to be with us.

On top of that, I managed to keep from stripping the gears when Kate and I made our exit in the Austin Healy. Whew! I hope that’s a good omen of some kind.

We spent the night in the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, in a bridal suite so lavish that — I am not making this up — the bathroom had a bathroom. And two telephones, a bidet, and enough towels to avert disaster even when you enthusiastically dump the whole bottle of Gilchrist and Soames Extra Foaming Bubble Bath into the jacuzzi, with spectacular results.

So Kate and I are back at home now, packing for our honeymoon. I feel very lucky, and very happy, and very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Thank you all so much for coming to be with us!

Yesterday, the day of the rehearsal, was cool and drizzly, which was acceptable (it’s better than baking hot), but not ideal. Today, the morning of the wedding, has dawned sunny and cool — the weather says there’s going to be a high of 75. Hurrah! Chester County looks really, really beautiful in this kind of weather.

I got up this morning and rode my motorcycle to Northbrook Farms nearby for my wedding breakfast (apple cider doughnuts, scrambled eggs, and coffee), mingling with all the other yuppies in cycling gear and digital cameras (and Blogs, for all I know.) Now I’m posting with short, clean, wedding-manicured nails. As soon as I push the “Post & Publish” button, I’m going to go take a shower, put on my suit, put the rings in my pocket, and go get married to the most wonderful woman in the world!

Shucks, I have the bestest co-workers in the world!


My Outlook calendar spawned a meeting request several days ago: “catchup and discuss HTML process debrief”, which turned out to be a totally unexpected wedding surprise lunch-and-champagne-and-dessert thing. Kieran even baked a cake! My co-workers are the best, as proved in the completely candid and non-posed photograph at left.

Folks have been asking me about directions to the wedding and reception, so here they are!

Wedding service (1:00 PM):

• Downingtown Friends’ Meeting
  
  800 E Lancaster Ave
  
  Downingtown, PA 19335
  
  (610) 269-4223
  
  If lost, call (917) 257-7819


• LAT 40.014246’N, LON -75.689056W^*
  
• Yahoo! Map


• Driving directions from NYC (and points North)
  

  
  Reception (~2:00 PM):
  
  

• West Chester Country Club
  
  111 West Ashbridge Street
  
  West Chester, PA 19380
  
  (610) 692-2161
  
  If lost, call (917) 257-7819


• LAT=39.966802, LON -75.612163^*
  
• Driving directions from Downingtown Friends’ Meeting
  

^* Latitude and longitude provided specifically for GPS geeks. Like you, Francesco. Those coordinates are for you. If that isn’t enough, here are some
satellite
photos!

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