The Group Events

We arrived in Talkeetna four days before the wedding at about 11PM, greeted by our parents and several friends in the lobby. The lobby, dominated by a three story imitation-palatial fireplace, turned out to be a central party area for the next 5 days. Fortunately the hotel staff was very tolerant of loud mouths and open containers. It had been a beautiful day in Talkeetna, with views of Denali and the surrounding mountains, and we went to bed looking forward to great weather and fun times. We woke up to the sound of rain and a view that extending to the end of deck.

Perhaps needless to say, there was not much interest in flightseeing, boating, or horse-back riding on Thursday. We spent the morning working on our Tango (we finally picked a song the afternoon before), then continued working on our presentations. Friday night was planned as a birthday party for Matt's dad, but also as an opportunity for everyone to show slides (or PowerPoint presentations) and tell stories that the family would enjoy. Kristin and I planned to start things off with separate PowerPoint presentations, explaining our background to the other new half of the family, and getting our digs in before we got roasted. Unfortunately, unless such presentations are created before family arrives, creating them takes time away from visiting with them. Thus every spare minute was spent scanning photos and organizing slides. In between these activities, we managed to squeeze in the second tiff of our relationship.

After going to lunch with some of Matt's friends from college, the party moved to the Fairview for a few beers while Kristin tracked down the woman who would be doing her hair on Saturday. Several hours later (or at least one really, really long-seeming hour) she returned, to find a slightly upset Matt, who was anxious to get away from his drunken friends and work more on his presentation before the evening festivities began. Fortunately his future wife realized the errors of her ways (which had little to do with hair dressers) and forgave her future husband for being such a jerk, and the rest of the evening was spent having fun in the company of our friends and family.

We had originally 'planned' to have separate bachelor and bachelorette parties on this night. However, lack of any actual plans prevented them from coming to fruition. Rather, after an hour or so of pleasant conversation in the lobby with the entire wedding group, we determined that there was really no reason to leave the hotel or split into separate groups. So we simply moved the wine up to our room and the crowd followed.

The aborted bachelor/bachelorette party was truly a fun event. Matt had a chance to spend time with many of Kristin's family that he had never met before, and Kristin lost the chance to escape from Matt's friends from college. As the evening wore on, people were able to easily slip away to their rooms without needing to drive or slow down the fun. As per usual, the last to leave were the Delta Upsilon crew (with Jon as an honorary member), and then only after the last bottle had been drained.

The next morning began with an open - back - open - forward and ended with a Tan - go - close. At least for us. Afterwards we spent a few hours in the lobby greeting new guests and watching the clouds slowly lift and reveal the magnificance of the Alaska Range. About 20 of us had committed to a boat trip up the Susitna River, rain or shine, leaving about noon. By the time we got on the boat, the only non-blue objects in the sky were sight-seeing planes loaded with our friends and family. Skimming along the water, with the leaves bright orange, red, and green, the sky deep blue, and the mountains a stunning white was truly an awe-inspiring experience. Not to mention colorful.

Upon our return several hours later, we were greeted briefly by newly-arrived family being shuffled onto the tour boat, from whom we learned there were still two seats left on the last flight seeing plane. We therefore made a beeline across town and 30 seconds later were being shuffled onto a 7 passenger Piper Navaho and given a lecture on how to use oxygen masks when we ascended above 15000 feet.

To say that the flight was spectacular would be an understatement. With not a cloud in the sky, we flew for about 20 minutes directly towards the tallest mountain in North America, approximately 20,000 feet above the airport. We put on our oxygen masks as instructed, and spent the next hour doing donuts around Denali, divebombing Foraker, teasing Hunter, and planning our next route up Huntington. The air was so calm that we could fly directly over the passes that separate the north and south peaks of Denali and Hunter. A more timely flight could not be imagined (and we've got pretty good imaginations). You can see a few of the pictures here; hopefully some video will be available later.

The great weather had everyone grinning ear to ear by the time the evening festivities started. Hors d'oeuvres began about 6 PM. Matt's dad had prepared a PowerPoint presentation of Matt's early days, which we set up on auto-pilot while people milled about, ate, drank, and got merrier. The mountains continued to provide a stunning backdrop throughout the night, especially in the light of the full moon.