Blue Beard

After the wedding we went back to the place we had spent so many hours planning, Kripple Creek a little hometown restaurant where everyone knows you allowed us to have our reception there, the owner actually blocked off half of the place just for us, held on to the wedding cake, and posted a few waitresses on the side we were using to make sure everyone was taken care of, cutting the cake went just fine but when it came down to the sharing the first bite between the bride and groom a cake fight began to which is still a source of pointing fingers between my wife and I as to who started it, I have a picture in which I am holding the cake up for her to take a bite and it appears Cindy’s hand is in the open position pushing the cake toward my face so I say she started it, regardless of this evidence she still wont budge so we just laugh about it, my beard was actually blue after this exchange and the look on the restaurant owner and ministers faces told me we had some cleaning up to do.

We planned to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico for our honeymoon after the reception but it had to wait until the next day because since the kids were involved in the ceremony our ex spouses decided they couldn’t take the kids that night so our wedding night was spent entertaining our children, it was OK with us we had fun and got a good nights sleep before our drive up to Santa Fe.

We dropped the kids off for the weekend and headed out in our white Taurus Station Wagon which had been decorated by the kids with the typical shaving cream, balloons, cans and shoe polished writings on all the windows, I remember the best one was the misspelled “Just Maried” written proudly across the back window, we found out later that this was one not written by any of the kids but by a good friend who is actually an adult---Thanks Dennis for helping them out. The drive there was nice as neither one of us had ever been there just added to the excitement of going somewhere new, we got checked in to our room and began walking around Santa Fe, there happened to be something going on this weekend as there were festivals in the streets, vendors were on the square selling all kinds of food including roasted corn which came with various toppings which was very good I remember, frozen chocolate covered bananas and all kinds of other things which would surely ruin our dinner, we found an excellent steak house which ended up being the highest priced dinner we had ever bought to date but the service was good and the food out of this world, it was our honeymoon so the price really was not something I was going complain about, Cindy was sitting there listening to me ramble on about all sorts of things, she got a refill on her tea and asked for a packet of sugar, I had one in my hand that had caught my eye because it was different and I had been reading the package while we were talking, I handed it to her and she asked “What is this?” I proceeded to tell the story about where it had come from and all the history behind it, back to the date it was introduced and all the other things I could remember, she looked at me with that look your wife had when you talked back when she first married you and said "Wow how did you know all of that?" I answered I just read the package, she popped off "and I thought you were smart there for a minute", I think that’s the last time she completely listened to any of my stories without waiting for a punch line.

Next day we toured the historic churches and museums in the area, the Loretto Chapel is one I remember that Cindy loved it has a spiral staircase with no visible means of support in the middle and was built with no nails if I remember the story correctly, if not the place was impressive and well worth a visit if ever you have a chance to go there, we walked up to a place called the Cross of the Martyrs it is a steep climb up a set of stairs that overlooks the city with plaques telling of the city’s history at the top there is a white cross that commemorates the deaths of like twenty one priests back in 1680, I don’t know why this is a fact I remember but that’s the story I remember about this area, the view from here takes in the city and the surrounding mountains and it is breathtaking.

The rest of our day was spent going back through the street events and eating way too much food cooked on the street, the street seemed to open up at any given time to trip my wife and then close back up to hide the place that had tripped her, still to this day the story goes that the streets continued to trip her, it couldn’t have been the fact that there was so much going on around us and so much to take in that her attention was diverted viewing way too much hand made merchandise and the artwork created by the Indians of the area. My stating way too much is to point out that more time could have been spent here because there is way too much to be seen in a couple of days, but I had to get back to work and we had to gather the kids back up and begin our lives as husband and wife. Our honeymoon trip may have been quick but the fun and laughter we had was just the beginning of our plan to spend the rest of our days together and to enjoy each and every day.