Holy crap, where to begin... Let's start with the wedding, We arrived at McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove on Saturday, saw my parents and some longtime family friends, went to this burger joint turned Chinese restaurant for dinner spent some time with family before being summoned back to the hotel for round two of our guests arriving early from out of town. They brought us Sweet Life all the way from Eugene (because it's our favorite place for dessert) we enjoyed the delectable goodness before changing into our swimsuits and hotel provided robes and heading downstairs to the bar for drinks to take to the japanese soaking pool. After a while in the pool and wrapping ourselves in large fluffy white robes we returned to the bar for happy hour, tater tots, more drinks and a dripping wet saltwater mess on the floor. Lauren adjourned to our penthouse suite for the evening to get ready for the "big day" tomorrow (It's not often you get to book two nights in the largest and nicest room in the ENTIRE hotel, this thing was larger than our apartment, it had ROOMS!).
April 6th, 2014 a day that shall never be forgotten. It all started early that morning, Lauren and I woke up the clouds were grey and the birds were slowly beginning to chime in as we made our way downstairs for breakfast. Our server greeted us and asked if we had any big plans for today, our reply, "not much, just getting married upstairs." and with that she brought us our orange juice, eggs and bacon. Afterwards we headed back to the room where we met our friend Joe and his wife Caroline (who just opened up a new hair salon and agreed to do Lauren's hair for the wedding). They hung out a bit in the other room while Joe kept me and my nerves at bay. He really set the tone for the day, super relaxed and low key which kept me calm and my sanity in check. As a few more guests and family members arrived the two of us headed to the main room for a rehearsal followed by brunch for those who had come early. The ceremony was quite short and the rehearsal went swimmingly once we got the stereo figured out.
**Our goal for this whole she-bang was to attempt at bowling the "perfect game," everything running on time, no snafus, low stress = perfect wedding. **
During the brunch we had some gifts and chocolates to give to our friends and family thanking them for coming and their support. So far so good, everything is going swimmingly.
We had the room for the wedding/reception for the whole day which was nice so people could setup and not have to run all over the place. The clock ticked away the minutes until 2:30 and I was barred from the bride until we went out for photos. Nerves were settled with some trusty Baileys Irish Cream in our coffee, provided by my brother in law. So far so good, we're batting 1,000, I make my way outside as the sun starts to poke its way out for the first look photos, I stand around awkwardly until Lauren sneaks up behind me and I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see a super model standing there (I can say this because it's my blog, HOLY SHIT! She was stunning!!!!), straight out of a Vogue magazine, ok not Vogue, something classier and more expensive, one of those magazines that prints on card stock and costs you egregious amounts of money. (photos coming soon!)
Together we strolled the grounds at the McMenamins Grand Lodge as our photographer takes hundreds of photos, he was incredible by the way, photos should come out sometime middle of May. We're still running on time so we head upstairs for family pictures, all the traditional ones, everyone is dressed to the nines and things go off without a hitch. (still batting 1,000).
By now everyone has arrived, the tables are set as we line up for the processional to get this shindig underway ('shindig' being a technical term for wedding or large event). Cue music, start walking, everyone shuts up and pays attention to us. Audrey, our officiant and good friend conducted the ceremony it was light hearted, well rehearsed, short, sweet and to the point, it started and ended on time too.
The Vows:
Lauren: To love you is a gift and a privilege. I am forever grateful for taking the age old advice of the “giving it the old college try” and signing up for the rock climbing class where we met. Our life together has been an adventure ever since. I vow to be your companion on all the adventures to come.
I promise to continue to wake up in the early morning to watch live stages of the Tour de France, and to cheer you on at all of your races. And knowing that I have your support, I can give anything the old college try, maybe even some bike racing of my own.
I am thrilled to become your wife.
Andrew: Today is the greatest day ever, because I get to tell you in front of all these people that I love you! You are the most amazing rock climbing, bike riding, backpacking, travelling, do it all soigneur and historian I’ve ever met. We’re gonna grow old together and it’s gonna be great! I look forward to our countless adventures, and there’s nobody I’d rather pitch a tent in a windstorm with. You’ll always have me standing by your side, even when my legs are tired after a hard ride. Today, we let the world know there’s a new duo in town, we’re in love, we’re perfect (mostly) and we’re here to stay.
I am thrilled to be your husband.
Yeah, that's right we talked about bikes, camping, hiking, adventures, Tour de France, and rock climbing in our vows. Clearly a sign we were meant to be together. She even said the might start bike racing (my plan is almost complete)...
**Our goal for this whole she-bang was to attempt at bowling the "perfect game," everything running on time, no snafus, low stress = perfect wedding. **
During the brunch we had some gifts and chocolates to give to our friends and family thanking them for coming and their support. So far so good, everything is going swimmingly.
We had the room for the wedding/reception for the whole day which was nice so people could setup and not have to run all over the place. The clock ticked away the minutes until 2:30 and I was barred from the bride until we went out for photos. Nerves were settled with some trusty Baileys Irish Cream in our coffee, provided by my brother in law. So far so good, we're batting 1,000, I make my way outside as the sun starts to poke its way out for the first look photos, I stand around awkwardly until Lauren sneaks up behind me and I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see a super model standing there (I can say this because it's my blog, HOLY SHIT! She was stunning!!!!), straight out of a Vogue magazine, ok not Vogue, something classier and more expensive, one of those magazines that prints on card stock and costs you egregious amounts of money. (photos coming soon!)
Together we strolled the grounds at the McMenamins Grand Lodge as our photographer takes hundreds of photos, he was incredible by the way, photos should come out sometime middle of May. We're still running on time so we head upstairs for family pictures, all the traditional ones, everyone is dressed to the nines and things go off without a hitch. (still batting 1,000).
By now everyone has arrived, the tables are set as we line up for the processional to get this shindig underway ('shindig' being a technical term for wedding or large event). Cue music, start walking, everyone shuts up and pays attention to us. Audrey, our officiant and good friend conducted the ceremony it was light hearted, well rehearsed, short, sweet and to the point, it started and ended on time too.
The Vows:
Lauren: To love you is a gift and a privilege. I am forever grateful for taking the age old advice of the “giving it the old college try” and signing up for the rock climbing class where we met. Our life together has been an adventure ever since. I vow to be your companion on all the adventures to come.
I promise to continue to wake up in the early morning to watch live stages of the Tour de France, and to cheer you on at all of your races. And knowing that I have your support, I can give anything the old college try, maybe even some bike racing of my own.
I am thrilled to become your wife.
Andrew: Today is the greatest day ever, because I get to tell you in front of all these people that I love you! You are the most amazing rock climbing, bike riding, backpacking, travelling, do it all soigneur and historian I’ve ever met. We’re gonna grow old together and it’s gonna be great! I look forward to our countless adventures, and there’s nobody I’d rather pitch a tent in a windstorm with. You’ll always have me standing by your side, even when my legs are tired after a hard ride. Today, we let the world know there’s a new duo in town, we’re in love, we’re perfect (mostly) and we’re here to stay.
I am thrilled to be your husband.
Yeah, that's right we talked about bikes, camping, hiking, adventures, Tour de France, and rock climbing in our vows. Clearly a sign we were meant to be together. She even said the might start bike racing (my plan is almost complete)...
After the ceremony, the band gets setup and we take a minute to escape and take a deep breath at the back of the room. Upon re-entry (into orbit) we make our rounds to greet everyone and chat for a bit. Our total wedding was perfect at around 80 guests, just enough to talk to everyone and fill the room. We did a few of the usual wedding-type traditions, cut the cake (or eat the cupcakes), first dance, father daughter dance, mother son dance, a few toasts and the dance floor was opened. After a little while this happened:
My mom, being the way she is organized a pseudo "flash mob" to surprise us with everyone singing. Totally caught us off guard and was pretty freaking awesome!
Too bad they didn't count on the fact that I'm a Neill and always have something up my sleeve, I used to play the saxophone quite seriously and a few months of brush up lessons with Devin Phillips (the saxophonist in the band) and we had prepared a surprise of our own... Touché!
Too bad they didn't count on the fact that I'm a Neill and always have something up my sleeve, I used to play the saxophone quite seriously and a few months of brush up lessons with Devin Phillips (the saxophonist in the band) and we had prepared a surprise of our own... Touché!
We danced until the end and had a phenomenal wedding, it was absolutely perfect. Everything ran on time, no snafus, the sun came out and it seemed like everyone had a great time, it was the perfect game. We cleaned up, headed to bed because we had to fly out the next day for a mini-honeymoon. Off to Santa Barbara, California! (if you need to get up and use the bathroom or get something to eat, we'll be taking a short intermission before continuing onto part to of this post).
And we're back! Let's continue, shall we? Our bags packed, we fly out of PDX (complete with the obligatory shot of our feet and the airport carpet). While waiting for our flight I tell my wife :) , "if they made socks that had the PDX carpet logo on them I'd absolutely buy a pair." She replies, " They do I saw them when we were here to pickup my brother." Needless to say we each bought a pair. Our flight to SBA was short and as we flew in over the water you could see the Southern California coastline, absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm.
Time to get our tan on! We picked up the rental car and headed out for our first night in Santa Barbara. We stayed at a really nice Best Western and walked down to a super hip mexican restaurant with incredible food. Having a very nice passeggiata back to the hotel we got into comfy clothes and turned on the tele (this might not seem like a big deal to anyone but we don't have TV so with a king size bed and a large flat screen TV to watch, there's nothing better than a few episodes of Cops).
After Santa Barbara we packed up the car and drove north to Cambria where we booked two nights at a jacuzzi inn and suite in this sleepy beach town, when we arrived there was a bottle of wine put in our room by the hotel staff. My wife and I stopped at the famous Avila Beach to get our feet wet, walk the pier and eat lunch. Arriving into Cambria it was a Tuesday evening with a whole lot of nothing going on, it was awesome. Just the two of us, a bunch of old retired people and the beach for two nights. While there we booked a tour of Hearst Castle which was kinda mind blowing, this guy had incredible amounts of money and built this "estate," that was enormous. He was a huge purveyor of art and his castle clearly spared no expense.
Throughly relaxed we were getting excited for our ride camp with Trek Travel, loading up the car one more time we drove the 45 minutes to Solvang for the second part of our mini-honeymoon. We arrive and find in our hotel a bottle of sparkling apple cider, creme brûlée truffles and a card from our Trek Travel guides. We head down to pickup our bikes for a short ride and they wrapped our bars with white tape and put blue/white ribbons on our bar ends. Not only was it pro it was pretty freaking awesome to get that special treatment (we rode with our streamers for the entire 4 day camp).
Day 1: We rode the ITT course of the Tour of California, incredible route, bumpy road, and would have been a fast course to race.
Day 2: was Mt. Figueroa, nearly 10 mile climb HC category average 6% gradient, Lauren and I crushed it. I set the new course record for the ride camps, here's the profile on Strava, gnarly climb, it took me 1 hr 3 min. (I was only one minute off of Joe Dombrowski, he's a pro cyclist with Team Sky...not too shabby for 66th overall out of 742 people). Lauren had a tough day, an HC climb is nothing to underestimate and she finished strong, she said it was by far the hardest thing she's ever done on a bike. Looking back on it now, she still talks about it so I know she enjoys the sufferfest from time to time.
Time to get our tan on! We picked up the rental car and headed out for our first night in Santa Barbara. We stayed at a really nice Best Western and walked down to a super hip mexican restaurant with incredible food. Having a very nice passeggiata back to the hotel we got into comfy clothes and turned on the tele (this might not seem like a big deal to anyone but we don't have TV so with a king size bed and a large flat screen TV to watch, there's nothing better than a few episodes of Cops).
After Santa Barbara we packed up the car and drove north to Cambria where we booked two nights at a jacuzzi inn and suite in this sleepy beach town, when we arrived there was a bottle of wine put in our room by the hotel staff. My wife and I stopped at the famous Avila Beach to get our feet wet, walk the pier and eat lunch. Arriving into Cambria it was a Tuesday evening with a whole lot of nothing going on, it was awesome. Just the two of us, a bunch of old retired people and the beach for two nights. While there we booked a tour of Hearst Castle which was kinda mind blowing, this guy had incredible amounts of money and built this "estate," that was enormous. He was a huge purveyor of art and his castle clearly spared no expense.
Throughly relaxed we were getting excited for our ride camp with Trek Travel, loading up the car one more time we drove the 45 minutes to Solvang for the second part of our mini-honeymoon. We arrive and find in our hotel a bottle of sparkling apple cider, creme brûlée truffles and a card from our Trek Travel guides. We head down to pickup our bikes for a short ride and they wrapped our bars with white tape and put blue/white ribbons on our bar ends. Not only was it pro it was pretty freaking awesome to get that special treatment (we rode with our streamers for the entire 4 day camp).
Day 1: We rode the ITT course of the Tour of California, incredible route, bumpy road, and would have been a fast course to race.
Day 2: was Mt. Figueroa, nearly 10 mile climb HC category average 6% gradient, Lauren and I crushed it. I set the new course record for the ride camps, here's the profile on Strava, gnarly climb, it took me 1 hr 3 min. (I was only one minute off of Joe Dombrowski, he's a pro cyclist with Team Sky...not too shabby for 66th overall out of 742 people). Lauren had a tough day, an HC climb is nothing to underestimate and she finished strong, she said it was by far the hardest thing she's ever done on a bike. Looking back on it now, she still talks about it so I know she enjoys the sufferfest from time to time.
Day 3: On our own we rode a nice and easy 48 miles through the wine country, did some good climbing and fun descending. Stopped off for coffee, helped on of the guys in our ride camp with an emergency repair and took lots of photos. Sunny, warm and glorious.
Day 4: We had time to do the ITT course again before we had to head back to Santa Barbara to explore the city and fly out that evening.
Day 4: We had time to do the ITT course again before we had to head back to Santa Barbara to explore the city and fly out that evening.
No trip, especially a mini-honeymoon would be complete without the following: a trip to In & Out Burger, a historic tour of a presidio in downtown Santa Barbara, a visit to a unique coffee shop owned by Aaron Olson (former professional cyclist for T-Mobile and other big teams) and his wife (also a former professional cyclist), meeting them and finding out he's from Eugene (wtf?!?). All capped off with a trip to the Santa Barbara REI ( I promise I triple checked that my wife was OK with this idea and she was on board).
Perfect ending to a perfect wedding and mini-honeymoon, weather was amazing, we firmly set in place our cycling tan lines to serve as remembrance of our trip as we reluctantly come back to real life. Lauren is on the hunt for a new job, I've started building and training my new staff in my brand new bike shop at the unnamed large Co-op and we're contemplating moving closer to Salem. I've signed up for my first PIR on the 29th so I can get some fitness back and work on that Cat 2 upgrade.
Be sure to check back soon, there are lots of updates coming, new store opening with photos of the shop being built, wedding photos, race photos and updates, English Cycles updates, and many more. That's probably more updates than any one person can handle so I'll sign off for now, until next time!
Cheers,
-Andrew-
Be sure to check back soon, there are lots of updates coming, new store opening with photos of the shop being built, wedding photos, race photos and updates, English Cycles updates, and many more. That's probably more updates than any one person can handle so I'll sign off for now, until next time!
Cheers,
-Andrew-