The wedding today

Sorry for the silence but we have been incredibly busy the last few days. Today is our first day to chill out and we decided to do nothing. Slept in till late and have been ironing wedding outfits and sorted out our suitcases. Will have to head for the wedding venue in an hour or so.

But let me update you on the last few days.

June, Tony and Claire Brown gave us a wonderful start to exploring San Francisco. June took us on a whirlwind tour of the city with Claire being our chauffeur. What a fantastic driver she is too, negotiating the crazy drivers that change lanes without notice, break the speed limit regularly etc. We got to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, saw Coit Tower, drove through Pacific Heights, saw China Town, the parks, the piers, Grace Cathedral, Alcatraz - you name it we saw it! I was totally facinated by the houses. I love houses and here in San Fran they are gorgeous, boxes on the hills, all different shapes and colours.
We ate at the Cheesecake Factory on the top of Macy's, on the patio looking out across the city and listening to the drummers in Union Square. I had a Factory Burger - fantastic. The portions were even bigger than anything we'd had before!

On Friday June took us up the Napa Valley. We watched the Old Faithful Geyser. Apparently when it behaves erratically it means an earthquake is imminent. Well it been erratic the day before and there was a quake on Thursday. We didn't feel it but Sheila was sleeping at the time and she said the bed moved!

After the geyser we had lunch in a very French cafe - sourdough sandwiches with mozzarella and tomatoes and basil seasoning with asparagus! Gorgeous! We had a quick visit to the Robert Louis Stevenson's museum - he lived in the valley for a while. That was really interesting and inspired me to read his books again. We ended the visit with a trip to a vineyard complete with art gallery. No wine tasting as we had to drive later that day. Want to come back for another visit one day.

Friday evening was the Henna party at Laleh's uncle's house. What fun we had. There was a ceremony where they put henna on their hands and danced and played music. But mostly it was a time to chat to friends, eat wonderful Persian food and dance, dance dance. It was wonderful seeing young and old dancing round the bride and groom. My feet were killling me when we got home. Laleh's family are truly wonderful and welcoming and some of the men are so handsome! Quite a few of Pat's friends had flown in so it was a great reunion for all. There were guests from Iran, Australia, England, Geneva - a real United Nations.

Yesterday once we got to the hotel in San Fran we didn't do much except to ride the cable cars then had supper with family and friends in Mel's Drive in restaurant. I had a San Francisco hot dog and Len had chili fries.

Will try and post come pictures tomorrow.