The year of crazy traveling

Travel this year has been impressive!  In additional to the trips we've made just for fun, I've been travelling for work more than usual.  Last year, my boss asked if I'd be interested in enrolling in TNC's leadership training program.  Eighteen months of training--lots of conference calls and webinars, but also a half dozen in-person trainings around the US.  I've been to Austin (twice), Minneapolis, and Boulder.  There was also a conference in Memphis, Nebraska and San Diego.  Since I love my job and the folks I work with, all of these trips have been awesome!

Doug and I also got to spend "Penguin Day" with his family down in Florida. This is a special Becker family holiday celebrated (this year) in May--this holiday occurs after the Beckers don't get together for Thanksgiving day.  We also did the big family reunion up in Ontario, at the Wonnacott (Doug's Mom's side of the family) family farm.  I also got to spend a lovely family weekend on Crooked Lake in NE Indiana with the Solkowski clan, to celebrate my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary.

I'll use the completely false excuse of travelling so much to explain why we've been neglecting this blog.  And, make up for it by posting all of the trips we've done this year in rapid succession

Let's start with Aruba!

Last year, Doug and I volunteered to be bumped from a flight to score some free flights.  After a few false starts (first we tried to book Bermuda and the Dominican Republic, but failed), we booked our flights to Aruba in March.  We used airbnb.com to find a rental house, and that was the extent of our planning for the trip.  Awesome!


We arrived to balmy weather and tracked down our rental agent.   And the house was....wow.

A million dollar house just off the beach.  There were a few other people there, but since the house was a split level, we rarely saw the other folks.   We'd rented snorkeling gear for the whole week, so I managed to snorkel every day we were there.  We saw lots of fun fishes and two sea turtles!

That little blip to the right of the big rock is me!

This was a lovely little whirlwind vacation. There was time in the ocean, time in the pool, napping in hammocks, hiking and exploring (and getting lost, which is a little impressive on an island that's only 21 miles long).  On our 1st day of hiking through Aruba's Arikok National Park, we quested to find the (not so) elusive wild goats.  Which was awesome.  On the 2nd day of hiking we had a very long sweaty hike trying to get to the "natural pool".  We got lost.  Really lost. In a really pretty place on the edge of the island, but still, lost.
After we followed our trail back, I gave up the quest for the "pool" and read a book while Doug rallied for a 2nd attempt to get to it.  You see, there was this REALLY big hill...and the book just seemed so much less....sweaty.  :)

We did decide that we needed to dedicate some time on a future tropical vacation, to learning how to kite sail.  It looks completely impossible and way fun!

I'm going to miss that cat

Today, we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to my sweet, fractious, difficult, grouchy, wonderful cat, Agatha.

Twelve years ago, I got to bring home a tiny little handful of black and white fur. That cute little bat-earred kitten grew into a wonderful furry friend. I'm going to miss her. She was a good cat.

Winter Wonderland Weekend

We just spent a wonderful winter weekend playing in the snow in northeast Indiana!  Pokagon State Park, in Steuben County, is quickly becoming one of my favorite state parks in Indiana.  Last Friday Doug and I, with four of our friends (Valerie & Darren and Chris & Juliet), rented a rustic cabin at the park and spent a few days tobogganing, hiking, enjoying each others company, eating tasty food, drinking tasty drinks, and--of course--playing games.

Although the roads were a little slick on our way up north on Friday night, we couldn't have asked for better weather for this adventure.  As we spent time outdoors, we all kept marveling at the gently falling snow showers and perfectly formed snowflakes.

And, we were up bright and early on Saturday morning to be some of the first people on the toboggan run!  The run at Pokagon S.P. got started by the CCC boys--the Civilian Conservation Corps that helped build a lot of Indiana's state parks back in the mid-1930s.  It's gotten improved quite a bit from its beginnings back then; the run now starts at the top of a 30 foot tower. With the natural hills in the area, it actually has a vertical drop of 90 feet over a quarter mile of dips and valleys.  Despite our best attempts, including getting several combinations of 4 big adults all on one sled, we didn't beat the run's top recorded speed of 42 mph--we only made it to 36 mph. But it was awfully fun trying despite the bumps and bruises that I managed to get along the way! We did several several runs that morning and then returned Saturday night to try again.  It. Was. Awesome.

We were a bit disappointed that we didn't get some cross-country skiing in.  This was their first snow for a while, and the Parks rentals weren't available this weekend.  But we had a few nice hikes.  Some crazy person--there was some argument whether it was actually Doug or Valerie--also talked us into a foolish run from our cabin to the big hot tub at the Inn wearing just our swimsuits and snow boots.  Doug wasn't convinced this was foolish enough and decided to run over to the lake for a polar bear dip and another dive into the hot tub.  :)  Also awesome.

A fine time was had by all!  The video below is one of the nighttime toboggan runs with Doug, Chris, Valerie and Darren.

In other odd news, Doug and I decided to try renting our house for the Indianapolis Super Bowl Madness.  We're not sure it will take--but our house is less than a 2 mile drive from Lucas Oil Stadium!  Walking it is even closer, a 30 minute hike.  At the very least, preparing for this possibility made us clean our house!  The website we are using, AirBnB, actually sends out a professional photographer to take photos for free.  Craziness!  He did a beautiful job--and if you follow this link you'll get to take a look at all of the improvements we've made to our funny little house in the last year.  After almost 10 years in the house I finally got to get rid of the terrible contractor carpeting for some wonderfully warm toned resilient flooring.  The same contractor who did our flooring also built the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that I longed for since I first bought the house.  After all that work was finished, we also repainted several of the rooms downstairs with some warm, vibrant colors.  We hope you take a look using the link below.  And, if you know any die-hard football fans who don't have hotel rooms booked for the Super Bowl yet, please pass this along!

Cool Indianapolis Super Bowl House

Book Online

Find a house to stay in Indianapolis

Puerto Rico

On July 20th, we went to Puerto Rico with our good friends Valerie and Darren. We're always up for a fun adventure, so when they suggested a trip to Puerto Rico, off we went. The plane ride was my favourite -- uneventful, and it gave Fiona time to play with her new Kindle. She loves having an entire bookcase at her fingertips. (Fiona's comment: The Kindle was an awesome first anniversary present, especially when Doug isn't stealing it!)

Arriving the first day, we decided to travel along the coast road to Fajardo, so that we could take the ferry to the island of Vieques the next day. We stayed at the El Conquistador (an okay place, but Too Many Lines), and because they didn't have our requested double beds, Fiona managed to convince them to give us free drink tickets, free breakfast, and a $25 matched bid token for the casino. Darren pointed out that the roulette wheel was only biased against you if you didn't have a free bid token--so after doing a bit of math, it became obvious that it was well worth it to play one spin. So, in a flurry of activity, giggling, and high fiving, we went down to the casino, and aggressively bet $50 on Red. The few people there looked at us like we knew something was up, and everyone at the roulette table joined us in our bet. The dealer spun the wheel, it was red! We won! We squealed and jumped and made a spectacle of ourselves. The table loved us and then laughed as we ran to the cashier cage as we cashed out in record time, 3 minutes after we entered the casino. With the free breakfasts, the tickets, and the $50 won, we easily were paid to stay at El Conquistador!

The next day, we explored Vieques. The guidebook recommended a guesthouse that was overrun by animals (cats, dogs and horses) -- perfect for us. We kayaked and swam in the the Bioluminescence bay, where Dynoflagellites will glow when disturbed. This leads to a very trippy experience, where swimming looks like this and kayaking looks like this, and you can see fish freak out when you kayak close to them, leaving trails of light.

The next morning as we started our horseback ride, Darren apparently told the guides to "take us somewhere fun", so we went everywhere. We went through scenic Vieques:




























There were mountains, so we went up mountains (Fiona's horse doesn't like going uphill anymore than Fiona does). But, by far the most fun was running along the beach. I had tried goading my horse to a trot before, but even at a slow trot, the whole "horseback riding" thing looks more stable in movies than it feels in real life. So, when we went full speed, galloping down the beach, the derivation of the word "breakneck" became very obvious. But, wow, it was fun. And, I lived, and we got to drink coconut juice from fresh coconuts. And, the beautiful beaches -- wow:




























That night, after we made our way back to the mainland, we were lucky enough to couchsurf with a nice expat named Coden. He had two extra rooms, with beds in each, which worked out very well. He was a concierge at a local resort, so he told us of great restaurants and gave us the skinny on the El Yunque National Forest.

The next day we went to the rainforest.
We hiked up to the highest point on Puerto Rico, where the trees are stunted, we believe due to constant winds. And, boy were the winds constant. Being cautious of windy, high, wet slippery rocks, I was content to be far from edge with the fatal drop, but of course, Fiona is fearless, looking down with wonder. We saw a lookout from the top, but it was not the day to look out.

The next day we took a day trip to Cuelbra. We got to take a Publico, which lived up to it's reputation for meandering slowness. Our trip to the beach was interrupted by a random drive through town to pick up some friends of one of the passengers. However, the beach was beautiful with snorkelling and just general goofing by the ocean.

Our last day, we went to see the forts of Old San Juan. El Morro was very straightforward -- a fort facing the sea, with most batteries facing out to sea. The puzzle we struggled with was why were there cannons at the water level? If you could have elevated cannons, wouldn't they shoot farther and be better than ones that were lower?
Answer here, for those curious (They were designed to hit the hulls -- an easier shot horizontal than trying to arc)
However, after El Morro was attacked successfully by land, the Spanish created another fort: Castillo de San Cristobal. That fort was designed to stop a land invasion, and it is *VERY* strange. There are small fortifications that extend almost to the sea, but then tunnels that lead to the main outpost. There's obviously been construction at different times, and as gun range increased, certain walls became obsolete, so they were constructed around. Which lead to weird circular dead ends, weird walls beside other walls, and moats in the middle of nowhere. Darren and I spent a lot of time trying to understand the whole fortification plan, but eventually had to leave, unsatisfied. So, now I have a research project.

More pictures of our adventure can be found here.

What a wonderful day!

As an old married woman (of nearly TWO months!), I still am glowing in the wonderful wedding day we had. Amazing, crazy, full of friends and family, utterly exhausting, full of love, and just absolutely wonderful.

Friends and family poured in from all over...the cousins from Ireland win the prize for furthest traveled, but we were amazed to have guests make the journey from Canada and 8 states outside Indiana. Thank you all so much!!

The festivities started on Friday, when all the wedding party girlies got together for girly fun stuff. Then off to the rehearsal and the best rehearsal dinner ever at the Milano Inn. Yum! Thanks to Doug's parents, Joy and Lorne, for a starting our wedding weekend off with fabulous meal for all the family that night.

For the girls, at least, the wedding day started crazy early. Valerie & I headed over to start getting our hair done at 6:30 am, and my sisters Erin & Deirdre, and Doug's sister Lynn Marie joined us soon after. Kudos to Art and Krystal at Mass Appeal for great job they did with the vintage hairstyles we asked for, and for opening up the salon for us so very early! And Sarah from MAC at Nordstrom also joined us at the salon to finish off my vintage look with an amazing makeup application that had me looking like a 1950s movie star.

Then we all rushed to get into our wedding duds. Doug and his groomsmen and groomsmaids were already at the church starting off with their photos. And I finally got to slip into the beautiful dress that my mother made for me. For months after we got engaged, I searched everywhere for *my* perfect dress. Most brides want the fairy tale floor length dress with a train...but not me...what I wanted was a dance dress. Tea-length and twirly. But, still able to make me feel like a princess. :) Sadly, these dresses are few and far between. But my mom is just amazing and created my perfect dress from a vintage Vogue pattern. And as an added perk, we used material in a stunning brocade that had dragons (which Doug loves!) in the pattern.

My sisters, Valerie and I just made it to the church before the downpour started. Rain on the wedding day is good luck, right? Well, luckily for us, St Mary Church is a beautiful place inside too, so we were dry and happy. After some more photos for me and my wonderful bridal party, I scampered up to the choir loft to hide away and watch as the church started to fill up with all of our friends and family. And then the music started. Wow.

Please keep in mind, that while I might be biased (since we picked the music and the musicians) the music was all I hoped for. When we started planning the wedding ceremony, I pulled out all the of the programs I've collected from the weddings I've sung for over the years. There were nearly a hundred of them...and more than half of them have probably been at Saint Mary's in the last 10 years. Joe Burrows was our pianist and made sure everything ran smoothly with all the unusual music I threw at him for our ceremony. Joe is an old friend, and has played many of those weddings I've sung at over the years, and he is a wonderful musician. Then there were the rest of the musicians--all friends and family. Our great friends, Jill on trumpet, David on banjo (yep, a banjo at the wedding!) and Priscilla, Garrett (nephew) and Tiernen (niece) on vocals. Tiernen didn't even blink an eye, two months before the wedding, when I dropped a stack of music on her and asked her to learn many new pieces of music. They all did an amazing job, especially pulling it all together for their first rehearsal at the night before the wedding.

Anyway, back to the wedding day. The prelude music. Wow. It was divine. And then the ceremony started. Four beautiful voices were singing "Panis Angelicus" as Doug and his parents walked down the aisle to start the procession, and as our mothers lit the candles at the front of the church. Then my three sisters, Siobhan, Erin and Deirdre walked down together, followed by our best friends Valerie & Darren, then Doug's brother Andrew, sister Lynn Marie, and cousin Carol. Finishing up the wedding party were my nephew Zachary and Doug's niece Emma, who stole the show as ringbearer and flower girl.

Then Jill played the trumpet fanfare of "Ode to Joy" and cousins Matt and David opened the big church doors one more time as my parents escorted me down the aisle. I was astounded by all the happy joyful faces of our family and friends. Then finally, I saw Doug, beaming and waiting for me at the front of the church. And then, of course, we sang. :) I will always think of the joy of that morning when I hear Beethoven's wonderful song.

If you've never been to St. Mary's church near downtown Indianapolis, it's well worth a visit. Beyond the beauty of the church building itself, it's a wonderful parish that I've been blessed to be a part of since I've lived here. Father Michael, the pastor, is a big part of the reason Doug and I chose to be married here. Michael allowed us to add many non-traditional elements to our ceremony, welcoming the blending our needs and beliefs, and family & religious traditions. Our friend Juliet opened the readings with a beautiful poem by Elliot Arnold called "Benediction of the Apaches". Then Tiernen led us in singing an old favorite hymn from Doug's family, "Unto the Hills".

And Renee, who has been my friend since we were four, did a reading from Ecclesiastes. Father Michael finished with a scripture reading from John. Doug and I actually were a bit surprised...this was a reading that we'd considered having in the wedding, but had decided on another. But this reading never got corrected in the program. Ooops! But thankfully, it was still one that we liked.

Michael gave a wonderful sermon. I've heard many of his wedding homilies over the years, and he didn't disappoint us. He referred to the author Kathleen Norris, and expanded on a quote from her book-- "The very nature of marriage means saying yes before you know what it will cost. Though you may say the ‘I do’ of the wedding ritual in all sincerity, it is the testing of that vow over time that makes you married." He continued speaking on the importance of affirming that 'I do' through our lives, and reminded us all that the are no "return policies" in marriage. Doug and I managed to ruin the solemnity of the moment by getting caught whispering to each other at this point, and causing great laughter as folks wondered what we were conspiring about!

And as many others have before us, we stood before all and exchanged our vows and our rings. And I could see how much Doug loved me, and I hope he could see how much I love him. Even though I put his ring on the wrong hand.

We lit our unity candle and heard Tiernen sing "Ave Maria". My dear friend Meredith lead the prayers of the faithful and after the final blessings, Michael finally exclaimed this wonderful sentence, "It is my privilege now to present to you for the very first time, Mr. & Mrs. Doug and Fiona Becker!"

And we kissed...

and kissed

and kissed

and kissed

and jumped

and then kissed some more!

And then the real party started! Well...technically we went to our house and took more photos, but then the party really did start!

There's a gem of a place, the Latvian Community Center, where we held our reception. Lots of grassy and tree lined grounds surround the building and we were the only ones there. And it was a big enough to have dinner and dancing and board games (and hula hoops). And we had wonderful friends who schlepped all the supplies there, decorated, set up table and sound equipment. Our dear friends Susan and Tony were organizers galore, and really made everything perfect for us that night. We will never be able to thank them enough. And the food by AlliCarte Catering was divine yumminess. Jamabalaya and Creamy Sun-dried Tomato Risotto. Wahoo! Allison and Daniel were a joy to work with. The wonderful Cindy Hawkins of Circle City Sweets made the heavenly wedding cake. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the gorgeous flowers were arranged by Meredith and Erica at Posh Petals in Broad Ripple, and they are also a joy to work with.

Then the speeches began. But before I get there, let me relate a funny story. My maid of honor, Valerie, wondered early on in the wedding planning, if we were going to force her to make a speech. And since public speaking is high on her list for utter terror and sleeplessness, of course we wouldn't. We'd like it if she could, but we were okay with no speeches at all. Which was a relief to Doug's best man, Andrew, who was also pleased to be relieved from public speaking duties. Fast forward to the night before the wedding, when Valerie tells us that she's be losing sleep at night, but she's ready to give her toast! What!?!? It seems that we were all confused, but dang it, if Valerie's worked this hard on a speech, she's going to give it!! Which led to the uncomfortable conversation with Andrew, who valiantly decided that he could also give a toast as well.


And Valerie and Andrew both were fantastic, despite their misgivings. Valerie's toast is something that I wish I could keep in a bottle and open whenever I've had a bad day. Two months later, the memory of that speech still fills my eyes with happy tears and the joy of the most amazing friendship ever. And Andrew opened with one of the funniest Doug stories that I've heard and finished with wonderful words of love and welcome to the Becker clan. And finally, my sister Siobhan spoke about about our families and our histories, the parallels between them, and of course, love. Beautiful words from all three of them. Thank you all so much!

And then there was dancing. Oh yes, there was DANCING!

And then everyone danced...

And then there was cake! And many many desserts...

And a lovely duet by David and Pri--a mashup of "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "I Can't Dance".

And MORE dancing!

And Zombies

And then it was over...and we were tired. :)

But we had all the family over for a lovely brunch in the garden the next day. And the sun shone. And we breathed. And then the house was empty.

And then we went on our honeymoon...but that is for another post!

So wow, our friends and family LOVE to take photos. And, our photographer, Daryl Hemmings took many of these photos and was just wonderful! All told, we ended up with more than 2000 to choose from. We've whittled those down to a mere 400ish favorites. They can be viewed in this album. If anyone would like higher resolution for prints, just let me know!

And, thank you one and all, to all of the wonderful people who made this amazing day happen--our wonderful parents, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends.