I was able to sleep in a little longer this morning, probably because we went to bed so late. It was cloudy again this morning, but at least it was not raining.
I made coffee and did my usual blog work to complete yesterday’s post while Stephanie slept in. My shin was a little sore from my firewood splitting incident yesterday, but not swollen.
Sunnier Day On The Beach – Kelp & Rocks On Right
We got a text from Ashley and Bryan, they were starting to cook the grits for breakfast, we had requested a little more notification that we had yesterday for breakfast. Stephanie got up and we got ready and headed over to their cabin for breakfast.
Breakfast was the same as yesterday and just as good. We had grits, bacon, scrambled eggs and used leftover hamburger buns in the toaster for our toast. After cleaning up the dishes we headed back to our cabin to get ready to do some walking on the beach.
Sunnier Beach Day
When we headed back outside, Ashley and Bryan met us and Ashley gave Stephanie a card, saying that this was a thank you for coming along with them on this trip. We said we should be thanking them. Stephanie opened the card and it stated that Ashley and Bryan were eloping and that they were getting married today at Between Beaches. It was a surprise to us, and we were really excited and happy for them.
Ashely said that was the reason why they had brought so much luggage, she had a wedding dress packed as well as some wedding decorations. Lance and Brooke were also coming to the wedding, and that was why they were here at their cabin in Seldovia at the same time as the four of us, Lance already knew from Bryan and wanted to be here for the wedding.
Ashley and Bryan had originally planned the wedding for yesterday, but it was so rainy. We knew the weather was forecast to be better today, and it was.
Starfish
The wedding was not strictly scheduled for a specific time, but roughly 12:30 PM was the target time. That was a couple of hours off, so Stephanie and I got our rubber boots and walked along the beach since the tide was almost low. Ashley and Bryan eventually joined us at the beach and we relaxed waiting for the time for the big event.
The tide was not quite as low as yesterday, and it was not yet dead low tide, so we did not see as much sea life as yesterday, but still saw some starfish and lots of sand dollars. I had my camera today, and was able to get a few photos of the starfish.
Sand Dollars Everywhere
We wanted to eat some lunch before the big event, so we headed to the cabin and made sandwiches for the two of us. I also took a shower so I did not have to wear a hat to the wedding to cover my unruly hair from sleeping last night.
By the time we finished lunch and my shower, Ashley was dressed in her wedding gown and putting up some of the decorations she had brought with her. The wedding was taking place over by the gallery on the large open deck overlooking the bay. The wedding needed be near the gallery to have wi-fi access because Ashley was going to stream the wedding through her phone on with her parents. The gallery is where the internet/wi-fi is the strongest.
Ashley’s dad was performing the ceremony over the internet connection. Ashley had some music prepared, it was recorded by her nephew on the violin, and they used that for the music to walk down the aisle. Bryan had also brought some dressy “wedding” clothes, and had changed. Lance and Brooke had arrived and so it was time for the big event to start.
Bride & Groom
They walked down the aisle coming out onto the deck, where Ashley had set up a tripod, camera and microphone for the broadcast over the internet to her parents, and the ceremony began. They said their vows and exchanged rings, and it was over, they were married.
It will be more “official” once they return home and get all of the paperwork filled out for South Carolina, but this was the best solution. Ashley had looked into having a real ceremony here in Alaska, but it was very difficult to try and set up an official approved wedding event here, there was a lot of things to do that made it difficult to set up from a distance beforehand.
Exchanging Rings
It was a nice and quick celebration. After the wedding there was a “first dance” on the deck. We tried to capture everything on the GoPro camera, we will have to see how it came out later. There were a few more pictures’ taken and then we all just relaxed and drank some beers on the deck, enjoying some sunshine.
We took a few more pictures and then headed back to the other side of the spit to relax by the fire pit. Ashley and Bryan were still in their wedding clothes for quite a while after the ceremony.
The owners of the Between Beaches tried to put out some fish remains to attract the bald eagles, but with Lance and Brooke’s dog Cooper there, the eagles were reluctant to come to the fish scraps. Ashley and Bryan had arranged for Nate to take us in the 4-wheeler to the end of the spit to see the red rock formation there. Lance and Brooke left to go back to their cabin in Seldovia when we all went to look at the rock formation.
Red Rocky Area
It was very interesting, there were many layers of rock, but they were folded in shapes, not all flat. It almost looked like somebody was layering a lot of dough and folding it back and forth. It was very interesting to see.
After we got back, we just hung out by the fire on the beach for a while until it was time for dinner. We were going to reheat our steaks from last night on the grill, and Ashley was going to prepare some Rock Fish she had gotten from Kristie, the owner here, to grill to go along with the steaks.
After Wedding Beach Fire
Everything was good, and the fish was excellent. We were glad to be able to eat leftovers and not have to worry about taking them to Seward tomorrow.
After dinner, we were all pretty tired, so we split up and each couple went to their cabins. We needed to pack our suitcases to get them ready for tomorrow’s travel day to Seward. We are taking the 9:00 AM ferry from Seldovia to Homer, so we need to be ready for Nate to pick us up by 7:55 AM.
It was a nice evening, and we were sad that we could not enjoy the sunny weather longer, but with the early morning departure, we could not do another midnight late night enjoying the sunset.
We got everything packed as much as we could tonight so we would not have a lot to do in the morning. We had a lot less to take back weight wise since we had consumed most of our liquids during the last six days.
We headed to sleep about 10:30 PM, it had been a great day.