Viva Las Vegas, NoCal Style

Okay so get this. About thirty some-odd years ago I went to a famous East Indian Vedic Astrologer. He is very well-known in the movie star WooWoo circuit in L.A. and carries a LOT of credibility. I went to his house, sat down facing him and he flipped on a cassette to record every precious morsel of his reading. We were rolling merrily along when he said, in passing, that I'd have a second marriage and CRASH! My mind hit a brick wall and I couldn't hear a word after that. When I burst into tears, Mister-Reader-To-The-Stars looked surprised and stopped.
"Second marriage? SECOND marriage!!??" I blubbered.
He pushed a Kleenex box over to me and said, "Well we'll just erase that part of the tape, okay?"
"Erase it?" I said. "You SAID it, so how can you ERASE it??"
Over the years Ted and I have teased each other about that reading, and well, today, unbelievably, it came true ...

Ted and I woke up this morning and got ready for an adventure. I'd told him all week long that I just HAD to get out of the house or I was going to do an Alien and explode out of my skin. (Understand that we spend almost all of our time inside the house ... one of the down sides to having an in-home office.)

So we got dressed and headed out the door. I picked a destination spot, Bodega Bay, because I love the seaside in the winter, and figured if nothing else it was somewhere to set our compass to. We got in the car and Ted turned and asked if I really wanted to go to Bodega and I said I was definitely open to suggestions. He recommended we drive through Dry Creek Valley, an unexplored-by-us wine producing area with lots of wonderful wineries. I said "SURE!" and off we went.

Well ol' Puxatony Phil (official groundhog), said we'd be having six more weeks of Winter, but you'd never know it by today. It was gorGEEsimo! Sun shining, hillsides covered in new grass, mustard flowers, pink blossomed trees and blue sky with CGI-perfect clouds. Pinch me! I must be hallucinating! We're OUTside! It's not raining or grey or cold (although I really do love the winter here), and it's fun not knowing where we're going.



"Famous" Lambert Bridge ... its namesake winery is just down the road.


Ted's a-drivin' and I'm a-lovin' the Tuscan-like countryside. I told Ted that this was just what I needed ... a bug-ectomy ... something to remove that bug that'd been up my butt from being indoors all week long!


Meandering happily along, we turned up a "No Outlet" road that dead-ended into the Bella Winery. http://www.bellawinery.com Que Bella! There were LOTS of cars parked in front and I wondered out loud what was going on. Just for a second, the corners of Ted's mouth flickered up slightly. What was he up to?

We walked inside to find that Las Vegas had come to Wine Country — Flashy Show Girls (well, zaftig winery women with feather headdresses), Black Jack tables, dizzying disco lights ... and ... can you believe it ... ELVIS! But not just any ol' Elvis, Marrying Elvis. Yes, Elvis was there conducting weddings that day (day before Valentine's Day) and there was a spot for us on the list, so we said What the Heck, put on our top hat and wedding veil and let Elvis do his thang ...

...thus breaking the ancient Second-Marriage-Curse cast by the East Indian Astrologer so many years ago. (Did you wonder where this story was going?)

Viva Las Vegas everyone!




Happily and unexpectedly we ran into friends, Kym and Brian (Kym was a high school friend of our niece Samantha, and took these pictures). Elvis married them too ... second marriages ... double weddings ... Love Me Tender y'all!