The topic this week for the #NatureWritingChallenge is, “My favorite day on public lands in 2018” and there really is only one appropriate response for me to give. March 7th, 2018 at Saint Edwards State Park in Kenmore, Washington. Around 6pm.
My husband and I met at Saint Edward State Park for our first date, but that was October 25, 2015. It was a place with a trail part way between Everett (where I live) and Kirkland (where he lived), perfect for two outdoorsy people to meet at and get to know each other.
I can’t recall now if I had ever been there before but from that point on it became one of my favorite places. There have been multiple family birthday parties there, trail walking and that one time we strung a zipline between two trees in the forest for a stuffed monkey named Chippy to slide on.
So, when my husband and I were trying to decide where to get married in the early spring of this year, in an outdoor location everyone could get to and wouldn’t cost a fortune, there was only one logical place.
For a month before, I was leaving messages for some guy named Pete at the parks office asking about reservations and not getting an answer. The park has a lovely open area in an old apple orchard dappled with light green lichen that rents for a nominal fee.
We already had a date picked out. If you know anything about trying to schedule around two adult lives plus 5 children, you know this was no easy task. That date just had to work, I sent out invitations (and reminded everyone they would need their Discover Pass).
Finally, after hunting down someone who said that Pete no longer worked there but he had the authority to help me, I was told that I didn’t need reservations. The odds of anyone else wanting to use that orchard at 5:30 pm in the beginning of March for a picnic was pretty small. He just warned me the gates locked at dusk…
So, with a little help from family and closest friends, including my ex-in-laws, we had what amounted to a flash mob wedding with my brother as our officiant while the sun set on March 7th, 2018. My sister hung candles on the low branches of a tree and we corralled enough to wooden tables for everyone to sit at. After eating dinner picnic style, we said our vows with the people most important to us.
Nothing fancy and yet perfect. There was trail mix and vegan gluten-free carrot cake cupcakes for everyone and then we were off to the new McMenamins Anderson School in nearby Bothell for the night before we flew out to Colorado the next morning.
Most of the pictures turned out a bit grainy but that was the risk we took with the hour and it being outside. One of my brothers took this one standing on a table in the back, I didn’t know it at the time but it turned out to be one of my favorites.
Yep, my favorite day.
This post was written in one hour for the #naturewritingchallenge. Check out Twitter to learn more or see my other posts from the challenge here.
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