No sleep till Orick.

We're on the road, heading north!

Jason

Our blog will go on.

On July 10, 2008, our ownership of the domain www.june25.org will expire, and our wedding web site will no longer be available on the internet. We have enjoyed that you have enjoyed our site, and we had a blast building it.

However, there is more to this wedding than a mere week-long celebration. Because we were limited in the number of people we could invite to our wedding up north, this fall/winter we will host a barbecue in San Diego to celebrate the wedding and our new home with as many people as possible. Once the web site expires, we will use the blog to update everyone on this event — as well as on the progress of our pending remodel. We will also post a short preview of our wedding photos here, the rest of which we'll show at the barbecue.

And we will use the blog to keep in touch with everyone during our 28 days in New Zealand. We'll post pictures and video of the honeymoon every now and then while we're gone this December/January.

So, keep an eye on the blog!

Jason

176.5 hours to go.

We're in the home stretch, with only three more days in San Diego before we head north — and only one week till we're married. We have been actively planning and preparing since February 18, 2007 — during the drive home from the Pacific Crest Trail, where we got engaged. So it is strange to be at this place, 16 months later, checking items off the final "to do" list. A year ago it was where to have it and how many people, and today there is a wedding dress hanging from our bookshelf, ready. It is difficult to adjust to having so little left that needs doing.

The reason the adjustment is awkward is because there was much to do. But there was also much willing and happy help readily available. We couldn't have done it all without the pitching in of our family and friends, who provided physical labor here in San Diego, planning and coordinating from La Mesa to Cheongju, and much appreciated enthusiasm from Ramona to New York City. Thanks to everyone for helping us get from February 18, 2007, to June 25, 2008.

We're almost ready, and we hope you are, too.

Jason

Just today.

We're just sitting here passing a bottle of pure leaf green tea, cool-warm late afternoon breeze, crafting something for the reception centerpieces and enjoying wedding prep while it's going well: music, Sarah still towel-headed from a late shower after last night's bachelorette party, engagement pics splashed big on the desktop and switching — and the centerpiece project is green-friendly as it gets.

Good times.

Seven days from now we'll be barbecuing in the redwoods as people hit town.

Jason

Gettin'.

Check your e-mail.

I have sent out two attachments to everyone regarding transportation on the day of the wedding that provide directions and maps to the cabins from Eureka, Arcata, and Trinidad, and then from the cabins in Orick to the reception in Trinidad.

As a reminder, everyone attending the ceremony needs to meet at our cabins in Orick by 2:45 p.m. on the day of the wedding to be shuttled to the ceremony site. Our permit requires that we keep the scenic parkway as free of parked cars as possible, so shuttling everyone is our solution. Three minivans will transport 18 people at a time and will be driven by Frank, Mark, and Peter — which we appreciate. The shuttles will then return everyone to the cabins after the ceremony, at which time you can make your way to the reception, about 30 minutes to the south. We encourage those of you staying in the cabins to carpool as parking at the reception is limited.

Please print the directions and bring them with you.

Also, those of you driving up Saturday, June 21, will be getting another e-mail from us soon that will list contact information for other people on the road that day in case anyone runs into trouble — or just wants company during a lunch stop.

Jason

PS: I thought about just posting all the info and an interactive map on the blog, but then I thought we don't really want Guhn showing up to either event. You all remember that crazy bastard (If you don't, check out the April 2 and April 4 posts).

Follow the leader(s).

We have enlisted several people to help us coordinate our week-long wedding event — mainly so that we don't have to spend the whole week doing just that. We've done a lot of leg work on the front end and are looking forward to taking it a bit easier once things get rolling. With a few extra hands in the mix, that will be possible.

So, we've abdicated control according to the schedule below.

Monday - Jason and Sarah (Prairie Creek Cabin)
Tuesday - Anna (Golden Bears Den)
Wednesday - Amy (Roosevelt Elk Lodge) and Chris (Golden Bears Den)
Thursday - Carol (Johnny Redwood Cabin)
Friday - Kat (Gold Rush Cabin)

Please refer all questions for a particular day's activities to the people in charge, and refer to the Itinerary to see what they're in charge of. They will be handy for directions, times, and pithy one-liners. You may also find them knocking on your door if you're late for an outing.

We really appreciate their pitching in.

Jason

PS: 14 days ...

Look at us 207 times.

We met with our photographers Friday night to see the rest of the photos from our engagement session. For those of you who haven't had enough of our agressively-cutesy-pre-weddingness, find a 207-picture slideshow below.

Jason

The best man cometh.

Chris has returned from Korea. He'll be here for 20 days, soaking up some much needed California: burritos, girlfriend, family, friends. He hasn't been home since October of last year.

The wedding festivities officially kick off with his return, since he's so excited. Sarah and I are just trying to be at least as excited as he is, but according to the latest CNN poll, 57 percent of Americans think he's the most excited, and there's a lot of pressure on us to bow out and officially endorse him as being more excited than we are.

Jason

B.Y.O.__.

Throughout the week we will be hanging out and sharing downtime at the cabins — one of the perks of staying in close quarters with 90 percent of our guests. We are looking forward to this lounging and visiting almost as much as the other activities we have scheduled. Even for the low-key events there are a few things we need, like wood for burnin' and chairs for settin'. We thought we could all pitch in for these few community items — particularly those of us who are driving and who can just throw a chair or something in the trunk:

Firewood.
Chairs (for around the campfires, etc.)
Board games/cards.

For those of you who will be in bustling Orick, California, on the evenings of Sunday, June 22, and Thursday, June 26, we are organizing two pot-luck barbecues followed by bonfires at the cabins.

For Sunday, Sarah and I will provide hotdogs, buns, and the necessary condiments. We could use anything that might go good with dogs, including:

Chips and dip.
Potato salad or macaroni salad.
Vegetables to grill.
Soda.
Beer.

For Thursday, everyone should bring their own meat to grill and something to share — like the items mentioned above.

These are just suggested pot-luck items. If you think of something else you would like to share — great. Just let us and everyone else know what you're bringing by posting here, so we don't end up with 50 bags of chips and no beer. There will be about 24 people on Sunday, and 28 on Thursday.

The first barbecue is two weeks from tomorrow!

Jason

The last word on trees.

I planted a test-run of the seeds that came enclosed in the Save the Dates on Sept. 12 of last year. About a month later I had some success, with one redwood and one sequoia nosing about two centimeters out of the soil — just two out of 50 seeds planted. Such a low germination rate makes some sense if you consider that a single redwood cone contains 150 to 200 seeds. If they all sprouted and grew to adulthood, the world would be overrun by the giant trees (though there is a high probability that humans could still log them quick enough to drive them to extinction). Another factor that may have played into the limited success of those of you who tried to grow the Save-the-Date seeds is that they could have been collected from young redwoods, which tend to produce cones full of infertile seeds until they reach 200 years of age or so.

Anyhow, after eight months, my saplings are doing well, as are the two sequoias Sarah's mom managed to get going. The two images at right are of mine. For context, check out the Oct. 6 blog entry.

And, for any of you who haven't passed out from boredom or been driven to click away by the irrelevance of this post — I stumbled across a pretty interesting site operated by the National Parks Service that discusses redwood reproduction.

Yep, that ought to just about drive away the last of this blog's tiny, yet devoted, following.

Jason

Pictures of us.

About a week ago we spent four fun hours with Stan and Jeannette, our wedding photographers. They took us all over Old Poway and Ramona shooting our engagement pictures — a preview of which are available for viewing on the Trailbrook blog!

The pictures are brilliant and inventive, and really capture us (though it is a bit hard to look at so many images of ourselves without feeling a little self-conscious). Stan and Jeannette made the experience a blast and proved true our original impression of them — that they are excellent photographers and two people we'd enjoy spending the week with during the wedding. They are creative and obviously love what they do. We can't wait to meet up with them later this week to check out the rest of the pictures from the session — especially since they said they never post the best pictures on their blog, saving those for the couple. It's hard to imagine this is true based on the quality of the images that are already available.

Over beers at Cheers in Ramona at the close of our shoot, we encouraged Stan and Jeannette to make a vacation out of their work up north and join us for some of the outings we have planned. We hope they take us up on the offer, and we can't wait for you all to meet them up north.

So, check out the pictures! Let us know what you think. And let Stan and Jeannette know: They love feedback from family and friends on their blog, too.

22 days!

Jason