A real treat today…

DJMatticus has graced ‘Not Pretending’ with a guest post! On Sunday I re-blogged his post about his wedding. Now is the follow-up you’ve been waiting for…

The snow capped peaks rolled into the pristine sky. The air was so clear you felt like you could see to the ocean if those same peaks weren’t resting on the horizon. The icy chill of the morning snapped out at the exposed flesh of our cheeks, noses, lips, and we didn’t care. Though, we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit.

The queen and I were married in April, in Mammoth. The end of the season, the start of spring, and yet, when we stepped out onto the snow at the top of the mountain (11,000 feet) for our champagne toast there were still eighteen feet of packed powder below our polished shoes, suit, and wedding dress. The day was cool, and the queen put on the little jacket she had made to accompany her gown, but as long as we were walking around we never felt cold. The vast mountains of the California Sierra thrust out of the ground around us. Banner, Ritter, and The Minarets watched on us we danced across the snow, jubilant, giddy. It was a perfect day.

After the wedding we had to drive home to unpack, do some laundry, repack and then catch our plane off to our honeymoon. There was quite the disconnect as we drove away from the mountains, away from the cool clean air, through the deserts. We skirted past Death Valley. We drove straight through the Mojave. We melted. It was miserable. It was silly and we laughed at ourselves. We married on the snow, to drive through the desert, to honeymoon on the snow.

We landed in Vancouver, got on a bus, and headed up to Whistler. There we spent four days enjoying the majesty of the Canadian Rockies. We enjoyed the icy chill in the air. We reveled in the scope of the rolling mountains. We cut some trails and tested our limits and endurance. We were never apart. We never wanted to be. Sadly, reluctantly, we packed up once again and headed for home. We wished we could take the coolness with us. We wished we could somehow stay forever, lost in our perfect conditions and stolen time away from responsibilities, the real world, life. We daydreamed about the life we could carve out if we didn’t return home.

Going on five years later, I have to say that while we haven’t yet returned to Whistler, some of the magic we felt while we were there has stayed with us. The coolness has tempered our emotions. The beauty has never left our eyes. The adventure urges us on. We added a little prince to our family this year. We’ve already taken him to Mammoth and let him experience the wonder that is the Top Of The Sierra. Soon enough he too will be joining us as we strap ourselves to pieces of plastic and throw ourselves off the side of mountains. Soon enough he too will know that living life with adventure in your heart is the only way to live.