Chinese Wedding Banquet

Our first Chinese Wedding Banquet. We arrived early with Mark, Michael's car pool friend from work. We were met right inside the front door with many large tanks of fresh fish waiting to be the main courses for many dinners that evening. The room was beautifully decorated, people were hustling about, we found our table and sat for the next five hours.

The cake sat on its own table high above the other tables. It was ordered from a famous person who has produced cakes for the famous of Hollywood. Red Velvet. It was the most delicious cake I have eaten in a long time. But, I get ahead of myself.

We sat at the table with all the other work friends of the groom. Everyone was dressed for the occasion and looked fantastic and it was my first time meeting and spending time with most of these people. Lot of talking. Lots of laughter. Lots of alcohol. Oh my. I had not a sip. One young female at our table was totally drunk with just the first drink. That was interesting!

Dinner was a multi-course extravaganza of seafood. Very expensive seafood - abalone, lobster, crab, sea bass, shrimp. Other dishes - duck appetizer, calamari two ways and Peking duck.

As the party was wrapping up, we headed to the parking lot where Michael passed out nice cigars to four friends, the bride and groom hung out with us along with the best man and other cousins for another hour. The air felt good, my body needed to move around at that point and there were lots of photos taken and promises of getting together were made. Finally, we put the top down on my car and drove home with the heaters blasting. We climbed into bed at 12:30. Our third late night of the week.

Today, the yards are demanding attention and water. That is where I will be spending most of the day.

Below is a photo of the large 30-diamond Rita Ring and the 1936 necklace I wore for the very first time. I put my sunglasses in the center of it to show the size.