Joe: After 9 plus years together, my brother Jon and his life partner, Sarah (aka Aunt Beautiful) got married this past weekend. A hardy “Mazel Tov!” to the both of them from the Swiss Family Abraham. The wedding weekend consisted of three days of partying on the quaint island of Nantucket, MA. Maya had been looking forward to the wedding, and her role as junior bridesmaid, for a long time. She has also been missing her cousins, so spending time with them was worth using her two “Joker days” at school to boogie back to the States with me.
Day 1. Friday morning we trammed it to the Zurich airport to catch an American Airlines flight to JFK. I tried to get us bumped up to business class, but managed only a bump to premium economy (3cm more knee room, oh boy!) on what seemed to be a perfectly preserved 1970s era jet. Though rocking the vintage angle has its merits, AA would be well-served to update their cabin interiors to modern standards…No USB ports and no entertainment system didn’t seem very premium. But the flight was uneventful, save for my fretting over how we were possibly going to make our connecting flight to Nantucket.
We were scheduled to land in JFK terminal 8 at 1:25, and our JetBlue flight was scheduled to depart at 2:45 from terminal 5. That’s a tight connection that gave us about an hour from touchdown to do the following: Taxi, deplane, go through passport control and customs, take the AirTrain to terminal 5, go through security, and get to our gate before the boarding closed on our flight to ACK. Given that I’ve spent an hour just in the JFK passport control line in the past, I had good reason to fret. My strategy was to hassle, of course, and to rely on our next flight being delayed. And we made it! It took some line cutting and some spirited jogging, but we got to our JetBlue gate to find the plane had of course been delayed 15 minutes. They hadn’t even started boarding!
A quick (but expensive!) flight later, and we arrived on Nantucket, where we were met by my sister and her family. We changed into our bathing suits in the airport bathroom, and headed directly to the beach for wedding party number 1 – Beach BBQ.
It was just great to hang out with Abraham and Greenwald family and friends. The effort put into planning and preparing for the weekend was obvious, yet Jon, Sarah, and Sarah’s parents had nothing but warm smiles and enthusiasm for their guests.
Day 2. Golf, Cousin-time, and more partying. Saturday mornimg, I went golfing with the boys while Maya hung out with the Kaufman cousins. I had the honor of being in a foursome with my nephew Jake who is now a bona-fide golfer. Wow.
Day 3. The storm approaches (Wedding Day!) Though plans for a wedding on the beach were dashed by Tropical Storm Hermine, Sunday was unexpectedly beautiful – though windy. After a morning of tennis with Abe and Tito, I headed to Jon and Sarah’s house for pre-wedding prep (aka ping pong). When I arrived, I was much relieved to find Maya getting her hair done by a professional hired by Sarah. I had been dreading having to battle Maya’s hair after a weekend of beach frolicking. But while I was put at ease, it was obvious that Jon was preoccupied: He actually lost to Zach in ping pong! In Jon’s defense, he played Zach “lefty”, and the game was very close nevertheless.
The wedding itself was, of course, beautiful. The ceremony highlights were the bride (radiant!), Jon’s vows (tears everywhere!), and the fact that I got to hold my nephew Joshua during the ceremony. It felt like I was not only watching the wedding ceremony, but in fact holding a little piece of the miracle that is Jon and Sarah as husband and wife.
The wedding reception, held in a tent behind the Greenwald house, was typically elegant and casual. The clear highlight of the reception was the speeches. Mine in particular. In an impromptu maneuver, Maya twice stole the mike from me and spoke eloquently of her relationship with Uncle Jon and Aunt Beautiful. I was blown away by her poise in front of the crowd. She made me very proud.
Day 4. Monday was a tough day. For Maya and I, it meant leaving the island and all of our loved ones. For just about everyone else, it was a day of cancelled ferries and strong winds as Hermine blew over in earnest. Our day started with an 8am flight from ACK to Boston. 18 hours later, we landed in Zurich (24 hours, if you include the 6 hour time difference). Luckily, the flight accross the Pond was not full, and Maya was able to lay accross three seats and get a reasonably solid night’s sleep. Two hours and a shower later, Maya was back behind her desk at the Schule Letten.
It was way too short a trip, but our Nantucket weekend wedding adventure was otherwise fantastic. We wish Jon and Sarah all the love and happiness in the world. Maya and I thank them and their parents – Rich, Judy, David, and Carole – for so generously hosting us in ACK.
