The O.C.-May 26-29, 2006

"California...here we come..."

Steve and I caught a late afternoon flight to the O.C. for my cousin Jennifer's wedding. After 5 1/2 hrs on the plane we landed in sunny Huntington Beach, California. I exptected to be met by Ryan, Summer, Cohen, Marissa (oh wait she's dead), but we weren't ....(and now you all know I've watched the OC before). Instead, we met Jadyn at the airport, caught a cab to the hotel and checked in. We were starving so we decided to head down to "Main Street" for some food. We picked a Mexican Restaurant called El Ranchito. It was delicious by comparison to NYC Mexican food. About an hour later, the parents arrived in the OC and met us at the Restaurant. We all caught up before heading back to the hotel. At 2 am, we all finally crashed.

Saturday rolled around and we met up with family friends, Cheryl & Norm and Chuck & Lena, for lunch. We tried to go near "Main Street" and the beach, but the annual volleyball tournie was going on and it was impossible to find parking. We finally found a restaurant away from the action. It was great to see them all and catch up. (From left to right: Lena, Chuck, Jadyn, Steve, Jaren, Cheryl, Ann, Norm, Greg)

After a long lunch Jadyn, Steve and I checked out the beach briefly before heading back to the hotel to hang with the other Tichy's who arrived.

The cousin's and significant others went to dinner at the Blue Water Grill in the Newport Beach marina while the parents attended the rehearsal dinner. After, we all met up at Muldoon's Tavern....Several rounds later, the parents left and the youngsters remained. We closed the place down before heading back to the hotel to cause some trouble. The parents were up still chatting in Uncle George's room when we got home. We went to my parent's room to chat when poor Danny knocked on our door. Hewas locked out his room. He entertained us for a bit until we recieved a few noise complaints. By 2 we all crashed. We were lucky we didn't get kicked out.

Sunday, we woke up hurting and needing some food. We hit up the California institution, In-and-Out Burger!

Mom deciding what she wants to eat. The gang sitting out front chowing down on the grub. The ulitmate cheeseburger, up close. Yum, yum!



After devouring our food, we headed to the beach for a few hours. Jadyn wanted a kite since it was the perfect kite-flying weather, so Dad went out and bought a $1.99 tie-dyed kite.














Steve, Jadyn and Kite. Jadyn running with Kite.

Jaren and Steve on the beach.

Only spending 2 hrs on the beach, we all got fried to a crisp.
We headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.....

Jen looked beautiful and Eric looked happy.
The pastor was probably a surfer by day, minister by night. Hang loose dude!
It was a gorgeous and emotional ceremony.




...you may kiss the bride. May I present to you, Mr. & Mrs. Calisher













The reception followed.
We toasted the bridge and groom as they arrived. They did a little (choreographed) dance for the crowd. We ate a delicious meal. We saw a slide show of their childhoods and history of their relationship. We ate some cake and danced the night away before sending the bride and groom off. (I can neither confirm, nor deny, that there may have been some tailgating...)


LEFT: George, Charlene, Greg. A.K.A. The Tichy's. CENTER: All the Tichy's minus the important people of the day. RIGHT: The Kid's table




LEFT: The bride and groom sitting at the Sweetheart Table. CENTER: The cake. LEFT: Alyssa, Matt and Jadyn--rockin' the gift table!




Having a good time. You look HOT mom! You definitely have the moves....




More dancing....





After the reception, we came back to the hotel and sat outside in the gazebo listing to my dad and uncle tell family stories...before we knew it, it was bedtime.

6am rolled around quickly. We were all a bit groggy from the night before, but we managed to all make our flights home....Steve and I landed in NYC to 93 degree weather, summer is officially here.

We had a great time with the Tichy's! Thanks to everyone.

New York AIDS Walk-May 21, 2006

I walked 10km Sunday morning in the New York AIDS Walk 2006 to kick off UN AIDS Awareness week. Nearly 45,000 people walked raising over 6.5 million dollars. UN Staff members and Goodwill Ambassadors walked carrying flags from all 191 countries. ( I was South Africa for the day). Here are some of the staff member's kids participating in the cause.

To find out more about the New York AIDS WALK click HERE

La ONU con nosotros * UN Cares * L'ONU avec nous

Aaron's Graduation from Vanderbilt-May 11-13, 2006

Friday morning (I'm talking early morning) was Aaron's graduation from Vanderbilt University, so Steve and I caught a flight to Nashville Thursday evening. After being delayed both on and off the aircraft, we finally made it. An hour late for our reservation, the rest of the family was there...waiting patiently. We ate at the nicest Italian restaurant in the city, Mario's. After dinner, Aaron, Jennifer, Steve and I went to Aaron's frat to watch LOST....(that's an entire separate entry). It was then time to head back to the hotel to sleep for Friday was a big day.

We woke up bright and early to make it over to Vanderbilt in time to find a good seat. The ceremony took place on the Alumni Lawn. The day was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. After the procession of students, Chancellor Gee spoke. After his uninspiring speach, in my opinion, and the announcement of awards (one of Aaron's buddy's received the Founder's Award) it was time for the students to recieve their degress.....hours later, Aaron walked across the stage. YEAH! He did it! Done! Finito! Congrats to Aaron. How does it feel?

Post ceremony it was time for the normal photo-op!
From Left to Right: Aaron and parents. Schwartz Family. Schwartz Siblings.

Boo yah!

And let us not forget about the "Lady Friend"!

After the quick photo-op on campus it was time for some grubbin'! We were famished and needed food STAT.

The fine food establishment of choice, (enter drum roll here)

Loveless Cafe!

A fast drive outside Nashville and we were there! Unfortunately, we had to wait about a half hour to be seated, but let me tell you it was definitely worth the wait.

On the menu: EVERYTHING FRIED! Fresh buscuits and jams at the ready and endless sweeet (or plain) tea! On our table we had: full/half/quarter pieces of fried chicken; beacon and cheese pull pork sandwich, fried chicken salad, mash potatoes and green beans. Yum, yum!
Jealous Dad??? You should be. Loveless Cafe, the epitome of a southern cafe.

After stuffing ourselves we all needed to rest our tummies.

Steve and I decided to take our "save the date" picture on campus because it is a beautiful arboritum...Click HERE to see the pictures.

We came back to the hotel and napped. Steve and I later took a walk downtown and saw the mainstreet, capital building, music venues and other sites. It was a quick stroll before getting ready for dinner.

Aaron took us to Boundary, a chic world-fusion food place. I personally thought the outside looked like the Swiss Family Robinson bungalow with a bar. After dinner, Aaron took us out for a drink to a local bar where we met some of his friends. We left shortly thereafter so he could enjoy one last night with his pals.

Saturday was depature day. Bob, Barb and Annette left in the morning. Steve and I didn't need to leave until the afternoon, so the Schwartz siblings and I went to the Opryland Hotel. It is this enormous hotel with glass as a roof...the outside was brought inside.

And here's Steve and I posing in front of 2 horses. I liked Aaron's idea of using this picture for our "save the date" and have the invite say: "Save the date you Jack...."well, it's not quite blog approprite.

After visiting Opryland, we headed back downtown for lunch. Aaron took us to Judge Bean's Texan BBQ joint. It was phenomenal. I have to rave about what I ate, smoked brisket quasadilla. Need I say more?

With a full belly, it was time for Steve and I to catch our flight back to NYC. It was a great weekend.

Save the date Picture-May 12, 2006

All dressed up in Nashville for Aaron's graduation we were in the perfect setting to take pictures. We thought we would take our "save the date" photos on campus.

Well, it sounded like a good idea....

*The blank white piece of paper is for us to photo-shop in the "save the date" message*

Pictures: 1, 2, 3.

Pictures: 4, 5, 6.




Pictures: 7, 8, 9.




Pictures: 10, 11, 12.


LEFT: Steve being Steve. "Life is like a box of chocolates, you'll never know what yur gonna get." RIGHT: Prom pose.





















I'm looking forward to your thoughts on what picture we should use. Feel free to state your choice in the "comments" section.

...I highly doubt we'll use one of these, unless photo-shop can do amazing things with pictures.

At least we had a good time making fools of ourselves.