Volcano Wedding

On June's Friday the 13th, Kerry and I headed out into the heart of California's old mining country to attend the wedding of our good friends Mike Plocek and Margarethe Olsen. The event took place in the beautifully authentic Volcano, California. I say authentic because it still has the feel of a small old mining town even though any real mining efforts have long since died out. We stayed in a really charming original hotel and saloon called the St. George where all of the festivities took place. Due to the glut of wildfires that have struck Northern California this year, there was no power in the whole town most of our stay, but to be honest, it was really more of a treat than a burden. It just made the whole thing feel, well, more authentic. In Volcano, there is a rather large cave called Black Chasm where due to the lack of power, we took a tour using only flashlights! Though thankfully, just before the ceremony began, all power was restored.



The non-religious ceremony was expertly presided over by our good friend Ed Moss and was enhanced by original stories and poems written for the occasion and read by their respective authors. If I can get links to the writings, I'll link them here as they were really quite fantastic! It was a superb getaway for everyone and there were some good times catching up and meeting new friends over drinks and grilled deliciousness.



The drive there and back was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. Driving along the old gold rush highways with the top down, embracing the intense heat is almost therapeutic. We stopped whenever the impulse to just take in the view or take some pictures struck, and the luscious green that dotted the drive gave ample opportunity to give us more practice with our IR filter.

There was some talk from some of the other wedding attendees of having their wedding at the same location in Volcano, and I hope they follow through with it, it would be great to have an excuse to go back to this magical little spot.