The Wedding

Last weekend we drove to San Diego, to the wedding of the son of our neighbor down there. We lived in that house for seventeen years, and moved in when John was about six.
His parents are both lawyers, and hoped that he would follow in their profession. John felt differently, and is now a professional body piercer. He owns his own piercing and tattoo business in an area of San Diego called Ocean Beach. His store is Dr. Jefe's, but it looks like he doesn’t have a web site. For fun he puts big hooks in his back and hangs from the ceiling – not my style of fun, but somebody’s got to do it.
After driving down to SD we stayed at the Town and Country Resort. This is in Mission Valley, about the center of the area but a little way from downtown. This hotel is old, at least for most of San Diego. It has lots of two story buildings and the courtyards are filled with roses and other flowers, most of which were in bloom.

Right behind the hotel is the San Diego River. It’s not big, but it always has water in it.

Over a little bridge over the water is the trolley line and the Fashion Valley Mall. It’s one of the outdoor malls in SD – the weather is usually so nice there is no need for an indoor mall. San Diego has a bunch of shopping malls, Fashion Valley Mall and right up the river a mile is the Mission Valley Center.
Interstate 8 runs down the middle of Mission Valley, running from the east coast all the way to the Pacific. On the south side, across from the Town & Country towards the south are some nice homes, a couple of hospitals, and this hospice

I thought it looked nice through the palm trees.
The wedding was held in Balboa Park, under a big tree. Unusual for San Diego it was sunny and warm – the normal weather report is “night and morning low clouds, clearing towards afternoon, high in the upper 70’s”. A marine layer comes in from the ocean, blanketing the beaches and usually the park and downtown. This day was clear.

Here are the men from the wedding party. From the left; the minister, John the groom, the groom’s brother (only 18 but he looks sharp), the best man and the father of the groom. You can’t see it to well, but John has big stone ear plugs in his earlobes. They are about an inch and a half in diameter, and his ears look pretty strange when he takes them out. He’s been working up in size for a while, I don’t know how big he wants to go.
Here’s a close-up of the best man.

He works with John, and while John does the piercing he does the tattooing. As you can see, he’s pretty well into tattoos. His girlfriend has a beautiful work on her arm, in pastel colors. I could probably go for a nice one like hers.