Wedding Crashers!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled (and recently grossly neglected) international travel blog programming to announce that we’re back in the US of A! But only for a week — we decided to make a quick detour back so we could surprise our friends, Ginny and Mark, at their wedding in teeny, tiny Currituck, NC.

It probably goes without saying, but this was not an easy feat. After several months of secret scheming that involved scouring travel websites, working with a travel agent, re-routing our round-the-world tickets, conspiring with Ginny’s mom Ginger and our friend Katie (the maid of honor) via Skype and email, having a J Crew bridesmaid dress brought all the way to Israel (thanks, Sarah!), and a few strategic white lies on Facebook, we managed to successfully pull off the surprise and catch Gin totally off-guard last night. The video below captures the big reveal — Ginny had NO idea we were coming, which made it all the more fun. :)

At first we didn’t think there was any way we’d be able to make this happen. For some inexplicable reason, Ginny and Mark didn’t want to wait an entire year for us to finish our trip before getting married. I mean, how selfish can they be, right? :) Even though she knew I probably wouldn’t be able to attend the wedding, Ginny asked me to be a bridesmaid, and Dustin and I SO wanted to figure out a way to surprise her and Mark at the wedding. Several months ago we tried to see if we could swing a quick trip home between our Middle East travels and our Tanzania tour, but it looked way too cost and time prohibitive. But then we ended up having to reroute our round-the-world ticket for other reasons, and our new itinerary had us in London at just the right time, and London isn’t really all that far from North Carolina in the grand scheme of things.

After we realized that it was possible, it was just a matter of finding a cheap direct flight between London and DC, a rental car, hotel rooms in DC and Currituck, a bridesmaid dress, and here we are! The bonus is that we’re also getting to see my cousin Kellie and her hubby Brian and their 2-year-old son, Anson, as well as a dear college friend of mine and her fiancé (Teri and Eric) while we’re in DC at the tail end of the wedding festivities. (We’ve posted some pictures of adorable Anson in our Washington, D.C. album.) Between all of this fun, our two incredible weeks with Sarah and Ilan in Israel, and our adventures in the desert with Dustin’s bro Dirk in Egypt (more on all of that to come, we promise!), we’ve managed to provide a pretty hefty knock-out punch to the homesickness and travel blues we were feeling in Asia a couple of months ago. Getting through the next seven months of being away from home is seeming a lot more manageable.

Now, if we can just figure out how we’re going to climb a 19,000 foot mountain in a few weeks after two months of virtually no exercise and excessive consumption of hummus, kabobs, and now North Carolina BBQ, we’ll be all set. :)

Comments

[Dustin Frazier]

Nancy, sorry we missed you guys while we were in DC! We had such a tight itinerary that we didn't even get in touch with Hodge before heading to the States. Next time...

[Ginny's mom]

It was an awesome moment. Having Laura and Dustin here made the weekend very, very special.