Make sure you scroll down, because there's another post below (wedding stuff!) -- two posts in one day! I'm getting caught up, you see.
October 18th was the Wine Country Memory Walk, the penultimate day that Anna has been building to for a year. She barely had a week to catch her breath after Rachel's wedding, but that's how it's done in the big leagues, son!
Anyway, Gary and John came up to help set up Friday afternoon and night. I didn't take pictures for that, and it's for the best; there's less evidence. We start the story with a sunrise over the site:
While final setup commenced, Gary and John went over to a local golf course to get the golf cart that was donated for the event. Working hard, or hardly working, you be the judge:
Really, though, they worked their asses off. We all did.
Here's some more setup of the stage:
And the "Memory Pavilion":
The site itself was the back parking lot of a company called WorkRite, and was one long strip. The sunrise was from one end of the strip, and here's looking back, just in front of the stage:
Our friends Jennifer, David (Eric), and son, Brayden, are here ready to help with registration. Not in the picture (in fact he was out directing traffic) was Josh:
Once things got underway and the pre-walk ceremony had started, Anna gathered her route monitors at the trailhead to pow-wow and figure out where everyone would be.
I mentioned that the Walk setup and such took place in the parking lot of WorkRite. The actual walk was around Shollenberger Park in Petaluma. The walk is about three miles and is gorgeous for bird gazing -- hey, look at that, a cool hawk!
Told you it was good for watching birds!
Meanwhile, back at the event epicenter, everything was in full swing -- both sides of the strip were tables of sponsors and information booths, and non-profits, clowns, refreshments, even a unicorn petting zoo. Okay, I'm making up the part about the unicorns. Not the clowns, though. They were real. Too real.
Here's a view from just next to the stage during the ceremony:
And the rest was a blur. Walkers headed out. They came back. We tore down, stacked everything. Collapsed. We all went to bed around 8:30 and slept until.... about 8:30 the next morning. It was a loooooong, hard event. But it went off splendidly!
Four years ago we walked in the Treasure Island Memory Walk -- we had absolutely no clue that Anna would organize and execute a Memory Walk herself. And Treasure Island is a juggernaut -- the largest Memory Walk in the nation if I'm not mistaken. By contrast, Anna's walk wasn't quite of the same scale, but a) There's a staff that puts the TI walk together. The Wine Country Walk is organized by Anna and, in the last couple months, her minion. Throw in a dash of help from the North Bay Alz staff at large, and you've got a huge logistical ball of wax in Anna's paws. b) She doubled the number of walkers this year over last -- despite the fact that this is the first time at this location. I could go on and on because I'm extremely puffed up with pride over the amazing job that she did. Instead, I'll leave you with pictures of basset hounds:
These guys were the cutest of the myriad dogs at the event. Hopefully their cuteness is captured in this lousy picture -- I was exhausted by this point, but felt I had to get their picture.
So that's all for now! We're recovering.
