Faces I Made In North Dakota

I was planning to write a detailed recap of my trip, but it is hot in Seattle and my brain keeps melting. So here is the abbreviated gif version.

We took the train...

...although it was sad to see that Amtrak has cut back on a lot of amenities. No champagne upon departure. Plastic dishes in the dining car. Increasingly minimal food options.

Our car attendant was kind of cute, but I played it cool.

We rolled in to North Dakota just as the sun was setting.

Impressive North Dakota. Impressive. 

The reason for visit was to see family and attend the wedding of one of my cousins. On the day of the wedding I checked facebook and saw all the posts about the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality.

Which made the experience of going to a straight, conservative church wedding sort of surreal.

But it was still a lovely ceremony and my cousin the bride wore a very elegant dress that was nicer than about 90% of what you see on Say Yes to the Dress.

During the reception there were lots of toasts but no alcohol.

At one point a man stood up to toast the groom, applauding him for being a good Christian man. He concluded his speech by saying, "and the world needs more people like you, because THE DARKNESS IS COMING IN THIS COUNTRY..."

...

...

Obviously it would have been a great opportunity to grab the mic and start singing the song "I believe in a thing called love" by the band The Darkness.

The rest of the trip was basically sitting in different places talking with various members of my extended family. I live in a very liberal bubble in Seattle, and most of my relatives on that side of the family are pretty conservative, but we do a good job of not pushing each others buttons and enjoying our time together. Part of the reason I went on this trip is because I like this kind of family time and connecting across our cultural bubbles.

Also, there were kittens.

On the trip back we had the same crew and the same sleeping car attendant.

The train was delayed for heat restrictions and when Wenatchee actually caught fire we were rerouted to Portland.

Which meant that we were given extremely grim lunches and loaded on to busses home to Seattle.

When we finally made it I was happy to be home, but then it was like WHAT IS WRONG WITH SEATTLE WHY IS IT SO HOT HERE WHY DO I LIVE ON THE THIRD FLOOR WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING AND WEST FACING WINDOWS.