More About Mike & Sarah's Wedding ...

Mike and Sarah McGarvey’s wedding was held at Traditions at the Links in East Syracuse, NY, at 5:30pm on August 28, 2009. Most of the out-of-town guests stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in East Syracuse with complimentary limousine service between the two locations provided by Mike and Sarah. While an outdoor wedding overlooking a small pond had been planned, the threat of rain caused the wedding ceremony to be moved indoors. But that did not put a damper on the enthusiasm of the wedding party or any of the guests.

After the ceremony itself and the obligatory wedding photos, Kevin McGarvey, father of the groom and the Best Man, got things started off with a beautiful and heartfelt toast to the bride and groom. Click here to see a video of the toast.

Kevin’s daughter, Katie (McGarvey) Ferguson – and also the Matron of Honor – had the unenviable task of following Kevin with her toast to the bride and groom. Katie proved herself equal to the task, though, delivering a beautiful toast to Mike and Sarah. Click here to see a video of Katie’s toast.

All of the food and drink provided by the facility was excellent. The DJ kept the crowd on the dance floor with a good mix of music. The most memorable section of music, in this reporter’s opinion, was an extended medley of Irish music, highlighted by a song called “Golden Keyboard” by The Bofield Ceili Band, a group that played at the Mullen Family Reunion in Ballina, Ireland in 2008. While Mike and Sarah were unable to attend that reunion, playing this song at their wedding reception brought the two events together.

While the wedding reception formally ended at around 11pm, the party certainly did not. A large contingent headed over to the bar at the Hilton Garden Inn and picked up where they left off. The bar was packed! Mike and Sarah joined the party after an hour or so to a loud ovation. The party finally ended at approximately 2:30am with 5 people left standing: the Mullen Brothers (Paul, Kevin & Mike) and the bride and groom! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bride and groom close out a wedding party! Great job Sarah and Mike!

Wedding of Mike McGarvey and Sarah Rector

The Mullen Family Tree has grown by one!! My nephew, Mike McGarvey, has just married Sarah Rector. In the photo below, from left to right, are Kevin Mullen (Godfather), Sarah, Mike, and Mary (Mullen) Kinslow (Godmother). Welcome to the family, Sarah!

Day 9: Drinks with Anne Lillis & Daughters

One last set of relatives to visit with before we collapsed at our hotel for the night! On the way back from visiting Madge, Marilynn and I stopped at Liverpool Street and met up with Anne Lillis and her daughters Ashling and Cliona. I had a copy of the huge Family Tree with me, so we rolled it out onto the bar table and traced out our family relationship. After proving to Ashling that we were, indeed, 3rd cousins, I made her figure out for herself what her relationship was to Avril Gilmartin. She correctly determined that they were 2nd cousins!

I told Cliona that she almost certainly won the award for being the most pregnant woman at a London bar at 11pm. She looked about 8.99 months pregnant! The baby is officially due in 5 weeks, I think. I made her promise to send me an update to the Family Tree after the big event.

It's a pretty poor photo, but it's the best the iPhone could do with the dim light of the bar. Left to Right: me, Anne, Ashling, Cliona

Day 9: Dinner at Sheila and Martin's

After visiting with Madge, Marilynn and I travelled to Sheila and Martin's house in Highams Park for drinks and dinner. As always, the conversation was lively, filled with politics (Obama, Cheney, Bush, Health Care) sports (relative merits of baseball vs. cricket), music (Rosalind gave me high marks for knowing the "Kings of Leon" while Sheila confessed to being a Bob Dylan groupie), film (Joseph discussed the socio-economic significance of the movie "Encino Man"). All in all, another great day! Left to right above: me, Rosalind Dore, Imelda Messenger, Sheila (Messenger) Dore, Joseph Dore, Martin Dore.

Day 9: Madge Messenger

A great shot of Madge discussing her early life in Ballina and her later career as a History teacher. Vascular dementia has robbed Madge of some of her mental capabilities, but she showed sparks of her brilliance today during our visit. I understand that she recorded an oral history of the Family a number of years ago. I'll do my best to get a copy and share it with the entire Family.

Day 9: Sheila and Madge

I finally got the opportunity to meet Madge Messenger in the flesh! That's her daughter, Sheila (Messenger) Dore holding her hand. As I told Madge today, it's because of her dedication to the family and her amazing genealogical work on the Family Tree that last year's Family Reunion in Ireland happened. Thank you for everything, Madge!!!

Day 9: Last Breakfast at the Muffin Man

We ate breakfast at this place almost every single day that we were in London. The food was good, the prices were reasonable, it was 200 yards from our hotel and it had free Wi-Fi!! That's what I call a good dog deal!!!!

Day 8: Dinner with Avril and Tony

Day 8: Tower Bridge: A Better Look

Day 8: Tower Bridge— a better look

Day 8: Tower Bridge in action!

Damn! If I had been a few minutes earlier I would have gotten an excellent video of the Tower Bridge drawbridge opening and closing. All I got was about the last 4 seconds of it. You'll have to look very closely.

Day 8: Tower of London

Unbelievably, we didn't go inside the Tower of London during our entire 9 day stay in England. In our defense, though, we did "The Tower" the first time we visited London back in 1986. Also, we were running massively short of time. Finally, (and I really believe this), walking around the outside of the Tower of London is more impressive than touring the rooms and structures within it.

Day 8: Treetop Walkway at Kew Gardens

I'm sure no one has ever died here, but there were a couple of spots where the metal flooring gave way slightly. It made you remember exactly where your heart was located inside your chest. The ever so slight swaying motion added to the overall effect nicely.

Kew Gardens was a lot better than I thought it would be. Without a doubt, though, Marilynn got more out of it than I did.

Day 8: Marilynn eating Muesli at Thr Muffin Man

I took this video just to make sure that I didn't blow the iPhone's microphone last night at the Magnetic Zeros concert. Once I took it, though, I just couldn't get rid of it. Too cute.

Day 7: Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros

I'm sure this video will look like trash, but it shows that we were literally right on the stage for this incredible performance. Highly highly recommended!! I'll write more later when I get more time.

OK, now I have a little more time! Marilynn, Tommy Kinslow and I went to see this band knowing next to nothing about them. I had heard one or two of their songs on a Philadelphia college radio station, but I couldn't quite remember their sound. However, they were listed as "Editors Pick" for Thursday in London's "Time Out" magazine, and tickets were only 6 pounds, and there were two other bands playing, and it was a cool bar anyway, so ... we decided to go.

It is almost impossible to describe these guys. I don't know a hell of a lot about them, but they seem to fashion themselves as modern day hippies. Their leader, Edward Sharpe, is more like a cult leader than a band leader. The entire band -- and the whole crowd for that matter -- gets caught up in his energy. Sharpe wasn't on the stage for more than 5 seconds when his shoes came off. A minute later, his shirt was off. He often jumped into the crowd and sang from the floor. He grabbed Tommy a couple of times and, at one point, gave him a palm to the forehead "healing gesture" of some sort. On another song, he jumped down and started dancing with Marilynn! Quite the showman. The band was great as well, playing a variety of instruments: piano, accordian, trumpet, bongos, and a variety of other drums, guitars and percussion instruments.

Check out this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hehPEoAk8eE. It will give you a good idea what the group sounds like, but it won't give you any idea whatsoever as to what one of their concerts feels like. To do that you have to be there, in person, as close to the stage as possible. And, if you have them, bring your love beads.

Day 7: Watching Cricket in the Lord Clyde Pub

This pub was voted by Hannah Davies as one of the best pubs in London. Had a drink there with Tommy Kinslow and soaked in the atmosphere. Nice. Unfortunately, the "best pub in London" had no chef that day, so we were forced to go elsewhere for food.