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"Beaumont" is French for "U-Turn"

For a while now, weddings have been important reunion times for us. The same pastor who married us has been marrying off all of our friends, so whenever we go to a wedding, there's usually a good crowd from ULC (our church at Texas A&M).

This weekend our good friend Tara Kaspar married Robin Korsch, sealing her fate as a future Canadian. We've had a pretty good string of weddings, but as far as I know, the one we went to this weekend is the last that's currently on our calendar. I guess we'll have to schedule our own reunions now :)

We had a little navigational adventure after we drove into Beaumont on Friday evening. We unloaded the car at the La Quinta and decided we wanted to go get dinner. (Note: if you use Google to find out what "La Quinta" means in English, the only answer you find is that it means "Next to Denny's." But Babelfish says it means "the Villa.")

So we left the hotel and got on Hwy 10 heading West (this is important to the story). We saw many eating establishments, but the only one that made our short list was Joe's Crab Shack. So after a while, we U-turned to see what was in the other direction. We were now heading East.

We drove this way for a few miles, and then the starving pregnant woman in the car informed me that we should quit looking and just eat at Joe's Crab Shack or else she would eat my arm off. So we U-turned again.

We were now heading East.

Yes, somehow there is a sort of Twighlight Zone/Bermuda Triangle in Beaumont where you can make a perfectly ordinary U-turn, yet end up going the same direction you started out in.

You can imagine our confusion when we drove for about 10 minutes and realized we were pretty much out of town and weren't recognizing anything. I tried to fake it -- "Uh, I think I remember that tree..." Karianne began gnawing on my elbow. In consternation, we U-turned again, and *that* one took. It just took us a couple of tries.

We finally got to Joe's Crab Shack and were seated. But we had barely opened our menus when they suddenly turned off nearly every light in the restaurant and started playing an extremely obnoxious *rap* version of "Stayin' Alive." We fealt pretty old -- "Turn that music down and turn the lights on, we can't even read this tiny print!" We sat there scowling and peering at our menus.

The other funny thing was when we asked the waiter for directions. See, we were pretty close to our hotel, but the only way we could see to get back involved getting on the highway, taking the next exit, and U-turning. We hadn't had such great luck with U-turns so far, so we asked our waiter, "Is there any way to get back to Walden Road by avoiding the highway?"

He said, "Walden Road? Sure, it's easy. You just get up on the highway..." Thanks, Magellan.

We spent that evening hanging out with Gottfried and Sara, Rev K and Sally, and Matt and Kristin -- very fun :) The wedding the next day was great; I only wish we could have spent more time with some people. But that evening we practically closed down a Wendy's with Stef and Tiff, which was awesome (yes, we are a wild bunch). So thanks, Tara and Robin, for getting married so we can all get together and celebrate with you!