the wedding
los angeles
july 13 2002
also see:
the proposal
the honeymoon


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Our first stop: East LA, to get our marriage license and a couple burritos. And we discovered our new favorite beverage, "Aqua de Pepino" or cucumber water.		  
Sunset on Sunset Blvd.
 



We took a lot of photos from the car, which is where you spend most of your time while in LA.		  
 
 

Venice Beach. I'm happier than I look.		  
My nephew Jacob's first time on the beach in his 17 months. He and I stayed far away from the cold Pacific waters.
 



Sadie loved all of the city's vegetation, much of it growing without being given any special attention.

In fact, we were both surprised at how much we liked Los Angeles. Of course, we spent all of our time in neighborhoods we could never afford to live in. 		 
 
 

In order to make the final arrangements, we visited the site of our wedding, the Self-Realization Fellowship's Lake Shrine. Located a quarter mile inland from the shore at Pacific Palisades, it is a paradisal spiritual sanctuary created by Paramahansa Yoganada in 1950.

Above is the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial, under the arches of which we would be married in a few days.		  
This sarcophogus, which can also be seen in the photo on the left, enshrines the only known remaining portion of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes.
 
 


Lake Shrine is centered around a spring-fed lake and includes beautiful gardens, secluded spots for meditation, a hilltop temple, a museum with exhibits on Yogananda's work, and a Court of Religions, honoring the pricipal religions of the world.

Above, a statue of Christ tops a small waterfall.

  
Krishna playing his flute.
 
 

Buddha under the cobras' protective hoods.		  
Another friend of all living things, Saint Francis of Assisi.
 
 

Services are conducted in this small Dutch windmill chapel.		  
At Mt. Washington, the main headquarters of Self-Realization Fellowship, we bumped into Christian, a friend of mine from Colorado, who has been a monk of the SRF Order for several years. He showed us around the center's grounds, where the monks and nuns live, meditate, play soccer, and do the administrative work of the organization.
 


A single white swan swims on the lake.

"Paramahansa" is a spiritual title meaning "supreme swan" and was given to Yogananda by his guru to signify his attainment of highest spiritual realization.
  
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