Louis Armstrong Was an Inspired Man...

...For what a wonderful world it has truly been! Today, Seth and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I mention Louis Armstrong because "What a Wonderful World" was our second dance together at our wedding. Our actual song was "No Ordinary Love" by Jennifer Love Hewitt (though no one but us really remembers it). Here's the sweetest story and one of my favorite memories to go with our good old friend Louie & his song. For our honeymoon we had NO idea where we wanted to go. We were married on a Friday night (and it was late when we got home after helping clean up at the church). So we didn't leave town until Saturday morning. When we got to the highway we just flipped a coin between Seattle & Spokane. Seattle won, so off we went. (Oh, to be younger and so spontaneous again!) As soon as we got to the Emerald City, we found a place to stay and decided to head to Seattle Center. Now you must know about the Whirligig (Seattle Center House)! On Saturday nights at the Center there was a live brass band (think ala Lawrence Welk) and all the members were at least 75 years old (so they were just the most dashing old cats there ever was). To dance the night away it cost several dollars a pop, but we were too late for the lessons at the beginning of the evening, so we weren't gonna pay to make COMPLETE fools of ourselves! We hung out just beyond the dance floor. Out of nowhere, I ran over and asked the bandleader to play "What a Wonderful World"...he asked who my lucky gentleman was and I pointed to Seth and explained he was my husband of not even a full 24hrs yet. The white-haired man chuckled and agreed to oblige. When the band completed the song they'd been playing, the bandleader grabbed the mic and stated they would be playing Louis Armstrong for the newlyweds in the corner, the crowd applauded, and without even turning away from the mic he waved his arms slightly and the band was already starting the melody by the time he finished turning his head. Oh! It was breathtaking (could've only been better if he'd been Mr. Armstrong himself). We danced and soaked up the moment. Our song hadn't quite ended and the sweet man turned his head back toward the mic and said "We must have something else for these lovebirds!" and they rolled right into another amazing song! I'm not sure if that man is still alive or not, either way he'll never know how much that night meant to both of us, nor how much I cherish the memory. From our beginning until now, it HAS been MOST wonderful and I'm it sure will only continue getting better!


(P.S. For those who'd like to plan on enjoying some great Whirligig dancing where "men are still gentlemen & women are ladies," I think the it has been moved to Mondays around noon, at least that's what I last heard.)