Chapter Nine
The parish church of La Mission de Santa Barbara was built in 1786 and is owned and operated by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles; it is colloquially known as the `queen of the missions' of the California churches begun by Father Junipero Serra in the era of the Spanish conquest of California.
It sits on a stunning parkland between the Santa Ynez mountains and the Pacific; in order to be allowed to use the grounds for the wedding ceremony of Felipe San Diego Guillermo Marquez de Taragona and Joaquin Antonio Mendez de Concordia, a substantial donation was made to the Archdiocese.
Ross Junior was best man for Joaquin; Felipe's uncle Martin, in full formal regalia, retired from the Spanish Guardia Civil, the national guard, was his best man in place of his father, who was deceased. There were only a handful of guests: Mario and Peter, Sam and Mickey, Simon Robertson, Lina, Phillip Downey, Tad and Mike, Felipe's sister Juana and her husband German, Stuart and Raj.
The party was held after the brief ceremony in the near-by Hotel Californian, the 1925 Spanish Colonial Revival luxury hotel on the beach. Spanish wines, red, white, and sparkling, tapas, flowers, music, and dancing continued on into the early morning, well past midnight.
Felipe had two weeks of vacation until he began a year-long apprenticeship with the Refugio Ranch winery. Situated on the Santa Ynez river, the 400+ acres of the vineyard and winery promised Felipe a chance to be fully immersed in the complete process of growing grapes, turning them into wine, and refining the wine into art.
The two weeks he had with Joaquin were spent in complete leisure: he had never experienced such laziness as a farmer at home in the hills of Porrera. They drove to San Diego, enjoyed the beach and took a day on the bay in a rented sailboat, and fucked innumerable times and made love daily. They enjoyed the little towns along the coast of Orange County but kept to the Spanish tradition of a daily siesta and drinking and dining and dancing past midnight.
Ross Junior was enjoying the luxury of living in the condo in Beverly Hills, but ultimately, he felt two things: it was definitely inconvenient to his daily commute to work in the entertainment industry as a computer programmer, and he needed a place near the studios in Burbank. He also felt the vibe of his dead father, although not uncomfortably so, but wanted to enjoy his dead father from a distance rather than his bed.
Felipe and Joaquin decided to rent a large apartment on the beach in Santa Barbara for the duration of the year of the apprenticeship; the condo in Beverly Hills was always available to them whenever they went south to the big city to see friends.
They kept their promises to Felipe's mother and went to Spain twice a year to visit her and check on the lease of the vineyard in the hills of Porrera, and eventually purchased three adjacent properties there as well.
Their third visit to the old lands above Barcelona was to celebrate her life and commit her ashes to the earth; joined by Felipe's sister, her husband, and their two children, it was a sad and nostalgic time for all of them, including Joaquin. He decided to stop in at the ancient site of his family in Celanova; he wanted to be immersed again in the memories of the red Spanish soil of his youth.
He spent two days in Celanova with Felipe, riding horses into the hills, dining on tapas, buying some of the local craft art, and drinking more of the local wines.
When it was finally time to return to Santa Barbara, they were sufficiently sated and satisfied that they were re-fueled with European ambiance to last another year at least.
Mario and Peter held a welcoming party at the beach house in Malibu; Mario and Peter were leaving the next week for a month in Argentina and had negotiated with Stuart and Raj to sell the beach house when they returned. It was a nostalgic time for all; it was a time of renewals, remembrances, and opening new chapters.
As they were driving away from the Malibu house where Joaquin had met Ross, years before, he was wistful; looking back in the rear-view mirror, he felt as if he was driving into a whole new world.
Turning to Felipe at his side, he kissed his cheek and smiled; in the late afternoon sunlight, the bright flashes bouncing off the waves of the Pacific to their west, he was finally ready for this mysterious and exciting new chapter.