August 22, 2009: The wedding was scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at the Mission Inn in Riverside. We wanted to check in by 3:00 p.m., so we'd have time to get ready for pictures. We left home to pick up GG (Great-Grandma) and brave the 91 freeway to Riverside. We hit traffic, but were able to check in on time.

After parking the car in the garage, we saw Nancy's Honda Element. It was already tagged, ready for after the wedding.

The Mission Inn is a beautiful old historic building. It began as a two-story, 12-room adobe boarding house called the "Glenwood Cottage" built by civil engineer Christopher Columbus Miller in 1876. In 1902, Miller's son Frank changed the name to the "Mission Inn" and started building obsessively, in a wild variety of shapes, until he died in 1935.

Miller's vision for the structure was drawn from random historical styles. With one section over another, addition upon addition, the result is an enormously complicated and intricately built structure. It contains narrow passageways, exterior arcades, a medieval-style clock, a five-story rotunda, innumerable patios and windows, castle towers, minarets, a Cloister Wing (with Catacombs), flying buttresses, Mediterranean domes and a pedestrian skybridge. Part of the complexity is an unexpected change of scale as Miller tailored certain portions of the property for his height challenged sister. Another reason for the complexity is the clash of styles, such as Moroccan, Mediterranean, Chinese, Turkish, Babylonian, Spanish, Oriental, Italian Renaissance, and Gothic-Hawaiian.

During the 30 year construction period Miller traveled the world, collecting treasures to bring back to the hotel for display. The various museum-quality artifacts on the property has an estimated value of well over $5 million.