Gay family road trip

This Memorial Day weekend, good friends of ours are having a gay wedding/commitment ceremony. They have been together as a couple for about four years and are co-parenting two kids. The service is going to be at a beautiful hotel along the central coast of California. It is about a 3 hour drive from here. We are renting a mini-van for the weekend because this is going to be a family affair. First, we are picking up my two younger kids (8 and 10 years old) from my ex-wife (we also co-parent). Then we load in my parents. The six of us then head down the California coast.
E and I were married in a Jewish ceremony almost two years ago (Father’s Day, June 19). This weekend’s wedding couple were the best men at our wedding. At our reception my Mom pestered them about when were they going to get married? She jokingly offered to pay for it. Our friends decided not to hold them to their offer but they are invited to celebrate with them. The newlyweds are vacationing aboard the Queen Mary 2’s first all gay-transatlantic cruise across the Atlantic. Mazal Tov! (מזל טוב)

You never come out just once.
I first came out at work to my co-workers about four and a half years ago when I came out of the closet. Two years ago many were either invited to the wedding or saw the pictures or the announcement in the papers. Yesterday was another small outing. Work hosted a staff picnic. I was sitting next to the two newest employees that started in the last two months. We were chatting about upcoming summer vacation plans as well as past trips we all have taken. E and I do lots of adventure travel and I talking about our upcoming hike in Germany and Austria. The new female employee asked me, “Where does your wife work? How are you able to coordinate schedules?”
I replied: “I don’t have a wife…(pause)…I have a husband. He works for himself so scheduling is easier.”
“Welcome to California”, said the new guy that just moved into the state.
And that was it. The conservation continued on about vacations and work.The moment was a little scary. But I was not going to let the opportunity go by to remind people that not all couples are straight.