Hawaii & a wedding…

So the next day was the wedding…I dressed in my Sunday best, designed for Hawaii; a Hawaiian shirt (not the flashy kind that tourists wear though), pressed Dockers, and nice sandals with socks. Stopped off at the store and got myself some nice local Hawaiian beer. Arrived at the venue (the beach) a couple hours early I thought. Turned out I ended up being 4 hours early. So had bunches of time to kill. The wedding party was having trouble organizing all those people and arranging last minute details I suppose. Or Allison just told me the wrong time to get there. Yeah, that’s it, the bride was goofy and told me wrong. Job one is assigning blame, and I’m good at it.

I had a good time wandering around the ancient Hawaiian ruins again and contemplating what it must have been like to live there.  When I remembered about the museum, it was only a few minutes from the expected arrival time of the wedding party so I skipped walking the 1/4 mile uphill to visit. But like I said, they arrived 2 hours after that so I could have made it there and back in plenty of time. But the time I wandered off during my daughters wedding, I almost missed the entire ceremony. I wasn’t about to let that happen again.

The justice of the peace, or whatever she was, and the photographer arrived. A bit later, after they’d wandered around and the photog was filled in on where the best place to take pictures from, the groom and groomsmen arrived.

JOP greets the groom.

This was going to be a ‘traditional’ Hawaiian wedding ceremony. Or something like it. Not sure of the details and whatever, but it’s certainly not your run of the mill church wedding. Anyway, I was thinking, just before they arrived, around 3 hours after I got there, that my brain had slipped a cog and I’d gotten the wrong day somehow. I’d tried calling Allison but it went straight to voice mail. The arrival of these folks made me relax a little.

The wedding party started trickling in, mostly people I didn’t know but who looked like they were part of a wedding. And finally, the groom arrived with his entourage. Another half hour after that, and the bride, who look beautiful in her beautiful wedding gown, strolled up the path with mom and dad, bridesmaids, and flower kids. Lovely.

Groom discussing photos with the photog.

Like most people, I’ve been to several weddings and the JOP and the photog seemed to be the only ‘staff’ there that I noticed. But, they were as professional as you’d want. Knew their business. Made adjustments on the fly, trained the crowd, got the bride and groom on their spots for good pics, etc.

Groom and Best Man.

Or at least I think he’s the best man…maybe it’s that other guy dressed in black?

Wedding Party starts arriving.

The JOP was instructing everyone about what they were to do, the path would be substituting as an aisle, like in a church.

Just about all ready for the ceremony.

After everyone was all ready, you can see Dad there in the back ready to escort Allison up the path, we got the show on the road…

Up the aisle throwing flowers.

The little one seemed to want to stop and pick up all the thrown pedals. So, she got booted out, sort of. Mom carried her. Would have made for a very long wedding procession if she’d kept her job. The little boy would throw them on the ground, the little girl would carefully pick each one up and throw it back in the basket. Hah!

And the bridesmaids. On the left is Allison’s sister.

Allison’s sister Jill just recently discovered a new bug. She’s working on her Masters Degree in bug-ology. Here’s a recent article about the find: http://www.newsminer.com/features/sundays/alaska_science_forum/tiny-ancient-life-discovered-in-southeast-alaska/article_f0f189de-ec5c-11e2-99a7-001a4bcf6878.html

All set.

As usual, we all have to wait around for Allison. Geese.

Ah, here they are.

Allison has a ‘Gonna get ya sucka’ look. Or, and this is more likely, it’s a ‘can’t wait to be married to you, Leo’ look.

Giving the bride away.

The wind was trying to hassle us, but the weather was gorgeous. The few clouds that rolled by gave us nice shade at critical moments, and the wind was mostly gentle.

Taking the vows.

Allison is thinking, “Obey?? Wait, what?”. Just kidding, don’t remember hearing the word ‘obey’ during the vows.

The traditional ‘I do’s.

Introducing the married couple to family and friends.

A traditional Hawaiian water blessing.

And that was it. Allison and Leo’s wedding. After an hour of hugs and the traditional ‘kiss the bride’ line, everyone except me went to a ranch on the island owned by the owner of a gold mine outside of Fairbanks. For myself, it was disappointing to not get an invitation as the ranch house sounded spectacular. BUT…the day of the wedding was also the day that the Oregon Ducks played in a Bowl Game, the Fiesta Bowl vs. Kansas State. And the wedding conveniently ended just about 1/2 hour after the game started. So I said my goodbyes, everyone was already packing up to leave, and zoomed off to a bar I’d already found and had earlier scoped out as a place to watch. There were still seats left at the bar, and there were both Duck and Wildcat fans there, that always makes if fun. When I got there it was still in the first quarter and it was already Ducks: 15, Wildcats: 0. So, watched the game, had a good time, had dinner, a few beers, and headed to my new home, a condo I’d rented for 5 nights. I’d already thrown my baggage in the trunk so it was just a matter of following the great map I’d printed the 3 miles or so passed my hotel to find the condos. I can’t tell how many hours I’d searched for a good inexpensive condo. It was many though. Many of these condos over here are owned by stateside people who make a nice income renting them out. This particular one was probably fairly popular because they were at least 10% less expensive then, for example, the condo right next door. The owners live in Canada.

It was dark by the time I arrived but the owners had given me great instructions for finding my way to the condo’s parking spot, the code to get the key, and voila’ I’m in. Nice place. Big king sized bed. Giant LCD TV, all the creature comforts including some goodies left in the fridge and freezer by the previous renters. Set up and signed in on the WiFi, checked my email. Wandered around my 2nd floor deck seeing if I could spot the ocean…nope. I could hear it though.  Then, ahh, bedtime…some TV, reading, and lights out.