Getting the Hang of This

I think I figured out how to announce a new entry into Facebook without it calling for the user to sign in to this blog. Boy, this reminds me of the days when I was still at People Mover working on peoplemover.org.

Anyway, I digress. I wanted to put up a picture of what 40 years of marriage can do to your looks. As you know Dale and I just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We spent our honeymoon on Kauai at Kokee Lodge which is located near the Waimea Canyon. This was my first introduction of "roughing it" which should have been a warning of what life held for me in Alaska. At that time I never thought that we would end up in Alaska.

This is us on our wedding day. We looked like two young kids who had a great sense of humor and who were ready to tackle anything in life that came their way.

They tell you that the bride and groom should not see one another on their wedding day until after they are married, that it was bad luck. Take a look at my left hand and you will note that I only have my engagement ring on. This picture and the others were taken before the wedding at the East/West Center on the University of Hawaii Campus. I think that after 40 years we've debunked that old saying, don't you?

Before

My mother-in-law and Dale decided to play a trick on me on my wedding night. Imagine climbing into bed, groping in the dark to find him and then discovering that he was clothed from head to toe in a red, white and blue flannel nightshirt!

We flew to Kauai and stayed at a cabin near Kokee Lodge near Waimea Canyon. Since it was mid January, it was pretty cold, nearly 40 degrees. A friend had given us some cheese, beef sticks from Hickory farms and some crackers for a wedding present and we brought those along. We also stopped to get some chicken noodle soup, baloney and bread before making the trek up that mountain. At around 4:30 pm we decided to go to the lodge to get something to eat, but it was closed. Who closes a lodge at 4 pm? So down back to our cabin we went where we had chicken noodle soup and the cheese and crackers we brought along with us. That evening we agreed that it was the best wedding gift ever.

After

The rest of the evening was predictable except that I was experiencing a bad case of hay fever and was very cold inside that cabin because there is no central heat. Dale started a fire and I spent the rest of the evening putting logs into the fire every hour or so, sneezing and really having a wretched time up on the mountain. The next picture shows what I looked like the next morning. I ended up with the nightshirt and looked like I had just been through honeymoon hell.

Waimea Canyon - Honeymoon 1972

Waimea Canyon - Honeymoon Revisited April 2012

Anyway, fast forward to April 2012. We took a side trip to Kauai while visiting my parents in Honolulu. We thought we came across the cabin we stayed at 40 years ago and it looked really run down (no comment on the unspoken metaphor here). I can't believe I agreed to rough it at that cold, dust filled cabin, but I was newly married and in love (gag me already).

I included the picture we took a few days ago. Like fine wine we have "bloomed" in our 40 years together. I am a bit smarter too because this time we stayed in the city of Kapaa at a hotel where we had running water, a microwave and were surrounded by restaurants that stayed opened well past 4:00 pm.

Yes, I'm getting the hang of this blogging stuff and also 40 years of marriage. Someone told us on our wedding day never to go to bed angry at each other and to this day we have done exactly that.