The original marriage plan was to elope and pass through one of the drive-thru chapels in a limo, and be done with it in a few minutes. Unfortunately for my dad, too many people wanted to come and it turned into a normal wedding on the balcony near the waterfall of the hotel courtyard. At first it seemed like a good idea to have family present on the special occasion, but after a couple months of planning he started referring to it as "the damn wedding". Here's everyone who flew in!
The week flew by faster than I'd hoped. I'd met my dad's girlfriend before and like her a lot, although I have to admit I wasn't very impressed with my new stepbrother and stepsister. They're unemployed and live at home and leech off their mother. I couldn't believe how irresponsible they proved themselves to be when they missed the actual wedding and appeared after it ended, even though they were staying in the same hotel that it took place in. Additionally my stepsister's son (in the photo) was the ringbearer and was supposed to hand over the rings during the ceremony, and thank goodness my father had taken the rings out of the case the night before because he thought they might get lost. Otherwise there wouldn't have been rings at the wedding! They also lack adventure... they spent the entire week in the hotel room watching movies and never made it out to the Strip. My new family.
My dad wanted the banquet in the hotel restaurant instead of a banquet hall so that we could all sit close together and feel like a family. Everyone pigged out on steaks, lobster and crab (being the only vegetarian they specially made me pasta) and no one had room for the pineapple wedding cake at the end. The entire cake was packed in a box and sent up to the hotel room, to be eaten the next day by my stepbrother and stepsister who didn't feel like going downstairs for a proper meal at the restaurant.
It was nice to stop in Hawaii again after the fast pace of Vegas. Hawaii really is a beautiful place and it was nice to be reminded of that. It might be a while before I visit again, so I took photos of the house to preserve some memories. Who knows, the house I remember may change by the time I see it again - my dad was talking about how he wanted to renovate it now that everyone's grown up and rooms aren't being used.
My niece in the garage.
My sister decked out in all her gear in the front yard. The jacket has all kinds of metal strips embedded in it like armor in case of an accident. Safety first!
View of the house (right) from the hill in our backyard. My dad never got the sprinkler system fixed and the yard has become a plot of red dirt. Don't get the stuff in your clothes, cuz the stains are forever.
It was the first time no one was home to take care of Bubbles (12 years old). My sister's friend Molly came over to let her in and out of the house a couple times a day, but the day we showed Molly what to do Bubbles kept running away and I was worried that she wouldn't eat if none of us were around. Thankfully she looked just as healthy as when we left.
And who knows when I'll see my brother again now that he lives on another island. When I left Hawaii he was still in Middle School and that's the memory of him that I still have. It's hard to accept that we've all grown up and gone our separate ways and that it'll be a rare occasion to have us all together at the house again. I took some photos of him while I had the chance. He's turned out to be one of the most gentle people I know although you'd never know it from just seeing him on the street.
It was a real shame that I hardly spent any time with my younger sister since she and her boyfriend went off on their own a lot in Vegas, and while I was in Hawaii they didn't stop by the house except to take me to the airport my last day. My older sister had taken time off work to hang out with me while I was there, and after spending time with her I realized that it's only in groups that she's annoying. She can be considerate and fun to be around one-on-one. It could also be that age has softened her. She smiled a lot more than I remember growing up.
We went to the mall in our city before taking my brother to the airport. I like what they've done with the place. The walkways are set up like living rooms and the baby strollers are shaped like cars.
I was hoping to hang out with old high school friends, but didn't have anyone's contact info and ended up wandering around Waikiki and Ala Moana on my own one day.
Rush hour traffic coming out of Honolulu can be horrendous so I made sure to wait until evening to head home. They've widened the section of freeway heading to my side of the island to 13 lanes (6 one way, 7 the other). The size of it is pretty scary after getting used to driving on the 4-lane Beppu-Oita freeway all these years.
It was hard driving on the right side of the road and I kept turning into oncoming traffic, so I asked to use my stepmother's car instead of risking an accident with my dad's Cadillac (he actually offered, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if it got damaged). It took a while getting used to the huge tanker after driving my mini K-car for all these years. Thankfully there weren't any mishaps and I only got beeped at once.
Oh yeah, the final mishaps. I crammed all the heavy stuff into my carry-on and weighed my two suitcases after packing, but the scale at home must have been off because at the airport they were each over by a couple of pounds. It was a small enough difference that they could have let me pass through, but the one in charge of weighing the suitcases was a proud woman who enjoyed telling everyone to step back and repack. I opted to overpack one suitcase and pay an overweight baggage fee. But when I got to the counter I was told that I didn't have a ticket. My return ticket was mistakenly torn out when I left Japan, and I had to get another one reissued (on the other side of the airport). It took an hour of running around and communication between the office and the ticket counter to get things sorted, and in the end they overlooked my overweight baggage fee because of the trouble I went through. This made me kind of glad they took the wrong ticket in Japan.
And my last photo... inside Honolulu airport. I like how there are several gardens to explore after you've already passed through security and have nothing to do but wait for your flight (and spend too much money in Duty Free shops). My Duty Free total = $250. Did I really need all the cleansers and exfoliants and lotions and cologne?
