Wedding Webcast Tomorrow!

August 2, 2008 by admin.

Aloha! Yesterday started very early for me again. 4:50am to be exact. But, I’m getting better since the day before I woke up at 4am. At 4:50am it’s still dark out here and my morning routine has been to turn on the Lanai webcam and start blogging. It feels good to knock out a post before everybody wakes up so I can have the whole day ahead of me.

On this day, Ethel wanted me to drive her into Kailua-Kona to pick up some jewelry that she had made for tonights rehearsal dinner. The drive from Mauna Lani to Kona takes about 45 minutes depending on traffic conditions. When we got over there I was craving a burger big time and left Ethel at a store and walked to a Wendy’s in the parking lot. As I walked out I heard someone yelling my name and looked over and saw Eug, Catherine, Titang, Uncle Rollie, Jen and Alani. They were in the drive-thru lane at Wendy’s. Then Ethel went over to Jamba Juice and ran into them also there.

We got back to the house in time to get ready for the wedding rehearsal. I brought the equipment I was gonna use on Sunday to the hotel with me. I checked out the ceremony and reception site and started searching for the hotel’s WiFi signal. Crap,no signal! None! I spoke to the wedding coordinator and asked her about WiFi on the beach, she said she would look into trying to get their signal to reach the beach, but I’m not optimistic. I still have an option left to get a signal out here and hopefully I’ll get it resolved late Saturday night.

The rehearsal dinner at Fujimamas

Afterwards, we went back to Kailua-Kona for the rehearsal dinner at Fujimama’s. It was cool and while we were there Louie and I started talking about going back to Mauna Kea at night. The day before, a guide at the visitor’s center told us that it was not recommended to go up to the summit after 7pm because the rangers stop patroling at that time. Perfect. We got other people on board to join us, went back to the house and changed. We headed out to Mauna Kea with 3 cars at 9:30pm and didn’t get to the visitor’s center unitl a little after 11pm. We knew we needed to acclimatize ourselves to the altitude before the summit trip so we waited the 30 minutes. And did I mention that the temperature here at 9000ft at this time of night is 40 degrees Farenheight. Only 1 out of our 3 cars had a true 4×4 low gear setting so we brought all 3 cars passed the visitor’s center and to a little cutout in the summit road and parked there. Then we had everyone wanting to hit the summit go into Louie’s car and everyone who didn’t in the remaining 2. Since I was already feeling sick I didn’t want to do the summit this time. I stayed back with the kids and some other adults who stayed back.

On top of Mauna Kea

From our vantage point, it was pitch black. You could see all the stars including the Milky Way. And, shooting stars up here are so bright, they’ll catch your eye even if you’re not looking for them. Louie’s car with the summit people arrived back an hour later and we started the long drive home. We made pretty good time and since it was pretty much all down hill, Louie made it home with only a 1/4 tank of gas. We rolled up to our hale at 3am…I guess I won’t be waking up at 4 or 5am today. Yeah!

jm
The Editor

Posted in Family Events | Print | No Comments »