Monday, October 20, 2008

Visiting old friends


One of the first things we did when we got to Maui was to visit Kimokeo at Maui Memorial. We wanted to see for ourselves that he was okay and we also needed to meet with him to go over the wedding ceremony plans. When we left for Maui there was still a good chance that he was going to be able to do the ceremony. But when we got on the island and he still wasn't being released from the hospital it became clear that it may not work out for all of us. So Kimokeo brought in his friend and fellow native Hawaiian, Michael Gerard to be his backup. He was there at the hospital when we came to see Kimokeo.

First of all, being back at the hospital again was weird. Aaron hadn't been there since he was released from there last October. And the other eerie part was that it was all decorated for Halloween, just like it was when Aaron was a patient. It was soooooo strange to be walking through those sterile halls with paper skeletons and smiling pumpkins and cotton cobwebs adorning all the walls again. 

Anyway, Kimokeo was in good spirits when we saw him. His girlfriend Ryn was there as well and I was excited to meet her. (She's such an amazing woman and she'll play a bigger part in this whole wedding thing later on.) Kimokeo sat us down and went through what was planned for the ceremony. There were to be 10 conch shell blowers, 2 separate shark ceremonies and a canoe ride, to just name a few of the things. All of this sounded amazing. And then he asked what the groomsmen would be wearing. I told them orange and turquoise plaid shorts and they all laughed at that, saying something about us being Phillipino or something. ;)

We left the hospital feeling good, feeling excited and feeling lucky that a good friend of ours was well on the road to recovery. 

Before we left though Aaron had to stop at one place...

then

now

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