Married!

Yesterday was a day to which Mark and I had long looked forward. We had already become married in all but name at our commitment ceremony last August. That was a wonderful, magical evening with family and friends in the intimacy of our back yard, an experience which my daughter Hannah beautifully wrote about on her blog. As our officiator commented at the beginning of the ceremony, if that ceremony had been conducted elsewhere - in one of the states that recognized same-sex marriage - it would rightly be called a wedding.

At our commitment ceremony

But, our union was not legally recognized as a marriage - until last night.

Our day began not with a bike ride (we decided to take a rest day), but with a wonderful, quiet morning on Little Beach. This was the first time since arriving in Maui that we visited the beach in the morning. (On previous trips, we would be there first thing, every day.) As it happened, there was only one other couple on the beach when we arrived. The following pictures depict the scene that greeted us.

At mid-day, we left the beach to do some shopping for our picnic supper that we planned to share with Jean-Pierre and Troy that evening. After a bit of prep time back at our condo, we headed back out to Little Beach after I took the following pictures of some of the flora outside the condo we are renting.

We were kneeling down on the beach. I'm actually not a foot taller than Mark. Behold our "altar" (below).

Mark and I had been discussing for some time what kind of "ceremony" we wanted on the beach. We had kinda settled on Troy "opening" with some words of his choice, followed by each of Mark and I sharing our thoughts and feelings for each other. But as we sat on the beach late yesterday afternoon, I thought, we already know how we feel about each other. We don't need to do that in order to concoct some sort of "ceremony." Furthermore, we had already done that at our commitment ceremony.

So, at about 6:15 - after enjoying our picnic supper of salads, ribs and sponge cake - we told Troy we just wanted him to ask the questions he is required by law to ask, then we would sign the marriage license. He replied, "Ok, when do you want to do it?" "Now," replied Mark. So that's what we did, signing the license on the "altar" referred to above. And, presto, we were legally married.

Behold the happy couple. As one of my sons would say, "Nice hair, Dad."

Troy doubled as bar-tender as he brought out the bottle of champagne they had purchased and poured each of us a glass in the very expensive, stackable plastic wine glasses that Jean-Pierre said he had purchased at a dollar store a while back.

My husband

At that point, it was just a matter of watching the sun set and sharing those wonderful moments together as newlyweds. It had been a perfect evening. Life is good.