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.

Redemption, Recycling and Cycling

I have been wanting to take a picture of this sign for two years. I first saw it on my first trip to Maui. It is alongside a busy highway, however, so it was never opportune to take a picture of it - until yesterday. We rode our bikes to the outskirts of Kahalui and back (for a total of 28 miles), and we passed the sign on the way back.

When I first saw this, I burst out laughing. The reason might not appear immediately obvious, or perhaps wouldn't be funny to others, but it was one of those things that just struck me as hilarious. Mark and I had been discussing Buddhist tenets, and I had recently had opportunity to consider the very real possibility that I had lived former lives (a story for another time). We had furthermore been carrying on an ongoing conversation about the peculiar Christian concept of the need for "redemption" - the need for someone outside of ourselves to "save" us, which is diametrically opposed to the core concepts of Buddhism that teach that "salvation" (enlightenment) comes from within.

So when I saw these two signs together, I laughed and commented to Mark, "Well, I guess the recycling center is for the Buddhists and the redemption center is for the Christians." 

Maybe you had to be there.

For the first time since we arrived, I felt yesterday afternoon that I was finally starting to relax. We were sitting on the beach, the weather was beautiful, the ocean was calm, there was an occasional cool breeze ... it was wonderful. And for the first time, I gave myself permission to just sit and stare at the ocean. That's when I know I'm starting to relax. It takes a few days to get past feeling the need to make "good use of our time," which usually means reading. We have to be "productive." When that feeling starts to slip away, I know that relaxation is on its way.

Our friends Troy and JP (Jean-Pierre) invited us over to their place for dinner last night. They are a gay couple whom we met two years ago (I first wrote about them here), and we ran into them again last fall when we were here, discovering that they had moved to Maui from Victoria, B.C. in the interim. Troy is a licensed marriage officiant in Hawaii, so he is the one who will perform our marriage at sunset next Tuesday, which will be followed by a candlelit supper on the beach, awaiting the rising of the full moon. We specifically designed this to complement an experience we had two years ago during the "super moon" (which I wrote about here). 

We have cycled for the past three days, increasing our mileage from 14 to 18 to 28 miles. Yesterday, we rode from Wailea (see bottom of map below) to Kahului through the low-lying central part of the island. There wasn't any elevation change to speak of, but we had a good stiff head wind all the way to our turn-around point. I was reminded of some Dutch cyclists we met at the Col du Galibier in the French Alps in September 2012: we asked them how they trained for these steep mountain rides, and their response was, "We ride against the wind." Yesterday, I gained a sense of how that works.

This morning, we are going on a 20-mile ride up the coast to Lahaina, where we will have brunch, then cycle the 20 miles back. Tomorrow, all being well, we are going to participate in a supported metric century (66.6 miles) that circumvents the west part of Maui, as shown below. Wish us luck!

Our Marriage License; Cycling in Makena

Yesterday started off with a ride down past Little Beach into Ahihi-Kinau Natural Preserve. We rode past the Big Beach/Little Beach parking lot, past Wedding Beach and on to the lava field that comprises part of the Preserve. (I wrote about this area a couple of years ago. For more pictures of the area, go here.)

The lava field with the slopes of Haleakala in the distance.

It was a beautiful morning for a ride along the ocean. The lava mound above Little Beach is visible in the distance.

After our ride, we got ready and headed in Kihei to visit the marriage license agent. I guess because of the island geography of the entire state as well as each island, the state has elected to use licensed marriage agents instead of a centralized county clerk office.

The agent in Kihei (there are a half-dozen others scattered across the island) has a tiny office adjacent to her house (pictured below). As I looked around the office at the bride and groom teddy bears and the pictures on the walls, I wondered how long it would be before this agent decided it is time to put up at least one token picture of a gay wedding and another of a lesbian wedding. As it happened, a lesbian couple arrived at the same time we did. Interesting. 

Maui: Cycling in Paia and Makawao

We rented bikes yesterday in Paia and took our first ride - from Paia to Makawao and back. It was short - only 14 miles - but it was a good first ride: gentle uphill all the way to Makawao, and really nice descent all the way back to Paia. (I wrote here about my first visit to Paia a couple of years ago.)

The ride alternated between tree-lined roads, above, and fields of sugar cane, below, with occasional panoramic views down toward Kahalui and the West Maui Mountains.

We have set a goal for ourselves to ride up to the summit of Mt. Haleakala before we leave at the end of the month. It's a daunting proposition: we will climb almost 10,000 feet in the space of 34 miles. We're looking forward to the training, and we're glad to get a head start on the training we will be undergoing once we get back in preparation for a bike tour at the end of the summer in France. 

Mornings will be for bike rides. But the afternoons and early evenings will be reserved for Little Beach. Meanwhile, we're off to the marriage license agent this morning to pick up our license!