Mark would like to apologize for the delay in getting these last couple of pages from our Hawaii trip online; his faithful Olympus digital camera, that had traveled with him to 31 states and three European countries over two and a half years, broke down, and so he couldn't get the last day's worth of photos out of its storage card until we returned to California and he had access to his card reader.
When we first visited Punahou two weeks earlier, we skipped taking photos because it was raining and we hoped when we came back we'd have more sun. Well, as you can see, we did have a nice (warm, humid!) Hawaiian winter day to enjoy when we returned to talk to Rev. Lauren Buck Medeiros, the chaplain who will be officiating at our wedding in November. Since we had arrived very early because Cheryl knew that finding a place to park might be difficult, we had a while to walk around the campus before our appointment. Punahou is old enough (founded 1841) to have a wide variety of architectural styles represented on campus; it was hard to capture the feel of the place in photos, just as Mark was never satisfied with the photos he took to show his family what Princeton was like--the green quads surrounded by buildings old and new, with students going about either purposefully or aimlessly depending on whether or not classes were in session... Here, anyway, is a photo of the nearly brand-new science building, right near some of the oldest buildings on campus and with a monument (in the foreground) showing the site of the original home of the donor of the lands, and plenty of foliage for shade and color.
Here is the building where our attention will focus in November, the chapel. The sanctuary is on the right, and the arbor and patio to the left will likely be where many of our photos will be taken, so some of you will see a lot of those locations!
Moving closer to the sanctuary, you can see the pond that bends around the outside of the chapel. The stained-glass windows appear to run right to the water; in fact, they do not penetrate below the pond's surface, and the pond extends a little bit inside the sanctuary on one side! An interesting architectural effect.
When we came by two weeks earlier the sanctuary was locked up; this time we were able to go inside so Cheryl could show Mark around. There are four segments of eleven pews, each of which seats eight to twelve people or so, and three aisles; the one on the left in the photo is the leftmost aisle, so the bridal party will approach the altar down the next one to the right. The chapel was, of course, decorated for the Christmas season when we visited, with a Nativity scene on the altar and wreaths on the walls and lecterns; it will look somewhat different when we are there in November, of course! In particular, I think we can trust the photographer to light his pictures a bit better than this one...
Rev. Medeiros gave us some very helpful suggestions as to how we might structure the wedding service. including a framework we could flesh out with our choices of readings, etc.; she also gave us some "homework" to send back to her from California (well, Punahou is a school...). This is to help her get to know us a bit better, and not incidentally to afford us an opportunity to think some more about the solemn commitment we are seeking to share with each other. Rev. Medeiros came to Punahou in the time since Cheryl had graduated, so they did not know each other; however, both of us feel quite at ease having her at the helm for our service. Cheryl remembers the chapel services she attended as being quite similar to the "community church" feel--very open and welcoming--that we like at the church we attend in Manhattan Beach, California; and in fact, not only does Rev. Medeiros have a background similar to one of the ministers of our church (ordained in the Disciples church, serving a United Church of Christ congregation), but Rev. Ray Lambert here in California knows her personally! Small world... We think we can take that as a good sign all around.
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