My wife and I wanted to get married and her father offered his house but his girlfriend stopped that because she wanted to be the first to get married in his house (and she was a few years later.
And besides I told my wife I hadn't really wanted to get married there anyway. I said I had an amazing spiritual experience with God when I was 15 in Yosemite National Park when I was set loose with my best friend for one week which was the most freedom either of us had ever had in our lives. He was 16 and I was 15 and it was the beginning of becoming real adults sort of like our own brand of Boy Scouts or Eagle Scouts where we both knew enough to be okay deep in the wilds and we could choose what we did every day for one week in Yosemite Valley which was like maybe Disneyland for us then. Cars were racing along the Yosemite Valley at nights, People were jumping off of bridges into the waters and swimming. People were riding the river through Yosemite Valley on every floatation device imaginable including free swimming. People were climbing Half Dome and El Capitan rock Climbing. People were riding horses or motorcycles through the valley or bicycles or hiking or swimming. It was a really amazing place then in 1963. But, it would have been ruined eventually by the 1970s if they hadn't made a lot of rules.
But, I still miss how it was then with the firefalls of Cedar Bark at I believe 9 pm off of Glacier point which was amazing every night of the summers there. It was literally like living in Disneyland in the wilds for 1 week with my best friend hiking up to Vernal and California Nevada Falls. So, meeting God during this week and getting to know him well has helped me the entire rest of my life as a man through girlfriends and getting married and having children and starting or buying businesses all the way up until now and beyond.
So, I told my wife then in Late November of 1995 that I wanted to be married in Yosemite at the Chapel there. She gave me a strange look and said she wanted that too because when she was 15 she also met God in Yosemite National Park. So, even though she is 7 years younger than I am she also had this amazing experience when she was 15 too!
At that time President Clinton and Gingrich in the Senate were battling for power and shutting down the government on and off including Yosemite National Park. So, my wife called them because they opened again that day and asked for rooms at Yosemite Lodge for 12 people for our wedding. She was able to book them and then she called the Chapel and booked our wedding but we had to go through wedding counseling for 1/2 day before they would marry us. I thought this was stupid because I had already been married twice for a total of 20 years of my life already and had raised three children that were adults because I was 47. However, in order to get married I decided to put up with this and we got married and my mother and oldest son and came to my wedding along with two of my best friends and one of their girlfriends and several of my wife's friends and her father, stepfather and mother for a total of 12 people there at our wedding at the chapel. While we were there we asked if there was a room for us at the Ahwahnee for one night before we went for our honeymoon to Waikiki near Honolulu, Oahu Island Hawaii and Poipu on Kauai island in Hawaii.
Getting married in Yosemite and then going to Hawaii was one of the most amazing few weeks of my entire life by the way!
So, our lucky break was that because Bill Clinton and Gingrich were fighting and the government kept shutting down we didn't have to wait 1 to 2 years to get married in Yosemite like most people have to.
The Waikiki part of our stay at the Waikiki Sheraton as well as our air fare free because of a lucky raffle ticket my wife won at her work. So, this was very amazing and unexpected too!
By God's Grace
Another way to look at it like we do is that God really wanted us to get married there and then to honeymoon in Hawaii too!
By God's Grace
No comments:
Post a Comment