13 years ago.
The sweet old lady said with a wink, “you better get good photos”. She said it had to “look real” that many couples have tried to trick the United States immigration office. “Unbelievable” I say, and instantly plotted staging future photos.
In 3 hours my soon to be fiancé, Birgit, would be touching down from Austria. Time to scrub, vacuum, get flowers, wine, sunscreen, bug killer and on the way to the airport, buy a hula skirt at Hilo Hattie’s.
It was a hot hot day in 2007, I’m late, standing naked in the Kona airport parking lot when I realize the “ L” on the grass skirt stands for Long not Large! “It’s not going to cover my butt”, so much for going down on one knee at the gate.
I covered my butt and shuffled up to an (Aunty) lei maker I knew for an orchid and a ginger lei. When she stopped laughing at me, I asked her to snap a pic with the cardboard camera for our upcoming immigration interview.
Our little airport was packed, thank God it was before the iPhones & Facebook. Who but a fool in love would do such a thing?
She never asked for photos.
Happy Anniversary Hump Day,
Aloha,
The Baldwins
