The Romance | The Family | The Wedding | The Reception | The Honeymoon
On December 17, Bob and Bonnie Whitney (Barry's parents) left their home in Durham, NC, and traveled 24 hours to Manila by way of Tokyo. After an overnight stay at a hotel in Manila arranged by Cheryl, they boarded Philippine Airlines for an hour's flight to Cebu City, Cebu. The excitement was mounting as they anticipated finally being able to meet their future daughter-in-law, and suddenly there she was--with a warm, welcoming smile, and as beautiful as Barry had described her. She was holding Barry's arm and the look on his face assured us that Cheryl was truly the love of his life.
The next few days in Cebu were spent shopping, sightseeing, and getting ready for the wedding and for Christmas. Cebu City has a gigantic mall--bigger than we'd ever seen before--seemingly bigger than The Mall of America, if that is possible! Colin Whitney (Barry's brother) and Kelly Arens (Colin's fiancee) had arrived in Cebu a few days before us, but now all the men went to get fitted for their Barong Tagalog embroided shirts made of pineapple fiber--the Philippine National Costume for men. Bob's and Colin's were a matching design with traditional collars. Barry's had a mandarin collar. All three were off-white to match Cheryl's dress. We also bought Christmas presents for all members of the Ybanez family.
While on the island of Cebu, We managed to spend a day at a resort where Cheryl and Barry hired a boat to take us an hour out to a coral reef for snorkeling. The water was turquoise and crystal clear, and we saw hundreds of colorful fish that swam right along with us, undisturbed by our presence. For lunch our boat "captain" brought us another hour away to a restaurant on stilts where we picked out our meal from plastic pails of live seafood. We chose a lapu-lapu fish, a squid, and several prawns. Cooked over hot coals and served with garlic rice, our lunch was delicious! A man with a guitar suddenly appeared (he'd been dropped off by another boat) and serenaded us with American favorites throughout the whole meal! We requested John Denver's "Country Roads" which he sang without a hitch.
Late afternoon on December 22, after another day of shopping, we boarded a ferry for an all night ride across the sea from the island of Cebu to Mindanao, the largest island of the Philippines, where Cheryl lives with her father and extended family. The night was hot and muggy as usual, but we had an air conditioned cabin with bunks where we slept comfortably during the 12-hour journey across the Bohol Sea.
The next morning we landed in port and Cheryl's brother Dennis and uncle Rick were ready with their vans to pick us up with all of our luggage. It was early in the morning, so traffic was pretty quiet, and we drove quickly to our hotel surrounded on two sides by rice paddies, The Bethany Garden Hotel.
This became "home" for the next several days and we enjoyed sitting on a second story patio watching the mountains in the morning before the clouds covered them for the rest of the day, or looking out at children playing alongside the rice paddies.
December 24 was a busy day!
Cheryl's whole family came to the hotel for breakfast: Harold Ybanez (her father); Carolyn (her dad's sister) and husband Rick; Dennis Ybanez (her brother) and wife Dee; Michael Ybanez (her brother). We enjoyed them immensely and found them to be friendly and hospitable. We asked Harold how he felt about his daughter marrying an American and moving away to the United States. He said that he would certainly miss her, but it was her choice; he wanted only her happiness.
That evening we all went back to Cheryl's home for a Christmas Eve dinner.
The house was bustling with many family friends and other family members we hadn't met before. A large table groaned with inviting dishes--some familiar, and others unknown to us--a whole roast pig, potato and other salads, as well as several fish dishes. We had heard about the Philippine love of karioke, and sure enough, the evening included karioke in front of the television. Many of the guests, old and young, participated. The evening ended with fireworks on the patio. What fun!