and that's a wrap

and then it was time to go home.  WOMP WOMP.  and adding insult to injury, we woke up to one hell of a gorgeous morning.

we got our stuff all packed up and ready to go and soaked in every last minute of paradise.

as we made our way back towards the airport, we made one last stop...at liliha bakery, for a final delicious meal.  funny, last time we were in hawaii we started our trip off this way.

it's all about the toasted buttery rolls and insanely yummy jelly, plus the coco puffs and of course...spam and eggs.  mmmmmm.

with the rental car refueled and safely returned, we dropped off our luggage, made our way through security and dragged our asses to the gate.

sigh.

just like our flight out, we were greeted warmly by the flight attendants and offered a beverage before takeoff.  i perused the menu to see what our choices were for lunch:

bye again, o'ahu...for now.

as per her usual, the bean was passed out before we reached cruising altitude - just barely waking up to eat when lunch was served.

i spent the flight alternating between watching stuff i'd downloaded and dozing off, and then a few short hours later we were home.

such a wonderful trip, so full of love and laughter.  it had gone by so fast, but the memories we made together will last forever.  words cannot adequately describe how amazing those five days were, and although we're back to life, back to reality...the magic of my firstborn's wedding weekend lives on.

one more day

we had just one full day left of this trip to paradise.  the hub, the bean and i hopped in the car and headed down the street to da bald guy's food truck for some delicious breakfast.

and just across the parking lot was a cute little coffee shop for our caffeine fix.

we met up with the newlyweds, who were hanging out at the beach with a handful of wedding guests, including rock-ell and her family plus the old man's (because that's what we're calling him now, heh) sister and her two sweet girls.  the bean is surprisingly wonderful with small children.  i wonder where she gets that from, because it sure ain't me.

the hub and the old man's sister went out for a food run, picking up fresh poke and stopping at ted's bakery for their famous chocolate haupia pie.

and after all the food was gone, we packed up and made the short trek over to the beach for a little time in the ocean.

as we walked back to the condo, we came across the cats again.  

she loves an afternoon snack, especially if it consists of fresh sashimi.

and then later that evening, we met up with the group again for dinner at the resort.  our bartender from the reception happened to find us, and he happily whipped up some cocktails just for us.

it was a lovely, relaxing day.  the perfect way to end a wonderful trip with memories to last a lifetime.  paradise indeed.

the morning after

the final event we had planned for the wedding weekend extravaganza was a farewell brunch at the resort on the morning after.  it was scheduled for 10:00, although it took a bit for everyone to arrive with the bride and groom last to drag their asses in.  i suppose that's a sign of a really good reception party though, right?

the bean was feeling no pain and was perfectly happy to dig into the bread basket and the nutella-filled crepe she was happy to find on the menu.

i have to admit, it was a little rough going for me too that morning.  you know i'm not typically a big drinker, but i'd definitely enjoyed my share of cocktails all weekend long.  and i was feeling the aftereffects in a big way.  heh.  

one of our friends had alerted me to something she'd seen at the ala moana shopping center in waikiki - something that the bean would most certainly be thrilled to check out.  and so i'd managed to snag (free) tickets to it and told her that we were going to make the drive out to do some shopping and grab some lunch.  the hub was off golfing with his friends, and while the old lady had originally planned to join us, when i reminded her at breakfast all i got was a face and a "NOPE not doing that today!"  and so that left just me and the bean to do the hour-long drive together.  like a mommy-and-me day.  awwwww.

i'm sure you won't be shocked to see that the surprise was BTS-related...a pop-up shop in the mall, with a few photo ops and plenty of merchandise to pick up.

as we walked around the mall, we came across an oreo-themed store attached to the itsugar shop.  while we didn't buy anything here, it was fun to look at all the stuff they had for sale.

this itsugar shop was supersized, with lots of fun candy and themed merchandise and colorful displays.

we were both stoked to find an island vintage coffee shop on the lower level, and i sipped my delicious island latte while we looked up where to go for lunch. we have our list of favorite spots and the bean was craving poke, but it was not to be.  seems a lot of places had either closed or were simply not open on that day, and so we settled for the poke shop in the mall before hopping back in the car to head back up to north shore.

oh well.  we met up with the ILs for dinner before they headed to the airport to head home, and that was that.  everyone else kind of did their own thing, and we didn't see anyone again until the next day.