gettin' our aloha on

because i somehow have a track record of screwing up travel plans, the hub has been in charge of planning our trips for awhile now.  and while he was booking stuff for our trip to hawaii for the wedding, he managed to find us flights to and from honolulu that didn't require us to drive out to LAX (aka hell on earth).  instead, we got to fly through ontario airport - which is fabulous, because not only is it super close to home, but generally quiet and uncrowded.  it makes for a really lovely, stress-free travel experience.

and so we found ourselves on thursday morning, not too bright and early, hopping into the truck after loading it with our suitcases and hugging our dogs goodbye, on that easy 20-minute drive to the airport.  it dawned on me that the next time we came home, the kids would be married.  MARRIED!  i totally felt the tears coming on and made myself think about other stuff to keep from making a fool of myself.

at the airport, it was a fairly short wait to get our bags checked in.  and yes, i sure did use one of the luggage tags that i'd made for the shower:

it turned out that there were quite a few of us on this flight - the old lady's bestie/officiant and her boyfriend were there, as well as the fiance's mom, sister and nieces.  and with this being a very special occasion, the hub had booked the five of us in first class, along with the handful of his friends who were coming as well.  we practically took up the entire first class section, which was bound to make for an entertaining flight.

we found out the hard way that we should have split up to get in the line for covid-clearance wristbands first, because that line ended up being at least twice as long as the one to check in.  oy.

the line moved pretty slowly with only one person working the desk, but we got through it and made our way upstairs, where we breezed through security thanks to TSA precheck.  and while we got in line to order some breakfast, the hub headed straight to the gate to find his friends and ended up boarding the plane with them.  i think he may even have had a couple of mai tais before we even set foot on the plane.

no worries.  we did our best to catch up to him once we got settled in our seats, much to the bean's consternation.

first class is pretty nice.

this little footrest came in mighty handy especially since my short legs usually don't touch the floor while seated.

as per her usual, the bean was passed out almost before we even got off the ground.

after the safety demonstration was done, the flight attendant came around to offer us tablets for watching movies.

my first movie of the day?  ryan reynolds' "free guy."  and i got to snack on some warm macadamia nuts as i watched it (insert DEEZ NUTZ jokes here).

not long after i'd emptied my little dish, lunch was served.

and yes, of course i'm the airplane bathroom selfie type.  you'd expect no less, amirite?

and then a little while later, it was cookie time.

just as i was starting another movie - the emily blunt and dwayne johnson version of "jungle cruise" - we landed.  woohoo!

i was amused at where the old lady's dresses rested as we waited for our luggage to make its way to us on the carousel.

these bracelets always come with me whenever we travel to hawaii.

the hub had split off from us as we waited for the luggage to head over to hertz and pick up our rental car for the trip.  and by some stroke of luck, he was in the right place at the right time and managed to bypass the long line so that he was pulling up almost as soon as we got outside with the bags.

because the rehearsal dinner was at a place where we were allowed to bring our own alcohol, our first stop before heading up to the north shore was costco.  the bean was excited to find a whole wall of boba mochi snacks, enough that she allowed me to take this.

the cart was full of adult beverages.  quite the haul, i'd say.

we did have one other requirement before hitting the road, though:

it was just so wonderful to be in hawaii again.  the scenery is just beautiful.  and it took us just over an hour to get to turtle bay, where the kids checked into the suite that was included in their wedding package.

the hub had also been the one to book the condos for his friends, and so it took some time before we were finally able to get into ours.  it was worth the wait, though.  my pictures are all dark and blurry because it was late and also i'm a terrible photographer.  we were on the second floor, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a full kitchen.  

we decided to meet up with the kids and the fiance's dad for dinner at the beach house, a roy yamaguchi restaurant situated right between our condo complex and the resort.  one of the hub's friends was seated at a table there, and a couple of the wedding guests were hanging out at the bar.  but when we tried to get a table, the hostess looked us up and down and said "oh sorry, we're all booked up for the night."

huh.

so the kids went to say hello to their friends at the bar, who invited them to join them since there were open seats right next to them.  as they sat down, the hostess went over to tell them that they couldn't sit there as there was a waiting list for the seats.  and then as they were saying goodbye to their friends, she came back and told them that they could stay after all since the waitlist had already been fulfilled. so hospitable.

meanwhile, we were watching other parties who were walking up behind us get seated without hesitation.  and then the hub went over to see his friend, where it turned out that there were seats available at their table and so that's how we ended up having dinner there despite the hostess' best attempts to keep us out.  at least the food was good and the server was friendly and helpful.  

and that's how our first day in hawaii went.  

cramming in the last-minute details

the week or so prior to leaving for hawaii were busy, to say the least.  we'd talked the old lady into doing goody bags for all of their guests, which would be distributed at the welcome/cocktail party on friday night, and so i'd been helping her with figuring out what to put in those.  they'd also originally brushed off the idea of doing wedding favors, but changed their minds with a little nudging there as well.  

this all makes me sound like a major MOBzilla, i know.  but with a destination wedding, the hub and i were really all about showing guests how much their presence is appreciated, and after we explained that to the bridal couple they got it and everyone was on the same page.

for the welcome bags, we found some super cute little woven tote bags that had a little clear pocket on the front that we could use to personalize it without it being a permanent fixture.  this way the guests would be able to use the bags later without, like, advertising the wedding or anything.  we decided to embroider the wedding logo on some basic cotton fabric, which the old lady cut out using pinking shears (to avoid fraying at the edges of the fabric).  and after spending some quality time with my machines...

this is how the bags turned out.

we ordered little tubes of sunscreen and packs of advil to put inside, along with some small-batch custom dole whip-flavored lip balm and pineapple scented hand sanitizer.  and then we made a batch of lilcee's furikake chex mix because it's so delicious and we wanted to share it with all of the guests:

after creating labels for the bags that included an ingredients list in case of allergies...

we had this cute little army of snack bags.

i had the old lady write up a little welcome note and weekend itinerary, which we printed up, cut to size and raided my paper source stash of goodies for these cute envelopes that i'd used years ago for the bean's birth announcements.  we slipped them in, stamped the front with the wedding logo and checked off another box on the list.

the fiance's mom had sent them a link to a small shop located on the north shore of o'ahu that did all natural handmade soap in all sorts of fun scents.  i had them pick a handful of different ones and ordered them to be delivered straight to the resort so that we didn't have to pack them in our luggage.  these were the tags that would be tied to the bags so that the guests would know what flavor they'd received:

the last thing on the list gave me a little anxiety, which is why i'd saved it for last.  heh.  the old lady had ordered simple satin robes to give the girls for getting ready on the wedding day, and she'd asked me to embroider their names on them.  this is not something i typically do - i'm always a little leery of doing things like alterations or embroidery on items because you really only get one shot at it.  and so when i finally sat down to tackle the task, i did a test stitch-out on some scrap material to see how it would look.  

after getting the thumbs-up from the old lady, i got to work on the first robe.  and of course...i fucked it up.  it was so crooked, and i was so annoyed because i'd done so much prep work and adjusting and moving and pinning and checking to make sure it was right.  UGH.

i ran right to amazon to order another robe to replace it because there was no way i could pick out those stitches to redo, and was super relieved when i found it available for shipping with delivery the next day.  i managed to figure it out so that the other two came out perfectly, and now i know for sure that i'm never taking orders to embroider stuff like that.  too stressful.

we packed everything up to ship out to the resort, and then all we had to do was wait till it was time to go.

ah, wedding planning.  so fun, so stressful, so glad it's over.

gimme all the festival food please

somehow, in between all of the wedding planning the girls and i managed to squeeze in at least one visit to california adventure to check out all of the lunar new year festivities.  it also happened to be the day before super bowl:

as we headed back towards the pier, we spotted this sign and decided to swing through to see what kind of fun freebie we could score.

on that day, they were giving away these little framable posters.  luckily, our backpacks were just big enough to put them in without creasing, and then we headed off in search of food.

by the pier, there was a stage set up for filming various segments of ESPN super bowl coverage.

first things first: secure the sip & savor pass.  these are a must, because you get a number of tabs to use at the various kiosks and it always ends up being cheaper than buying the tasting plates individually.

pro tip:  scope out the menu first and then just order everything you want at the kiosk that has the shortest line.  they can take the order even if you're getting items from several different kiosks, and then all you have to do is hold on to your receipt and show it at the pickup lines to grab your grub.  also, we learned that you don't even have to buy the pass at the front (which often has a long line).  the kiosks will sell the pass to you.  easy peasy!

we found a fairly short line to order food here, and so we skimmed through the menu and snapped off all six tabs from our pass as we placed our order.

the old lady was most excited to try the garlic noodles, and sure enough - they were delicious.

as was the shrimp fried rice (my choice):

and the bulgogi (the bean's).

as we enjoyed our food, we found ourselves in a prime spot for mulan's lunar new year procession.

we headed back here to find the boba that the girls wanted to try, and ran into a couple of old friends:

and as we passed the espn stage again, they were broadcasting a live sports center segment.

we stopped at two more kiosks to pick up the last of our festival food:

this was the char siu pork bao, always a solid choice.

the mickey-shaped macaron filled with ube buttercream and creme fraiche.  not my jam, but the girls liked it.

and this was for the old lady - spicy three-cup chicken served with jasmine rice.  the bean and i don't do well with spice.  wusses.

it was a short but sweet visit, and we were happy to have been able to make it at all given the other things we were getting ready for.  and besides, even just a few hours of disney magic is better than none at all.