To prepare for our trip to North Shore, we stopped by the best rice balls and spam musubi place in Honolulu, called Iyasume, it’s located behind the Hyatt and might be easily missed since it’s tucked away with a side entrance.

This is the sign on the street

This is the sign in front of the store

They do phone orders too

Their little outfit, the menu on the wall

The cans of Spam lined up on top

Go for the spicy chicken mayo rice ball, chicken is really tender and the spicy mayo is really good (a bit like siracha). Sorry no picture but here’s the spam musubi

It’s coated with some sweet soy or teriyaki sauce and fried and this one is the one with shiso (the purple dark green stuff in between)

After gathering our snacks, we went for some lunch. First we stopped by Puka Dog.

You choose a Polish sausage of Veggie dog, the type of garlic lemon sauce (mild to hot-hot), and then the type of relish.

The buns are hollowed out and toasted with this special contraption.

Here are all the types of relish

The first bite is the best with the relish and garlic lemon mayo right on top

Dessert of shaved ice with fresh fruit

The watermelon sorbet was really refreshing

On the way to North Shore, we stopped over at the Dole Plantation since our friends hadn’t been there before. Ron really loves the pineapple dole whip so ended up ordering this pineapple juice float with dole whip in a plastic pineapple bank.

We walked around the display pineapple plants. Did you know San Francisco is 2,391 miles from the Dole Plantation?

Pineapples grow this way…

There’s a huge koi pond where you can buy some food to feed them. They are hungry little monsters, you can hear them sucking the rock to try to find food.

Dan, the pineapple.

At North Shore.

The sand is so much softer than Waikiki and the water less salty.

Next stop, shrimp truck!

Unfortunately limited selection and supply… they ran out of the hot & spicy, wah!

These chickens were safely crossing the road… so cute!

Fresh pineapple slices were unbelievably sweet, dusted with li hing mui (salted plum), equivalent to putting salt on fruit to make it taste sweeter but imparts a bit of a different flavor.

The shrimp so fresh and delicious. We wished we ordered more.

For a proper dinner, we drove near where we were staying and ended up trying En Fuego Grill & Poke. An employee at the Marriott recommended it for good poke but… we were a bit scared when we walked into the restaurant since it was kind of stuffy and empty. Maybe it really only is a lunch place and/or catering…

I ordered the kalua pork plate lunch with brown rice, mac salad…

Small side of poke, lomi lomi salmon, and haupia

Overall, pork was nice and tender and mac salad good but poke tough and little seasoning to speak of and lomi lomi salmon too salty.

Ron ordered the spicy garlic chicken, nice and crispy.

This is the crispy chicken bento box.

I’d only ever eat the chicken here again, the rest was only okay.

We started out the day with a hearty curry lunch at CoCo Ichiban Curry House. You choose the amount of rice (200g, 300g, 400g, 500g) then the toppings which include things like fried oyster, pork or chicken cutlet, beef, tofu, etc then either spicy or non.

Fun drinks: Calipico and Melon Soda

We ordered a tiny corn salad, their sesame cream dressing was delicious, much better than their soy dressing (more like Italian)

I actually ended up ordering udon curry with chicken cutlet. The cutlet was nicely fried, maybe a bit too much breading, but the chicken really tender. I couldn’t finish the udon, it was too much.

Ron ordered the shabu shabu beef with spinach over rice. The beef was so tender and it made it quite refreshing with the spinach. I’m not usually a fan of homemade Japanese curry but this really hit the spot.

We went to the hotel to bring the bridal party some food and begin to help setup. I ended up in the room with the bride and bridesmaids to get dressed and the guys stormed into the hotel room three times to try to retrieve their bride. It was a bit rough so a few of the girls got bruised up. It makes for interesting memories and hopefully a crazy good video.

I was asked to help with the reception table and also helped to set up table and menu cards. I helped to make these for their reception, handbags and suitcases for the escort cards.

The kids were little kids dressed in their wedding colors.

Close up of suitcase (missing the small gold tag with the table name on it)

Close up of handbag (also missing the small gold tag with the table name)

The menu text designed by Virginia, assembled by myself and Susan. The tag with the guest name attached with a mini clothespin. The orchid provided by the hotel. The cookie box wrapping by One Girl Cookies in NY, hand carried by a few of the guests from NY. Susan and I made the thank you tag that was tied on.

I had a lot of fun designing these things with Susan but it was also a lot of work. I used my Cuttlebug to cut out the handbag and suitcase shapes with die cuts from multiple companies and used hand punches for the flowers and airplanes.

Their setup for the wedding

Cute pink parasols for the guests (not necessarily these guys….)

The beautiful bride and her dad

The groom and bridal party

Making it official with their marriage license, look at that beautiful peony bouquet

Hot pink ladies

Their signature drink, champagne with grapefruit and pomegranate

Blue Crab Cake Appetizer on greens and garlic aioli drizzle, fresh and yummy.

Prime Rib (perfectly cooked) with stuffed red bliss potatoes, broccoli florets, and baby carrots

Kahala Fruit Cocktail in Earl Grey and Vanilla infused syrup with Lilikoi Sorbert served in a sugar rimmed glass

A delightful plate of chocolates

Guava wedding cake with passion fruit cream (the cream was so delicious, surprisingly light)

Last surprise dessert of strawberry cotton candy

The bouquet toss, caught by the sister of the bride

The groom having too much fun removing the garter. A little kid ended up diving on the floor for it.

Ron and I with the bride.

Their photographers did a great job with showcasing some of the wedding day photos.

This little kid couldn’t keep his eyes open and fell asleep halfway into the reception.

Lots of hard work went into this day and it turned out wonderfully. Congratulations to Susan & Ken, wishing you a happy life together!