Category Archives: Oahu

Wedding Rehearsal Day

Had a busy day starting off with a hearty breakfast at McDonald’s. Yes, McDonald’s! They have a combination breakfast with spam, Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice. Yum yum.

Even the pigeons like it, as they search for food inside the restaurant floor.

The bride, Susan, invited me along to their pampering session at Nail Salon KoKo. We had manicures and pedicures with some sparkling wine and snacks.

Cheers to the bride!

Elizabeth & Alice

Sisters: Sally & Susan

Virginia having a manicure

Our foot bath with a huge slice of orange

Relaxing in the pedicure area

Afterwards, we headed over to the Kahala Hotel & Resort for the rehearsal and afternoon tea.

The groom Ken wearing his “Game Over” t-shirt (given to him by his bride for Valentine’s Day…)

Beautiful orchids line the staircase to the event rooms downstairs

The bride with her ladies in waiting

The secluded beach right behind the hotel

Rehearsing walking up the aisle with dad

Beautiful blue sky

Rare picture of Ron & I

With the bride’s sister Justine (and our former Singapore flat mate)

Afternoon tea after the rehearsal

Yummy plates of tea snacks, savory and sweet, included salmon, goat cheese sandwiches, bacon quiche, passion fruit tarts, pound cake, scones, and more.

The hotel’s cool chandelier

The amazing dolphins at the resort, yes, you can literally swim with the dolphins

The hideous pink Hello Kitty/Mickey Mouse house nearby

Afterwards, we headed back to our side of the island and went shopping at Target. As you know, I love Target, and this was no exception considering there were Hawaiian things there.

We got some snacks and drinks. Green tea with Muscat Grape.

Wasabi chips (actually made in WA) and Sweet Maui Onion chips (so yummy).

Guava Macadamia Nut Cookies.

We ended up having dinner at Loco Moco Drive Inn. If I’d seen the reviews, we probably would not have eaten there but neither of us got sick but the food was edible but not very good.

I was excited to eat the saimin since I love noodles. It was a bit oily and noodles a bit mushy. It’s weird too, even though we were eating in, everything was served as though it was for take-away.

Ron ordered the special: pork stuffed with breading topped with mushrooms served with mac salad and rice. The pork was quite dry, almost jerky like. I love mac salad.

It was good to get to bed early as tomorrow is the big day!

Arrival at Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club

I have been looking forward to getting away from SF, although I love my home, it’s good to venture out once in a while for a vacation with warm weather and sunny skies. Hopefully there’s time to work on my tan, I feel like I’m getting more pale each day.

It was quite a whirlwind to get to the airport as I still had to pack up after leaving work to catch our flight at 7pm. We arrived in Hawaii around 9:30pm so couldn’t really do much except pick up our car and check-in to our resort. We stayed at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club which is on the west side of Oahu. It’s a one-bedroom, one-bath place with a full kitchen.

The dining/living room area:

A seating area overlooking the pool:

The bedroom:

The bath with vanity:

The shower and toilet:

The full kitchen:

The hidden washer & dryer in the kitchen:

It was very spacious for just the two of us. Since the wedding we were attending was on the East side of the island, closer to Waikiki, our friends decided to stay closer to the wedding. Oh well, next time hopefully we’ll get more full use of the place. There are lovely pools and opens up to a lagoon in the back.

We started out our stay in this room but asked to be moved because we were on the 3rd floor overlooking the trash compactors. We moved to the 9th floor on the main building, Kona, where we had a view of the actual ocean and better guest parking.