Missed Day 1? Click here.
On Day 2 of our wedding adventure, we met for breakfast again with Andy and Michelle. This was the morning before their wedding.
They brought down some quiz books that some friends of Michelle had given her as a bridal shower gift. They were how well do you know your bride and how well do you know your groom. Andy and Michelle asked us if we would go through and see how they answered each question.
Michelle pegged almost EVERY question! Andy - not so much - lol - but to be honest I think that is the difference between men and women. It's just how it is! To Andy's defense he got the ones that mattered!
So Michelle and I had to go and do some shopping down in the Main Street area the Waikiki, because we had to pick up a couple more things for her wedding. One of which was something to do the sand ceremony with. The sand ceremony is where Michelle has a jar of sand that represents Michelle, and a separate jar of sand that represents Andy, are poured into a common container at the sand ceremony. See Sand Video here.
We decided that a couple of shells would be perfect as this was a Hawaiian ceremony and it was a perfect symbol. It was something that Michelle and Andy could take home and have it on display in their home, as a reminder of their perfect day.
While we were shopping and walking around, we were getting a little tired and hungry, Michelle said why don't we get an ice cream and I asked, "have you tried Cold Stone Creamery?".
She said "no, I haven't should I?" and I said, "you haven't lived until you have eaten at Cold Stone Creamery!" We had found Cold Stone Creamery on our visit to Hawaii last summer. So off we went and splurged on a Peanut Butter Cup Perfection and a custom made banana chocolate concoction in a waffle dish. We declared this to be Michelle's Hen Party as she didn't have one before!
We wandered back to the hotel and had a great chat!
Next I was excited to see Michelle's dress. We stopped in to see the boys - who were sitting at the pool bar working on Andy's vows. And ran into Kyle and Hannah (Michelle's son and niece). They had spent the morning with Michelle's sister - Shara - at Pearl Harbor. I had promised them we would go swimming today so we made a date to go swimming after I went up to see Michelle's dress.
Michelle's dress was beautiful and perfec
t for a Hawaii wedding! She was having some leaking in closet/bathroom from the room above and was worried about her dress. She was told by the maintenance guy that apparently it is common for people to hang dresses etc. on the sprinkler system. This causes the sprinkler to go off - which will end up ruining anything hung on the sprinkler - Tip - don't hang stuff on the sprinkler!!!!So off to get ready for swimming with Kyle and Hannah. We met up and started in the ocean on Waikiki Beach. It was kind of rocky and a little scary for the kids. They also saw a fish - it had a large black spiny fin that went up when you went near it. This scared them enough that we decided to check out the Lagoon.
Note: the beach in front of the Hilton Hawaiian Village is the widest strech of Waikiki Beach. I prefered the beach in front of the Sheraton Hotels. It was narrower, but there was more sand - so it was more comfortable. Also it wasn't as rocky.
Note: The Hilton has done a great thing here. They created the Lagoon on their property. It is a great place for kids as it is like the ocean but also like a big pool. There is no current and the water seemed warmer - could have been in my mind but it seemed like it.
We had a great time playing in the water and playing with the kids. But as all fun time must come to an end, we had to go back to our rooms to get ready for dinner. We were all having dinner together at the Village Steakhouse and Seafood restaurant.
This was our first dinner together - all 10 of us that were here for the wedding (Andy, Michelle and Kyle, Andy's mom and Dad - Dorothy and Greg, Michelle's Sister - Shara, her niece - Hannah, her mom - Etta, and Warren and I). We had the pleasure of meeting Andy's parents for the first time. They were lovely people and we were so happy to exchange travel stories and get to know them.
We had asked to sit outside as the restaurant had a lovely verandah. They were able to accommodate us, especially as it wasn't too busy. They gave us a beautiful table right at the end of the rainbow tower on the main floor, which was on a balcony overlooking the ocean, the boardwalk and the Lagoon. As the evening wore on though, the wind picked up and it got quite cool and we ended up having dessert inside. The food was good, but the service was slow and seemed disorganized.
I had the seafood - scallops and shrimp with rice, and I had calamari to start. The calamari is sounded a little nicer than what it was, essentially it was justfried calamari. And I was hoping that it would be more than that. Others had salads and were quite happy with them. Some people enjoyed the Mahi Mahi and others had steak. As for dessert - Michelle and her mom shared a Bananas Foster with Caramel Mousse.
So after dinner we were tired and everybody was ready for bed. We had decided that Andy and Michelle were not allowed to sleep together on the night before their wedding. Michelle and Kyle stayed in their room and had a mommy son night. Since we were fortunately upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite at the Grand Waikikian - Andy stayed with us in our second bedroom.They said their good nights, and on the way back to our room, we ran into some girls giving out drink tickets to a local bar.
We took Andy's picture with them and voila - Andy's stag night! LOL
We were all exhausted and off to bed we went.
Onto Day 3 - Their wedding day!
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