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| Centerpieces: Blue and Borrowed (from our wedding!) |
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| Smiley, smiley at the beach |
This year, my birthday weekend coincided with our good friends, Jon and Kelly's wedding (at Turtle Bay on the North Shore of Oahu), so to celebrate both occasions, we stayed up on the North Shore for the weekend. We rented a room in a large house at Shark's Cove. We really felt like we were on vacation, even though mom's house was only a 45 minute drive away. The beach, grocery and eateries were just a few minutes walk from our place.
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beautiful and happy bride and groom!
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Turtle Bay beach ceremony
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| Mom, babysitting Sakai |
Friday we arrived on the North Shore early. I took a lovely, much needed nap in peace, while Clint, mom and Sakai went for a walk around our Pupukea neighborhood. We got dolled up for the wedding, including Sakai in his spiffy wedding attire, and headed off to the sunset wedding at Turtle Bay. The wedding was just picture perfect. It really reminded us all of our wedding- ceremony on the beach, sunset reception under a romantically lit tent out in the open. Jon and Kelly live on Oahu, but are friends of Clint's from Cerritos. The two of them moved to Oahu around the time I moved to Molokai. (I remember staying at their first apartment in Waipahu when my Trooper came in from the Mainland on the barge!) Since then, we have become close over the years; staying with them during Oahu shopping trips, dining with them at highly recommended eateries, and sharing Department of Education stories! The truly best part of the wedding was watching Jon and Kelly give their vows. They both wrote their own vows, which you could tell were from the heart- touching and genuine. Jon and Kelly dated for 15 years before getting married! They knew each other in middle school. It was so much fun to hear the wedding party speeches. There was a common theme...Jon and Kel are a model couple, the best to them! My second favorite part of the wedding was the music. Clint and his friends from Cerritos all have good taste in music and many seem to be DJs or are linked to them somehow. Well, the DJs, from Cerritos of course, were great. They drew the crowd in and really mixed the music well. I dont get to hear mixing at all anymore it seems, so it was really fun to dance and enjoy them mix it up.
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| feet sensory - Three Tables beach |
The next day, we slept in until 6 am...yes, Sakai was awake, so we all were, since we were in a little one room studio. We walked down to Shark's Cove Grill for breakfast, a quaint little food wagon across from the beach. We then scoped out the scene at the beaches and found our next move. After going back to pack up for a beach day, we walked down to Three Tables. It was so nice to be able to walk to the beach, even with all the gear. So the highlight of the beach was by far Sakai's enthusiasm in the ocean. He was hesitant at first and a little whiney, but soon enough he was cracking up watching Clint body surf small waves toward him. He was enjoying himself so much he was like the ocean poster child, a lot of other people were coaxing their children in, "Look at that little baby. If he can do it, then you can too!"Slathered in sunscreen and covered in ocean gear, we made it back with no sunburn either. That made for a great beach day!
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| pohaku @ Pu'u o Mahuka Heiau |
After the beach, we were hungry, as the beach always makes you, but Sakai was tired...and he is the boss! One of Oahu's largest heiaus is right up the street from Foodland, which was right down the street from our place, so we decided, after all these years of knowing about, what better a time to go check it out. The people at Foodland suggested against walking up to the heiau, especially with the stroller, they said it was too dangerous. And they were right. After an upward winding street then a turn off through some very erry woods, you come to Pu'u o Mahuka Heiau. I guess when you build a temple, its best to get as close to heaven as possible! Pu'u o Mahuka is a luakini heiau, which means it was once used by the ancient Hawaiians to make sacrifices to the gods, include humans. There is enough remaining of the heiau that you can get a pretty good idea of how things went down there. There are also artists renditions to help you really envision Pu'u o Mahuka in its finer days. Spotted around the walls of the heiau people have left pohaku (rocks) wrapped in ti as symbols of respect for the ancient ways. Pu'u o Mahuka is pearched atop a mountain overlooking the North Shore, lending even more to its spiritual significance.
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| Pu'u o Mahuka |
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| organic goodies @ Waimea Farmers Market |
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| "Happy Birthday, Mommy! I guess I'll take a nap while you drink your Margarita" |
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| going home, silly daddy |
My 28th birthday started out with the best birthday gift a new mother can ask for...sleeping in until 8am! After packing up we came across another diamond in the ruff we found on the North Shore was the Waimea Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings. Who knew right? I mean who is up on the North Shore on early Sunday morning? Well, if you are it is a good stop for some good eats. There is multitude of organic this and that- veggies, soaps, lotions and textiles, not to mention all of the interesting food booths- pasteles, breakfast burritos, avocado egg rolls (mmm, Cheesecake!), ginger juice! We settled on splitting a breakfast burrito with the works and a grass-fed beef pastel. Breakfast burrito was great, except low and behold, it had cheese on it (which was NOT on the menu!). The pastel, which I ate most of because the breakfast burrito was off limits, once I realized I was eating cheese, was medicore. The rest of the day was spent stocking up on our staple items at Costco, last minute outlet shopping (thanks Clint for the extra birthday gifty from Coach!) and a large, unhealthy, yet totally satisfying lunner (lunch-dinner) at Chili's with a birthday margarita, ole!
