Hong Kong Adventures – Part 3
The wedding festivities started on Saturday morning and then there was a brunch the following morning. It was quite the shindig with so much going on.
In the morning, everyone met up at the hotel’s library for the games. The bridesmaids planned a bunch of games for the groom and his guys and much of it involved taking shots and humiliation.
Kelly sat in the other room and watched all the action from her phone.
Here’s Ellie and Amelia (flower girls) with their new cousin Rachel.
Right after the games, there was a tea ceremony.
Then we were all transported to the church in a parade of private buses.
The kids were all dressed up for the occasion.
Alvin arrived first and then Kelly followed in a separate car.
It was a long ceremony and Peanut was super antsy. Thanks to the baby app on my phone, we kept him one place.
After the wedding, we went back to the hotel to nap and then went back to the wedding hotel for the banquet. It was super fancy complete with booze stations and a ballroom decorated to the nines.
We managed to get family photo taken right before KK fell asleep in the middle of dinner.
After the dinner banquet, the party was continued right outside of the ballroom. There were drinking games, a dance floor, live band, and night market with lots of snacks.
The youngsters were drinking all night and the two boys had to be helped upstairs to their rooms at the end of the night.
KK kept sleeping through the party and Peanut didn’t pass out until after midnight. We didn’t get back to our hotel until about 3am. What a party!
The kids ended up sleeping together that night and woke up starving.
Thankfully we had breakfast waiting for us on the top floor. So glad we opted for the Club Room Package.
After breakfast, we took a walk around the shopping area.
Peanut ended up falling asleep in the stroller so we just kept walking and ended up back at the Grand Hyatt (venue for the wedding).
At the pool house, the wedding festivities continued with a recovery brunch.
This place was off the hook! Look at the whole pig and giant paella pan!
The dessert table was crazy! I couldn’t decide so I picked a little of everything to share with the kids.
Here’s a photo of me with Amy (Jes’ cousin) and Kelly (the bride). What a fun party!!
On Saturday, we flew down to Southern California for a wedding. It was going to be an evening of no kids and our first night without the kid since she was born. After settling down in the Magical House, we drove up to Culver City where we checked in to the Four Points Sheraton. Everyone had already arrived and we all met them at the hotel bar, which we had asked them to open outside of their regular operating hours.
Joel had warned us they were serving an all-vegan dinner so after a couple drinks, we piled into one car and went to In-N-Out for our pre-wedding meal.
Since there were 6 of us and an SUV, Jes rode in the trunk all the way up to Topanga Canyon. He said it was actually pretty comfortable back there. It was just funny having to let him out the back when we pulled up to the valet at the ranch.
The wedding was outdoor in a little ranch but it was pretty warm out there – a balmy 95 degrees I think.
Everything was beautifully decorated with those little personal touches that make their wedding special.
Joel was dressed in all white and all the boys were in black panchos. Those poor boys. 
The bride was in a crocheted dress and the whole set-up was very hipster – just like our Joel the Indie Rockstar.
It was an open bar and their specialty drink was a cactus margarita, which matched my top perfectly.
Here is my plate of vegan lasagna with “faux sausage”, “faux carnitas” made out of jack fruit, and a kale salad that was the best thing on the table. I should have gotten more salad.
After the wedding, we were all starving so we made a stop at Johnnie’s Pastrami for an awesome after-party meal.
We slept in a bit more this morning but it was still pretty early. After such a successful day at the beach the day before, I thought I’d take Kumquat out to the beach again so keep the momentum going. We packed up some pineapple and another Spam musubi(!) and headed out to see Mr. Ocean. Kumquat walked down to the sand without even a hesitation that morning. She sat down and proceeded to eat her pineapple with the ocean crashing right in front of her. Amazing!!
It was so quiet and empty that morning and I just loved watching her play in the sand. She still wasn’t ready to go in the water but she watched me scoop up water for her in the bucket and when I dropped off in front of her, she sweetly said “Thank you, Mama.” My heart just about melted at that moment.
Huy later called and said he was hungry. So, came over and we had some coffee by the pool and read the paper while we waited for Sam’s Kitchen to open. I got the garlic shrimp, aloha chicken, and an island iced tea. Yum. Not a bad meal for being just a block away from the hotel.
After lunch, we went back to the beach for a little dip in the water. Kumquat actually walked down to the water’s edge with Jes and stood in the water like a big girl! I couldn’t believe it. She’d let the water rush up to her knees and she didn’t see bothered at all.
We also went to the pool for about an hour before having to head upstairs to get ready for Yoon’s wedding. Kumquat spent some time with Uncle Huy in the pool and went down the little tunnel slide without a floatie this time! Wow, two big accomplishments in one morning for this girl.
The rest of the day was filled with wedding festivities. The first part of the adventure was heading out to Hale Koa to catch the shuttle that Yoon had booked for us all to get to the wedding at a Country Club. She booked a much smaller bus but the company had run out and gave us the super tour bus.
The wedding was set right next to the beach and there were only a small number of chairs for the family. 
The rest of us stood in the back and tried to catch what was said in the super-short 10-minute wedding ceremony. 
I snuck up a little closer and watched most of it through my camera’s zoom lens. Isn’t it cool how close I can get with it?!
Surpisingly, Yoon got a little choked up during the vows but she held it together really well.
There was a little time after the ceremony to hang out and take photos. 
Here is Yoon’s family: dad, mom, Yoon, Kurt, and two younger brothers.
Shortly after the ceremony, the bus took us back to Hale Koa. We grabbed a couple drinks and snacks at the bar before heading to the reception inside.
A few of us had to drop off our kids upstairs to the nanny waiting for us in Yoon’s hotel room. She was nice but I barely really talked to her. All I know is that she had been babysitting Keenan for the past two mornings while his Kevin had to work and Jen was busy with the baby. I had never dropped Kumquat off with a complete stranger before and I wasn’t sure how she would do. Luckily, she had eaten and was already rubbing her eyes. So, we took her up along with Holly, Roy, and Andrew, showed the nanny where everything was in the stroller, and I snuck out before Kumquat could notice. I don’t know what she did exactly but Yoon was there to distract her while she was freshening up. We got an update from Kevin and Jen who dropped off later and said that Kumquat was already asleep and Andrew was watching The Little Mermaid on the bed. Keenan was having a hard time separating but Andrew was sweet enough to offer his train to him and that did the trick. An hour later, all three kids were asleep and the grown-ups were free for a couple more hours.
It was a fun reception including a Hawaiian feast complete with lomi lomi salmon, mac salad, kahlua pork, crab legs, and prime rib just to name a few. Holly was all over the giant dessert table filled with tiny versions of cheesecake, cream puffs, chocolate cake, and fruit tarts.
The booze was flowing and it was all paid for by Yoon’s parents! There was table service and the waiter did a really good job getting all out orders straight.
By 9pm, the nanny was done with her shift but all the kids were sleeping. Jes went up to roll ours down in her stroller while the Lams and Kwaks took 20-minute shifts hanging out in the dark with the kids. It wasn’t the most ideal situation but it’s what they came up with and it worked.
Our kid just slept right through the music and drunk shouting. This kid really does have my sleeping genes.
Here’s a group selfie that we took at the end of the night. It was the best one out of the 4 that I took. We managed to squeeze in 10 people. Someone should have snuck in right next to Yoon on her left!!
Mahalo for a wonderful night, Yoon! We were so happy to celebrate this special day with you. Congratulations to you and Kurt!
On this day, we were up early again but sorta slept in until 6. I guess Kumquat was getting adjusting one hour per day. Once again, we had breakfast by the pool and it was looking a little cloudy. We were supposed to go to Yoon and Kurt’s BBQ today with a forecast of 40% rain. Yikes. This is one of my favorite photos from the trip.
We took a little walk by the pool and then said “hello” to Mr. Ocean again. Still scared.
Once Jes was up, we walked to McDonald’s for the Spam and Eggs Platter.
Afterward, we went back to the hotel and just hung out on the couches at Rum Fire. This had become our spot for reading, relaxing, and hanging out in the shade.
Once we arrived, Yoon had a full-on spread under the large tree complete with BBQ’d meat, mac salad, chili from Zippy’s, noodles, and pretty much everything else we were craving.
The beach was a nice lagoon with gentle waters. It was perfect for Kumquat and was her first introduction to how fun the beach and water can really be.
By the end of the afternoon, she had soaked through her non-swim diaper (I didn’t think she’d actually go in) and couldn’t get enough of the wet sand.
After the BBQ, everyone headed back to the hotel to wash up. Yoon had planned Round 2 at Uncle Bo’s and had a reservation for 25 people to show up at 7:00. We were all late and some people arrived before they gave the tables away. We had a ton of food and plenty to drink.
It was so nice to have everyone together again after so many years. Lots of people arrived this afternoon and half didn’t make it to the BBQ so this was a lot of fun.
The happy couple received some “special” shots that evening and we all got a good laugh.
After dinner, a bunch of us went singing at a place Dayantha and the guys found the other night. 
Kumquat rode in the minivan taxi with everyone and also joined them in the singing room for the first half hour. What a trooper.
On November 2, 2002, we tied the knot. That was ten years ago!! We’ve also been together for 17 years now. Sheesh…1995 was a long time ago.
To celebrate, we both took the day off work and Mirian came to watch Kumquat while we spent the day hanging out together. After I got a long-overdue haircut, we headed out to Hog Island Oyster Co. for one of our favorite meals. 
We ordered almost everything on the menu (again) and walked out of there stuffed and 
Next stop was Tiffany & Co. No, I didn’t get anything shiny. It’s our tradition to go there to get our rings cleaned and polished. It’s one of those courtesy things that we take full advantage of every year.
For dinner we went to Coi. It’s a Two-Michelin Star restaurant that we’ve had on our list for a while. Jia came over to babysit Kumquat and we had a long 3-hour-12-course meal with a shared wine pairing. All the dishes were good and some were really interesting in presentation and flavor.
The most beautiful plate was a beet rose on goat cheese and a bed of rose ice that was intricately assembled using very thinly sliced beet “petals”.
Jes’ favorite was the grilled abalone on nettle-dandelion salsa verde.
This was one of our three desserts: grapefruit with ginger tarragon meringue. There was also a little dot of essence (on the left) that we had to rub on our wrist to smell while we ate the dessert.
My favorite dessert was a really yummy frozen lime sorbet covered in a lime marshmallow. It was also toasted on top.
Meanwhile, Kumquat was home with Jia and they played, took a walk, and had her usual bedtime routine.
Happy 10th Anniversary, Jes! I love you and can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the next 10 years.
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