J’s best friend, D, had the last wedding of the year among our friends (on September 30th). D moved to Seattle at the end of August on short notice, a month before her wedding. This put a dent in bachelorette plans.

Seattle

J ended up flying out to Seattle and spending a day with D exploring the city. 

Perhaps motivated by the Stranger Things craze, J and D tried out sensory deprivation tanks at Float Bellevue. The consensus afterward is that we probably wouldn’t do it again, but it was an interesting experience. 

Moving on to experiences that J and D knew they would enjoy, J and D went to Ding Tai Fung and Molly Moon’s ice cream shop. J had the earl grey ice cream and thought of L.

To help digest the calorie intake, J and D walked around the downtown area and went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum.

Going through the museum, J and D wondered about how much the glass pieces would cost. We found out at the gift shop.

The hunt for a hookah bar was a bust but J and D were able to find other ways to reminisce. 

J and D went to Shiro’s for sushi. Shiro was Jiro’s apprentice. After trying the raw shrimp and geoduck, J realized that like wine and whiskey, her tastebuds were not developed enough to appreciate “real” sushi. 

(Writing with this mix of first and third person pronouns is ‘odd’.)

Hawaii

J and L made it into Hawaii on Thursday, September 29th for D and Y’s wedding on the next day. J’s anxiety about giving a speech was tempered by her excitement over the Murphy bed and the nice view from the hotel.

There was a luau planned for Thursday night that was some distance away from where the wedding guests were staying. J spent the ride over to the luau rehearsing her speech by talking to herself and making L feel self-conscious about sitting next to a weirdo. 

At the luau, J tried her hand at throwing a spear. It didn’t quite hit the mark but J appreciated the game host moving his body like the spear had a chance of hitting.

L snapped a good picture of J.

D’s wedding was beautiful. The scenery was gorgeous, there was just enough breeze to make hair and dresses billow in a pretty way. D looked angelic and Y looked very fashionable. D cried saying her vows. Like a lot. But she recovered. 

Y has many lawyer friends who are great at talking in front of crowds. J had to give her speech following some really great deliveries. It went okay.

At the after-party, one of Y’s friend showed off his Frank Sinatra-like voice and another did an amazing rendition of Baby Got Back.

D and Y flew out on Saturday so J and L had the rest of the weekend to check out some notable sites.

Pearl Harbor

Hanauma Bay

When traveling, L is always interested in the different flora and fauna, especially the fauna. In Hawaii, we found chickens.

We also saw weasel-like creatures scurrying about and jumping in and out of garbage cans.

Hanauma Bay was very windy and the water wasn’t as clear as other snorkeling places we’ve been to. It was still fun and better than any snorkeling we could find around Chicago.

We ended our trip with a bowl of noodles at Marukame Udon