Recap of Our Weekend of "Heavenly Splendor"

Ihilani translates to "Heavenly Splendor". It certainly lives up to its name every time we go there.

Friday, March 28th
I was still feeling under the weather on Friday night, but we agreed that we should tidy up so that we return to a (somewhat) clean house come Monday. I somehow managed to do some chores, a bunch of laundry, and began packing before finally heading off to bed after midnight. I was dead tired and really should have gone to bed earlier.

Saturday, March 29th
Brian didn't get home until almost 5:30AM. When he got home, I woke up and had that darn sore throat/post-nasal drip thing again! Gaaah! Brian gave me some Benadryl and I knocked out until about 11:30AM. I had planned to wake up early to finish packing and put away the laundry. Oh well. I woke up feeling a little groggy, but my sore throat was better. Brian didn't wake up until 1PM and we still needed to pack all of his stuff! But, he really didn't feel the same sense of urgency that I did and he instead watched TV and played with this Pachinko machine (yes, a Pachinko machine) he brought home from work that morning. Silly boys. :P We finally left after 2:00 and headed to Ko Olina.

We arrived at the Ihilani shortly before our 3PM check-in. We pulled up to the lobby and I waited for the valet to approach our car, which is what normally happens, right? Well, there were no other cars around and the valet was schmoozing with this chick who was waiting with a bunch of other people. After a few seconds, it was clear he was on a different planet so I opened my door and got out. He finally snapped out of it and saw us. He didn't even skip a beat. I think he thought we spontaneously materialized out of nowhere and appeared right at the second he snapped out of it. I was a little annoyed, but that quickly passed as we entered the Ihilani lobby. Is it silly that I hear angels sing when I enter the Ihilani's grand foyer/atrium? :P

As always, the front desk was very friendly. We were given little, cold, moist towels (real towels, not wet naps or something :P) to freshen up with while the front desk guy checked us in. When he was ready to give us our room keys, he came out from behind the front desk to hand us our keys, confirm our room rate, and tell us how to get to our room. I opened the little pocketfold thingy to see what our room number was and saw "1710". Holy smokes! That's the top floor. I was so excited!

When we arrived at our room, we noticed that all of the rooms on the floor were marked as "PURE Allergy Friendly Rooms".


Since we had the Ihilani Suite during our last stay, I didn't quite know what to expect from our Deluxe Ocean View Room. I knew the rooms were over-sized and I had seen photos, but I just couldn't picture what it would be like.

Upon entering the room, we opened the glass sliding doors to the lanai. Although it was a bit cloudy and gray that afternoon, we were still greeted by these amazing views!!!





Strangely enough, although we were on the top floor of the hotel, we could still hear the water sloshing and waves crashing, loud and clear, as if we were right there standing on the beach! It was really neat.

After checking out the view, Brian made a bee-line for the TV and found a tennis ball behind the TV.

Brian, tossing that tennis ball in the air while watching TV
I, on the other hand, was eager to check out the rest of the room. It had a small foyer with a nice bar and mirrors. I opened up the bar and found a little refrigerator, snacks, and a little safe.


The bathroom was to the left of the entrance. It was very spacious and luxurious, with a private water closet, 2 vanities, a European soaking tub, and separate glass shower.






The bedroom itself was quite large. Larger than I was expecting. We had a king-sized bed, sofa, chair, coffee table and desk. Very nice.



After getting settled, one of the staff members came by to drop off some chocolate covered strawberries for us to enjoy, along with a little note.

Note: There were 6 strawberries, but Brian snagged one before I had a chance to grab my camera

This other note from our wedding event manager, Terri Hyden, also got delivered later in the evening.


We bummed around for a bit and headed down to Ushio-Tei for our 5:30PM dinner reservation. (For the Knotties: I'm happy to report that I wore my wedding day shoes to dinner--last time I wore them was on my wedding day--with a nice pair of dark blue jeans, Aqua-ish floral-print Cinnamon Girl blouse and cream-colored cardigan. I'm definitely no fashionista, but I was quite impressed that I was able to throw together a pretty decent look with stuff I already had. Sadly, I have no photos to show for it as it didn't occur to me to get Brian to take one.)

When we arrived, I was thrilled to see a familiar face. Cheyeanne, whom we first met last year at our rehearsal dinner, was working that night and took good care of us, as always. After our rehearsal dinner, we returned to Ushio-Tei 2 or 3 more times, but had not seen her since last June so it was so wonderful to catch up with her. We even exchanged e-mail addresses. I'm not sure what the heck it was, but we just hit it off the very first time we met and seem to be able to pick up right where we left off every time we see each other. (Note to self: Take a photo with her next time. Duh!) We found out that Cheyeanne's own wedding anniversary is only 5 days before ours!

Brian and I both had our usual, the Tabehodai (all-you-can-eat) buffet. Here's the buffet menu for Saturdays:

COLD ITEMS
Seafood Salad
Rice Paper Roll with Tuna
Oriental Soba
Tsukemono (Japanese Pickles)
Ahi Poke
Assorted Sashimi
Assorted Maki and Inari Sushi

HOT ITEMS
Chicken Miso Yaki
Seafood Steamer Basket
Salmon Teriyaki
Wafu Steak
Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura
Tonkatsu (Breaded Pork Loin)
Steamed Rice
Miso Soup
Included in the buffet is an amazing selection of petite desserts--too many to list here, but I could only manage to eat a honeydew melon panna cotta and creme brulee.

We didn't do too well with the buffet this time. Cheyeanne told Brian that they had a new beer in called Koshihikari Echigo, which is made from a premium Japanese rice. Brian was interested and Cheyeanne returned with a 17 oz. bottle of the stuff, which Brian really ended up enjoying. I think, perhaps, he should have stuck with water. I think the Koshihikari, oh, and the Kirin he chased it with, were just too filling for him and he was done with the buffet after 1-1/2 visits.

I also chose poorly and had 2 Samurai Sodas (I think that's what they were called), which was made with soda water and tropical juices. I had the Pineapple and Banana flavors, but probably should have stuck with water myself. I think we were just so happy to be there that we felt especially indulgent and made some choices we wouldn't have normally made. Cheyeanne really wanted to bring out a complimentary anniversary dessert for us, but we just couldn't do it. Brian started to look not-so-good. I really was afraid he would yarf right there at the table. He really just needed to lie down. I was so bummed. I was really looking forward to the same tempura fried ice cream Cheyeanne gave us at our rehearsal dinner. :( Here's a photo of it from last time:

But, I was stuffed and declared that I didn't want to see another shrimp tempura for a while. Geez, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining. Believe me, we had a lot of fun, good food, and great company.

Wow, sorry this was so long! That wraps it up for Saturday. Stay tuned for the recap of Sunday and Monday! Thanks for reading!