Jon and Casey, 5/1/15 (5/25/15 edited: invite and their entrance were added)

I had a wonderful trip to San Francisco to attend Jon's wedding. The couple had 4 events planned.

*First, a home cooked delicious Indian dinner for rehearsal night, Thursday, 4/30/15

*Second, a lovely magical wedding at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in the Golden Gate Park, Friday, 5/1/15

I was privy to this invite as I saw first hand Casey drawing the poppies and Jon drawing the dragons. I am guessing the circular designs were done by Jon.  I love seeing their creativity.

Signs were put at the entrances to this Fern Grotto.  These are 3 of the 6.

It was a very special wedding as 22 of us were invited to attend.

Alexandra's, officiate, expression was priceless. I believe after the exchanging of rings, Casey's happiness was contagious.

Sorry no parent photos.

This fun photo still has me laughing.

*Third, a special dinner at The cookhouse, Friday, 5/1/15
Great smile, Dennis- Jon's dad.

The cookhouse is a venue you can rent, have a party of no more than 24 with your own cooks, decorate as you please. They advertise as a place to have a dinner without cleaning your place for your guests. 

Voila!!! Mrs. Casey Newlin and Mr. Jon Ching

An elegant dinner prepared by Chef Dave Vogler

*Fourth, a Partyyyy, Saturday, 5/2/15

Guests at the party were able to view the wedding photos. Mick Leonaradi - you are an awesome photographer!!!

Casey and her dad, "In My Life"

Blogger allows 100MB so you will see their dance in 2 parts.

Casey and Jon, "Uptown Funk"

A total surprise, they planned their wedding the way they envisioned it. They were happy that both moms did not interfere. As you saw in an above photo, a person is setting up the dim sum (Chinese small bite-sized food) station.

Crowd surfing, I got these from FB.

Mick, you are an awesome photographer, thanks also for allowing me to photograph you!!!

Disclosure: it was difficult to choose which photos to include. There were so many happy memories.

Sorry, just 2 more. The day after the wedding and after our lunch, I wanted a close up of the black Sapphire rings they designed for each other.

Just one day in Maui, 3/26/15

It was fun to just get up and go.  On Tuesday, we (coworkers) decided to enjoy Prince Kuhio Day on Thursday in Maui.  Lahaina, Maui is a better place to enjoy "whale watching" because the waters are surrounded by other islands making the waters calmer.  Lana`i is to the west and Kaho'olawe is to the south.

Near the harbor is this 60 foot Banyan tree - is one of the largest in the United States.  It was impossible to photograph the entire tree.

A bird's eye view of the size of that Banyan Tree

We chose Pacific Whale Foundation for our adventure.

The group is about to disembark. Yup we chose the raft.

Maui's nickname is The Valley Isle, makes sense.

My friend did this collage.

Mom' humpback flippers were slapping the water a lot and with such a large flippers it was powerful.  The guides were saying she is inviting males to join her.

This photo was cropped so you can see the mom and her calf. The other photos are not cropped.

We stopped at various spots. Our navigator used binoculars and lowered a device in the ocean to pick up the whale sounds to help find their location. It was amazing to hear their sounds/communication.

This part was the best...

Notice the turquoise, that is the color we see when its body is below the surface.

We were ecstatic as 3 whales were swimming near us.

After a wonderful 2 hours, we head back to the harbor.

Pi Artisan Pizzeria was perfect. It is on Front Street. Funny, I have a photo of our ice tea and tiramisu cheese cake - but none of our pizza and salad.

Pioneer Mill Co. created a 225 foot high smoke stack to generate electricity for the production of sugar. It was in operation from 1860 to 1999. This smoke stack is a wonderful landmark.

Don't laugh too hard. We needed to jump around as we were getting tired. Our flight to Maui was at 5:05 am.

Back to Front Street and the Harbor.  Needless to say, I was surprised to see this, however being Chinese, I was also happy to see this.

So long Maui, it is 7 pm and we need to head off to the airport.

Disclosure: I used my Canon G1X Mark 2 during the whale watching and most of my photos. I also used my iPhone 5 but definitely not during whale watching.  Since it was so much fun for us to experience it, I chose not to share my videos. I do however recommend doing a video. 

Transformed, 1/29-2/12/15

I took this photo on Sunday, Feb. 1 and posted it on Instagram and Facebook: I don't mind going to the laundromat in exchange for a disconnected washer and dryer because my place is getting renovated!!!

I now feel that "renovated" is not descriptive enough "transformed" is. I also decided not to show you before and after because "after" is awesome.

Shai Tal, contractor, chose to embellish my mirrors instead of removing them. I chose one color for the entire place. It is Marquee, Parisian Taupe from Home Depot. The flooring is also from there and it is Allure, Resilient Planks.

I like how Shai continued the flooring into the kitchen as he did for the bedroom and den.

 I love my bathroom...

Shai, also changed out my bifold in my bedroom to this one. He used the former one down the hall infront of the washer/dryer.

Viola! Shai Tal. I can't thank you enough Shai!!!

Jon and Casey's last day (Feb. 13 -17, 2015), they are the reason I needed to transform my place.
It has been a long journey since Oct. 4 and Oct. 16, 2014 when I encounter water problems. Hence, I needed to repair my place. My journey was filled with challenges but that is in the past, I enjoy the present.

It was a peace of mind that Shai's contractors are licensed. I also want to extend a huge mahalo "thank you" to Ruth Otake who interviewed Shai when searching via Home Resource and said he can do the job. Thank you again Shai, your contractors - job well done and Ruth.