New Replacement Phone Arrives

Having gone 2 days of no phone, it was an interesting experience.  Just didn't realize how much the phone is integrated into my daily life nowadays.  I think back to just I think two years ago, when I didn't have a 'data' phone, and I rarely used it.  It felt pretty weird in the last two days to not have access to the phone as I was walking down the hallway, or driving and using it for GPS...

Even though the new phone has arrived, all my lobster photos and videos are in the old phone... :(

Phone breaks...

Today my phone started endlessly rebooting.  Pretty annoying as it kept vibrating each time it does it.

All my photos :*(... if only I had been auto-saving to the cloud...

Victory well worth it...

Woke up early and drove back from Vanc just to make this game.  

Very worth it :).  Was too tired though and can't do the double header like i wanted.

Final score - 3-2!

Wintermelon Galore...

Went to Vanc this weekend for a wintermelon outing. 

Ordered the the large one (usually for 8 person table)... for 4 ppl.. wuhahahaha..  Had so much wintermelon.. Yummy... 

Car Nice Again…

Throughout the trip, the car people have been calling to say that they were done with fixing the car.  But since I was out of town, there was no way I could pick it up.  It was pretty cool of them though to basically have taken care of the repairs in a few days.

Picking up the car, it is nice again.  Sweet!

Week in Hawaii - Day 9 - Maui Day 4: Last Day

Today I decided to sleep in while little friend hit the beach one last time.

We bought some tuna from a grocery store, and ate outside the airport.  It was pretty yummy and delicious, but felt a bit ghetto... 

A short plane ride later, we were home... to the cold

Week in Hawaii - Day 8 - Maui Day 3: Bike Ride and Luau

Today's plan.  Wake up super early (~2:30am), then get bused up to the top of the volcano, catch the sunrise early, then bike down.

The bike ride was pretty cool.  The sunrise was pretty nice.  I did wish we could go faster when we were biking down.  It was a nice relaxing ride.  There was a minimum amount of pedaling, and it was pretty safe all throughout.  

Getting back to the base, went back to the hotel and took a nap... A 2 hour one  haha.. Everyday wehave been waking up early, and it is catching up to me.

After waking up, we had a drink and wings by the poolside.  The drink was very yummy.. Don't remember what it was now (lava flow I think its called - strawberry, coconut, and rum.. Mmmm)

Then we went to the Luau at the Grand Wailea.  It was funnnn AND we got really good seats.  We also the waitress from last night attending with her family.  She remembered us!

Our server tonight was great.  He gave me 2 drinks of everything.. And so within minutes table we had more glassware than the entire table! :)

Week in Hawaii - Day 7 - Maui Day 2: Road To Hana

Today we embarked on the Road to Hana.  Supposedly a super nice drive, rewarded by the 7 Sacred Pools at the end.

So we started at…10.45am (was suppose to start at 8.30) but got to milepost 10 by 11:21am.

Stopped by the aboretum along the way - and got bit 5 times.  There were lots of flower and it was pretty tropical.  It was hot and humid, and I was food for mosquitos.

At 12:30pm-ish we started going again... Didn't take any stop other than this beach as part of detour.. Pretty nice beach (this was past Hana between post 47 and 51). 

Finally we reached the 7 scared pools.  It wasn't all that cool.  It was more like 5 ponds with drippy waterfall (think it was low tide so the water wasn't overflowing).  So we pulled into the Chinese bus tour bus style mode.  We did a Quick Hike (0.5 miles), then pics, then jet.  By 2:50pm, we started heading back with no stops, arriving back in Kihei (Grand Wailea) by 5:32pm.

So Road to Hana: started at 10:45am, returned by 5:32pm from Kihei with three pit stops.  The distance itself isn't long, but it is the drivers and the curvyness of the road that makes the drive a 2.5 hour drive.

For dinner, we went to Humuhumunukunukuapua at the Grand Wailea, and I had a 3 lb Hawaii spike lobster.. They were doing half price per lb.  So a 3lb lobster regularly priced at $174, at just half that!  Lobster was huge… and yummy!

We also got there during the sunset, and it was pretty nice.  The pictures taken though weren't :(

Finishing up dinner, we got back to the hotel at 8.45pm, and got ready for tomolo's 2:40am pickup to go bike down a volcano!

Week in Hawaii - Day 6 - Maui Day 1 - Motokini Crater, Timeshare, and Mama's

We woke up at 5:30am to go scuba diving at the Motokini crater.  We went to the wrong meeting location in the beginning, and barely made getting onto the boat!

Getting there though, the crater itself was pretty non eventful.  The second dive closer to the coast was much cooler.  Saw stingrays, and a bunch of other cool fishes!

Still early in the morning, we walk to get snow cones for breakfast.  We then come across a booth that was doing cheap tickets for attractions and went to see what the catch is.  Turns out by going to a timeshare presentation, we can get cheap ticks to luau and bike ride :) - so we did that!

Sitting air conditioned for 2 hours, we were tempted about investing in your own life with vacations.  It was a pretty interesting pitch (saying that you can lock in the price of your stay - and if you plan to go to Hawaii once a year, then this is a pretty sweet deal). 

In the afternoon, after a nap, we went to the smooth sandy beach @ Kihei

For dinner, went to Mamas seafood restaurant ... Delicious.  What we ate:

• Home made bread
• Wasabi crusted calamari
• Mahi mahi with lobster n crab
• Octopus laua, wild boar
• Opakapaka

Did so much today!

Week in Hawaii - Day 5: Last day in Waikiki, Onwards to Maui

Today we were beach bums.  Spent the first few hours bumming around the beach.  Soaked in the sun, and also lounged around the salty ocean and floated around.  Because of the salt, it was super easy to float - so it was like lying on a water bed.  Nice and relaxing.

To finish it off, for lunch we went to a place near our hotel for some lobster sashimi.  When I first arrived, I had an Australian one, and today, I would be having one from Maine.  The best part about the whole experience was that when they served the lobster sashimi portion of the meal, the lobster actually moved!!!

The airport was crazily busy.  It was madness!  However, things did sort itself out and we got to Maui.  We walked to the nearest mall, found a place to eat dinner. Then went to sleep (since we had an early rise tomorrow).

Week in Hawaii - Day 4: Day of Wedding

Beach in Kuhio, then went to the famous udon place, then wedding reception at Hilton.

After that, we had a little bit of time, so I went for an afternoon snack :).  I had an Uni craving because of yesterday's dive, so went to a place close by for happy hour sashimi :)

Drink drink drink, hot hot hot.  Mmmmm... 

Week in Hawaii - Day 3: Scuba-ing with Sea Turtles!

Main event of the day - scuba!

Was pretty happy.  Saw a bunch of sea turtles - cowaabunga.  Pictures to come since we bought the CD - there were quite some good pictures there.

The company we ended going with was called: Island Divers - much better than Aquazone.  I mean, they actually showed up, not to mention the dive masters seemed pretty knowledgeable and pointed out some cool things.

At night, we went for a steak dinner (since the folks from Japan wanted to eat meat)... it wasn't that great :(.

Week in Hawaii - Day 2: 2.6 mile walk in Hakkei

This morning, we went to an Oden place.  And we decided to take a walk there.  It ended up being a 2.6 miles walk!  I was sweating like a madman throughout and was dripping in sweat!

But we arrived at Hakkei, and ate a ton there.  Good thing there was air conditioning.  The food was pretty interesting and it was a buffet style, so that was pretty cool.

Later on in the day, Aquazone cancels at 5.30 pm.  Wtf.. So had to scramble to find someone to take us for scuba tomorrow.  Needless to say that if anyone asks me for recommendation on who to use for scuba in Honululu, it will definitely not be Aquazone.  

Luckily, we were able to find someone to take us, and so crisis averted!  At night, we went to meet up with some of lil friend's friends at a gyu-kyaku.  Lots of meat, good beer (though didn't have much since we were scuba-ing tomolo), and fun times all around!

Week in Hawaii - Day 1: Mitch's Sushi and Sushi Sasabune

Leaving on a Saturday morning, we head towards Honululu for my first time (at least that I remember) in Hawaii!

The first stop - Fresh Sashimi!

Mitch's sushi

Lobster sashimi (Australian), own sake, Mmm...

Namako (sea cumcumber)

Lobster n umekarage (jellyfish)

Shimaji (japan popoa), sayori, snapper, Suzuki

Amaebi kimayaki

Lobster miso soup
A $10 taxi ride from the airport!

Sushi Sasabune (1417 South King St)

Canadian albacore

Baby squid w blue crab and sesame

Blue fin toro

Snapper and halibut
Golden eye snapper and hamachi

Scallop and king salmon

Kushi w Alaskan roe and pacific baked

Blue shrimp

Amberjack and king crab

Tuna tartar

Rock lobster

Sea eel and egg

Mochi and green tea ice cream

(Unfortunately, I lost all the pictures I had of this trip as I lost all the pictures on my phone shortly after this trip :( )

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 4 - Baby Giraffe Bust

For the final surprise, my plan was to take Lil Friend to the zoo.  Through some random searching, I found out that the zoo just got a baby giraffe, and knowing that she really liked giraffes, what a great way to end the weekend!

It was a sunny day, and not too cold either.  However, today didn't turn out as I hoped.  We woke up too late and by the time we got to the zoo, the baby giraffe had already been taken to the back.  So we missed seeing the baby giraffe.

It was a nice walk though... :)

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 3 - Dinner and Drinks

So as part of the daily surprise weekend, the 3rd surprise was would be a dinner with her best friend and her beau, and also some of her Seattle friends.

However, I think she did catch on for this one - though the restaurant she did not guess (I took the liberty of finding supposedly the 'best' Italian restaurant per yelp in Seattle - only to find it wasn't really that good :().  But the service was good :).

Afterwards, we went back to the Capitol Hill area for some drinks.  We got our own private room of sorts, and there was a drink called "Toronto" there.  Haha.

Nice calm night - but Day 3 complete!

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 2 - Happy Hour Fun

Today, the plan was to gather some of her university friends to surprise her and wish her happy birthday.

The plan: Her friends would try to get a head start to get to Schultzy's for their usual happy hour, with another friend of hers taking her for a slightly longer walk so that by the time she gets there, all her friends would already be there, ready to surprise her.  Then we go for dinner.

To make sure this lands, I have been corresponding with my secret spy (aka. her office mate) throughout on getting the right folks in the email and figuring out a place to go last week, and the secret spy would say that they would meet up for drinks after since they haven't talked for awhile.  I actually worked from home (actually from Regent), so that I could get a cake and avoid the evening rush hour, and to get there early to get a table.

What Happened:
All the pieces were set, ACTION!
As the morning moved on, I get an email in the morning that Lil Friend was feeling like crap (turns out the first night was a bit too fun :P), and she was thinking of ditching the seminar and thinking of going home - and thus also ditching the meeting w/ secret spy.  Luckily, they were able to keep her on campus, even if secret spy had to threaten Lil Friend at one point... hahaha.  Other than that, things went well - she was indeed surprised (though later she did say she suspected something was going on since everyone seemed to be trying to keep on her campus) - and the cake that I got was super yummy.

We then went to dinner, then at Lil Friend's request, after that we called it a night since she was really really tired.

Day 2 Complete!

Lil Friend's Bday Weekend: Day 1 - Dinner and a Flight

Last year was a custom watermelon cake made to order.  This year I figure I will go with the weekend long festivities approach - filled with friend and sprinkled with surprises.

To start off the evening, picked Lil Friend up for her first surprise.  The location was the Madison Conservatory, a place that she had wanted to go to for a while.  As always though, I am bad with surprises... Lil Friend knew immediately where we were going after one turn in the car.  Next time, I am going to pull a drive around for a half hour for no reason stunt like lil boy genius.  The food was good though, and it was a very nice ambiance.

After dinner, we went to Liberty for drinks (which was supposed to be a surprise but she figured it out too).  Through some day of phone calls and last minute coordination, we were able to make a reservation for the place.  It was fun times and the place even gave us Lil Friend a flight of Scotch for tasting.

Night one complete.