Hawaii Day 9

Because of my sickness I had to delay playing golf a few days. Luckily that wasn't a problem to reschedule because the Makai golf club wasn't very crowded. I decided to play early in the morning to avoid the intense heat of the afternoon. Actually, that was Laura's idea, and it was a good one.

A little background on the Makai golf course. It's a mile away from where we were staying in Princville. It was renovated last year and is supposed to be one of the top golf courses in the country. Ok, that's all I really know about it. So I had a tee time for 7:50 and got to the course around 7:30. I had to rent some clubs which was no big deal, but when you do that its always nice to have a few minutes to warm up. However, the starter told me I had no time to hit a few balls because I had to tee off very soon. Oh well. Laura and I drove up to the first tee where we waited 20 minutes to start. But all of that didn't matter because I hit a 220 yard bomb down the middle of the fairway. What a way to start the day! Then I hit a perfect 6 iron to the center of the green and three putted my way to a bogey. (I don't work on putting very much so three puts are pretty much my calling card.)

I brought about 6 balls from home because I thought they would be expensive on the island. This was smart on my part. At the golf shop they were charging 10 bucks for 3 balls. No sir, not gonna do that. So I had to play the whole round with six balls; not an easy task.

The rest of the round was a ton of fun. Laura rode around in the cart enjoying a book and the gorgeous views of the pacific while I played solid round. I ended up shooting a 101 and staying within my self imposed quota of 6 balls. Success!!!

That afternoon we relaxed in the pool and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. The whole day was perfect!


The third hole at Makai. About 160 yards with a twenty yard drop. I hit a nice 8 iron to the back of the green then two nice putts for a par.


Me waiting for the group ahead of us on 6. There was very little waiting the whole day which was nice. From here I hit another 8 iron to the front of the green and two putted for par.


F' that, I can't wait for these slow mofos. I'm hitting.


artsy picture....we had a few minutes here.


7th hole. I got a 5 because I hit my tee shot way to the left. At least it didn't fall into the canyon like one of the scrubs in my group. Actually, the dude hit two balls into the water. I forgot to tell him you cant lay up on this hole. BWHAHAHA!!11!!


Laura and I overlooking Hanalei Bay and the Pacific. This course had the best views EVAR!!


I think this is the 14th par 3 at 220 yards. I hit a 3 iron off the tee hoping to land somewhere in front and right of the green. Instead I landed short and left on the hill. I had a crappy chip, then a decent chip, then three more putts to score a par!


The Kilauea Lighthouse. We could have paid 10 bucks to walk a mile to it, but I just took a picture, zoomed in on the preview image and figured there wasn't much to see there. So we just admired from afar. While there a park ranger pointed out two monk seals on the rocks below. He said, "we don't know why their numbers are falling each year." Uh, Ranger Rick, maybe because they are super lazy and just lay on rocks all day. Perhaps if they weren't so fat they could have the energy to bump those numbers up if you know what I mean.

Get it on, monk seal style, and reproduce.






The sunsets last for about 20-30 minutes and are beautiful the whole time.




A perfect way to end a perfect day.

Hawaii Day 8

After the roller coaster that was day 7, Day 8 was much more relaxed. We spend the morning on the beach. There was more sun than clouds so it was a success. Unfortunately for me I didnt read (correction, didnt mind) the directions on the prescription advising to avoid sunlight. This resulted in a pretty nice sun burn on my legs and arms.

Getting burned wasnt much fun, but with plenty of aloe I didnt feel much pain. Really not much else went on this day as we were trying to keep it low key and cool.


better picture of the lobby

Hawaii Day 7

Our second day on Kauai was pretty rough. It all started when I woke up several times throughout the night with a vicious sinus infection. Around 6 or 7 I tried to contact the doctor in Atlanta to see if I could get a prescription called out. The lady at the office said there was no guarantee the doctor would call out the prescription so I would just have to wait until 5 o'clock eastern time (11 Hawaiian).

In the meantime I tried to get a doctors appointment on the island but learned that the only place I could get into wouldn't take my insurance. Just a sec, let me correct that. They could take my insurance, but they do not take out of state insurance. So when I asked how much a doctors visit would be I was told somewhere between 60 and 200 bucks. Hmmm, so I asked, "How do you determine if its on the 60 end or the 200 end?" The lady replied, "oh its up to the doctor's discretion."

Let me tell you, if I were a doctor, I would just charge the 200 because I'm not stupid. So needless to say, I took my chances with the prescription. While waiting for the doctor in Atlanta to call me back we drove about 15 minutes to this burger joint called Ono Char Burger. The word was they had the best burgers. When we pulled into the parking lot and saw the place, I was pretty excited. It was run down and there was a line. I like those shack style restaurants. Anyway, we ordered our burgers and were told it would take 30 minutes to get the burgers, onion rings and milkshake. What?! McDonalds can do that in 30 seconds. Oh well, we can wait. It's not like we have anything better to do. However, while waiting I decided to look in the shack to see why it would take so long to make the food. I wasn't surprised to learn that Hawaiians were running the operations. Hawaiians have never been accused of being efficient. They would cook one order at a time. So they literally had 2 or three burgers cooking at one time on a grill that could accommodate 24. I had to laugh when I thought about any of my Industrial Engineer buddies taking a look at the operation and immediately shitting a brick.

The burgers were alright, not special, but the milkshake and onion rings were terrific. At this time I also learned that my prescription was filled at the local supermarket. When I went to pick it up, I found out the supermarket didn't take my insurance. Damn you, Foodland!!! Oh well, that was the best $120 I've spent on pills in a long time. :)

Here are some pictures from the day. Sorry, no pictures of the sinus infection.


Talk about a great view! This is from the hotel room. (Not pictured - me feeling like crap)


Ono-Char Burger menu. It's called Ono because after you order you say, "Ono! It's going to take 30 f'ing minutes?" Or, "Ono! You only cook one order at a time?!?!"


I did really like the look of the place. Cool vibe.


My burger had terryaki sauce, pineapple, and cheese. It was good, but 30 minutes good??? Not so much. Denny's could whip this out faster.


Walking along the beach

Hawaii Day 6

This was the day we transferred islands from Maui to Kauai. We had to take a small turboprop airplane, but the flight was only an hour. Once landing on Kauai we had a small wait for our luggage. After that we quickly got our rental car and head up to Princeville on the north end of the island. The weather was a little cloudy but that's normal for this end of the island. Although last time we were here we didn't have clouds except for the last day. Oh well.

We had to do battle with the less than competent hotel staffer named Henrick. He was pretty stupid. We were told before arriving that we would be put on a high floor (which is important at this hotel otherwise you are pretty much right next to the pool). He told us, "I see you are on the 4th floor, but we have up graded you to a room on the second floor." Excuse me? That is not an upgrade, Henrick. Eventually, we got to talk to somebody else who quickly looked at the computer and told us there was a room on the 7th floor. So we took it.

That night we went to the Hanalei Dolphin for some great sushi! This place loves to put tempura flakes on all their rolls, but they were still good.


Outside of the lobby overlooking the cloudy Hanalei Bay


The centerpiece of the lobby at the St. Regis. I got a couple more pictures of the lobby because I liked it so much.


Our pre-dinner Lava Flow drinks.




Outside the Hanalei Dolphin. It's fake.


One of the sushi rolls with a bowl of corn flakes on top. It was delicious.

Hawaii Day 5

It was a bit misty on the north west side of the island where we were staying. So we went back to the great breakfast place "The Gazebo" then headed to the south side of the island. The south side of the island receives very little rainfall each year so we had a good chance of getting great sun. It was only a 45 minute drive from our hotel to the Fairmont. The Four Seasons, Fairmont and some other super fancy hotels are all on the south side, but we decided to go to the Fairmont. Well, it was kind of decided for us because there wasn't free parking at the Four Seasons.

We walked through the lobby with our beach stuff (a backpack full of sunscreen) and out to the beach. I was allowed to rent some chairs and an umbrella for cheaper than what I paid at our hotel. This was an unexpected surprise. Anyway, I've made this story longer than it needs to be. We sat out there for about 3 hours, went to a nearby mall for some ice cream, then back to the hotel.

That evening we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary by going to Roy's. This is one of the best restaurants in Hawaii. We went to a Roy's in Atlanta and loved it, but it closed. I figured this is the original, so it should be good. Oh and Roy was featured on the finale of Top Chef Season 3 (the one where they go to Hawaii). The food was terrific, especially the chocolate lava cake. It was out of this world fantastic.

Here are some pictures from the day.


Lookout point on the way to the south side of the island. The land in the distance is the destination.


It was incredibly windy at the lookout point!


The beach at the Fairmont.






Some flowers at the mall. Some nice bokeh going on. (Bokeh is aesthetically pleasing blur. It should look like little circles in the background)






Laura and I before dinner.


This is from the nightly torch lighting and cliff diving ceremony at the Sheraton






First Course - spicy scallops. Theses were so f'ing good!!


This is my entree, seared ahi with spicy mustard. I'm telling you, the more rare the better. As you can see, I got mine very rare. Fantastic!


Laura got a trio of butterfish, ahi (prepared like my dish), and something else. Shown here are the butterfish and ahi. All were great....I know....I steal bites.


Complimentary dessert from Roy's. It was some bread pudding thing. Not too bad.


And to wash that first dessert down, we got this delicious chocolate lava cake. I think all fancy restaurants serve chocolate lava cake as their "signature dessert". Don't get me wrong, it is amazing. But how about some creativity?

Hawaii Day 4

This day on the island we sat on our asses and enjoyed the weather. The previous day was a bit misty, but this day was gorgeous. I think this day epitomized what a typical native Hawaiian would do on any day of the week. We woke up late, sat on the beach, read books (although ours had no pictures), took an afternoon nap, got some happy hour drinks, and ate McDonald's for dinner. Here are a couple pictures from the evening.