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.

Hawaii Day 3

For our third day of the trip we sat on the beach and pool side the whole morning and most of the afternoon. I didn't take too many pictures during that time because I was reading my book or reapplying my sunscreen. Before dinner we checked out the Ritz Carlton to see what it was like. The landscaping was gorgeous and it looked like you would think a Ritz should look like. The only negative was there was no beach near by. I think guests would have to walk a good bit to the shore, but you couldn't see the beach from the hotel.

After checking out the Ritz we went to our favorite sushi place in Hawaii, Sansei. This place is fantastic! We got their signature Ahi Tuna roll, their take on a rainbow roll, some other roll, and a spicy tuna roll. All of them were great! If you ever plan on going here, take 5 minutes the day before to make a reservation. If you don't, you will have at least a 45 minute wait for dinner.


Another beach time picture with the trademark Sheraton Maui boat.


Laura and I at the Ritz.


Some crazy flowers at the Ritz. They look like birds.


The gorgeous view from the Ritz, but notice, no beach.


Sansei signature ahi tuna roll. Ahi means "tuna" in Hawaiian, so I guess this is the Sansei tuna tuna roll. I guess...


Another roll we had. I think there is some crab salad or something. It was good though, trust me.


Rainbow roll with some fat pieces of salmon nigiri.


Normally when I get a spicy tuna roll, it's for filler. But this roll was much bigger that I was use to. And it was so f'ing tasty!


Forgot to mention this above, but afterwards we went back to the hotel where they had a nightly happy hour. So for $5, Laura and I split this chocolate lava cake. What a deal!

Hawaii Day 2 continued

Because there are so many pictures, it takes a while to whittle down the ones I want to show. But that is why God invented weekends. Hopefully I can get a couple more days posted this weekend or at least by the end of Monday.

The night of Day 2 we went to walk around downtown Lahaina and eat at Betty's Tacos. Betty's tacos isn't one of the top local spots but it is relatively cheap and it has a great view of the Festival at LeLe, which is one of a hand full of nightly luaus on Maui. The luau itself costs over a hundred dollars a person, but if you go to Betty's (which I don't think many people do) you can sit and watch the whole thing for free. We watched about an hour and a half then got sleepy and went back to the hotel. It was a good show though.


Laura and I at the famous(sic) Banyan Tree in downtown Lahaina


The view from Betty's Tacos


Me with delicious drink.

Hawaii 2010 Day 1 and 2

Sorry for the delay in posting pictures from vacation. As you may know, Laura and I took a ten a day vacation to Hawaii to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary. We visited Maui and Kauai each for five days. Overall the trip was fantastic and very memorable. For the most part we had great weather the whole time. There were just a few instances of rain, but nothing that would dampen our spirits.

Here are some pictures from our stop in LA to visit Laura's brother James, then our first full day on Maui.





Laura and I waiting in line at the Gazebo. This is the best breakfast place on the island....we know....we have tried them all.


The Big Kahuna omelet and famous banana macadamia nut pancakes. (Note: we went back to the Gazebo a couple days later and decided we liked the white chocolate/macadamia nut pancakes better. Both were outstanding though)


The view from the Gazebo is amazing.


This is one of the best beaches in all of Hawaii and out hotel was right along it.


Laura reading her magazine. This is one of the rare times she was under the umbrella. I was almost exclusively under the umbrella.






This was the view from our hotel room balcony. How could you not love this place?!


We hit up this place a couple times for happy hour. The MaiTais were fantastic....and strong. w00t!!1




Laura and me in downtown Lahaina.

Stay tuned for more pictures as I get them ready. I have a lot to sort through.

Taste of Alpharetta

Last Thursday we headed to the Taste of Alpharetta event in downtown Alpharetta. I was amazed at its size and popularity. There were at least 60 different restaurants selling samples of their different cuisines. However, most of them did some type of BBQ Pork, but I'm not complaining. In order to get the samples you had to buy some tickets, each of which cost 50 cents. We bought 30 bucks worth of tickets because my eyes are far larger than my stomach. As you can imaging, this was way too much food and by the time we left I felt like I never wanted to talk about food again. But, I lived to tell the tale. In addition to BBQ Pork sandwiches/tacos there was ice cream, gyros, fondue, shrimp etouffee, hamburgers, smoothie and much more. I found out the hard way that all of those foods mixed together in a human stomach lead to belly aches from hell. I managed to take some pictures in between my heffer-like eating binges. Please enjoy!

From Taste of Alpharetta

From Taste of Alpharetta

From Taste of Alpharetta

This is the "gyro king"

From Taste of Alpharetta

From Taste of Alpharetta

From Taste of Alpharetta

From Taste of Alpharetta