Hawaii, Part I

OK, I am a little slow to get up our Hawaii pics. It was a rough week at work. We got back from Hawaii at 2:30AM and then I started 168 hrs of continuous on call starting at 7:30AM. Yes, lots of RedBull being consumed this week. It will all be worth it because I have Monday off (thank you dead presidents) so I will do some snowboarding to recover my mind from a stressful week. Oh yea, here's the Hawaii pics:

Honolulu at night. I love tiki torches.

Our accomodations for the trip - the Hyatt Regency on Waikiki beach. It has 40 floors and two towers; we were on the 23rd floor so the view was amazing from the balcony.

The atrium of the Hyatt had beautiful 2 story waterfalls and lots of orchids all around.

The view of Waikiki beach from the hotel lobby.

Hawaii has some of the most interesting trees.

We went on a whale watching tour on this catamaran sailboat. We didn't end up seeing any whales, but we did have a good time relaxing on the boat and enjoying the open seas.

Here's Em just chillaxing on the boat and soaking up some rays.

Since there were no whales to take pics of, I tried to get all artistic with the camera. I wanted to capture the juxtaposition of the shadows of the railing with the actual railing....but I ruined the shot when my foot was captured on the left side of the image. I guess I better keep my day job and not pursue photography (oh well, there goes one of my plans to travel to exotic places for a living). Maybe I could just crop it out in Photoshop?

We cruised by some surfers catching waves. Maybe our next trip to Hawaii will involve surfing lessons?

The view of Diamondhead....remnants from a volcano....but I guess the whole island is in that sense. :)

OK, anyone that knows us knows that we love to sample a variety of foods....and by sample, I mean gorge ourselves. The first night we went to Todai and loaded up on sashimi, sushi, and all things seafood. It was definitely the best Todai we've ever been to - they had ahi poke and big pieces of sashimi (tuna, salmon, red snapper, etc.). The second night, we hit a little local hole in the wall called Ono Hawaiian Foods, and it had excellent food. I think of it as the equivalent of those really good BBQ joints you find in the south that feel run down but the ribs are amazing....but this one serves traditional Hawaiian flavor. My favorite is laulau which is a hunk of pork wrapped in lotus leaf and slow cooked to superb tenderness (pictured in the lower right corner). Em's favorite is ahi poke (raw tuna chopped up with onions). Great stuff.

Another of our favorite restaurants we visited was a Japanese-style BBQ place. We had marinated pork ribs, beef, garlic shrimp, chicken, scallops, and ahi tuna. In addition, we had some amazing garlic noodles. I forgot to take the pic until we had already eaten about half of the meal....but this gives you an idea of the spread.

And what is a great meal without a great dessert? Our fav was the milky shaved ice (a popular Hawaiian treat) with mango, pineapple, and kiwi topped with a strawberry sorbet.
I'll end this blog with sunset pics at Waikiki. The camera cannot come close to capturing the beauty of the sunset, let alone the warm sun, calm breeze, and the sound of waves crashing ashore. (*Note: there will be several more posts of our Hawaii trip to follow....I just didn't want to have a 50 page blog.)