Hawaii Day 02
Went to sleep last night at 8:00 PM local time, woke up at 4:45 AM standard time. It’s all dark, and nothing is open! The doorway in the room has kinda crappy sound-proofing, so last night I could hear kids running in their flip flops outside. I think we might have to try for a 9:00 PM sleep time and a 6:00 AM wakeup from now on. I got some sorta-sunrise pictures, but the mountain and its clouds blocked off most of the sun. Quite a few people wake up early to work out, and even before 6:00 AM there were people running along the beach or working out in the gym. Bunky and I had breakfast in the hotel next to the koi pond. It was beautiful and my blueberry muffin was delicious; of course everything was jacked way up in price, though.
I took a bunch more pictures of the resort area. I now have sunset and sunrise pictures. Now I just need full sun pictures, haha. Bunky went to the Spa Moana and got her hair color fixed. It’s close to the color it was before it was ruined, so she is fairly content. She also got roped into a manicure, so the spa experience was rather pricey for her. I browsed some stores for souvenirs (hoping for a keychain and a fridge magnet), and signed up for a week of internet in the hotel room.
This was more of an errand day than a fun day. We drove down to pick up Bunky’s wedding dress and veil first. We had had it shipped and then steamed/pressed/whatever. On our way back, we checked out the nearby Ocean’s Sports Bar and Grill. Bunky had a teriyaki chicken sandiwch and I had a Mahi Mahi fish tacos. It was my first fish taco and it was very tasty, although it didn’t really taste like a normal taco that much.
After grabbing the dress (and almost forgetting the box to ship the dress back in), we went to get our marriage license. It was a small office, but the lady was very nice. We were even given the option to change our middle and last names. She also gave us the 411 about the tradewinds on the beach that start in the afternoon and last until around 5:00 PM. This is relevant to Bunky for hairdos. However, it wasn’t all one-sided. The lady revealed that most people who type up the application print it out in portrait form, but she is only allowed to accept it in landscape form. This means most couples have to rewrite all their answers at the office. The official wanted to know how we got the application to print out correctly (we brought both a portrait and a landscape oriented application), and we told her to tell couples to look in the print settings.
After filling in some general information and raising our right hands to swear we were telling the truth, we headed back to the hotel to catch some sun for about 25 minutes. Amazingly, Bunky got a little pink from just that little amount of time in the sun. I didn’t get away unscathed either, as we didn’t bring towels and my chin had a small hatch pattern on it from where I rested my chin on the mesh of the lawn chair. Everyone has warned us about sun damage before the wedding, so we decided that tomorrow is to be a no-direct-sun day (we were originally going to lay out on the beach and check out the pool tomorrow).
Finally it was time for the Feast at Lele. We had made reservations weeks in advance so we got seated front and center. I’d never been to a Luau before and I was eager to try some authentic Hawaiian food.
Appetizer
Cassava, Green Banana Sweet Potato and Toro Served as a Table Starch
Tropical Ginger and Ogo Seaweed SalsaFrom Hawaii
Imu roasted Kalua Pig
Pehole Ferns and Hearts of Palm
Ahi Ahi in Mango Sauce with Mango and Pineapple SalsaFrom Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Duck and Sea Bean Salad with Poha Berry Dressing
Kuku Patties made from Mussels, Salmon, and Scallops
Harore Kumara (Roasted Mushrooms, Sweet Potato and Garlic)From Tahiti
Fafa (Steamed Chicken and Taro Leaf in Coconut Milk)
E’laoto (Poisson Cru of Mahi Mahi and Cucumber)
Baked Bay Scallops on the ShellFrom Samoa
Supasui (Grilled Steak with a Teriyaki-esque sauce)
Palusami (Breadfruit with Taro Leaf and Coconut Cream)
Shrimp and Avacado with LilikoiDessert
Carmel Mac Nut Tart topped with Haupia (Coconut Pudding), topped with Kiwi
Hawaiian Chocolate Truffles
Dragonfruit, Lychee, and PineappleDrinks
Mai Tai: Light and dark rum, with orange and pineapple juice
Pina Colada: Light rum, coconut cream and pineapple juice
Banana Madness: Rum, pineapple juice, coconut cream, banana and irish liquor
Lava Flow: A pina colade with banana and strawberry swirl
Island Ice Tea: Mango Ice Tea with juices and orange liquor
Blue Hawaii: Light rum, pineapple juice and blue curacao
Planters Punch: Light rum, orange juice, sweet & sour, soda with a dark rum float
The Feast at Lele was one of the more expensive luau’s available, but it was well worth it. We got private tables along the beach, and there was a wonderful short dancing show after every course. The service was amazing, and there was also a dancer with fiery batons. We got real lei’s (our first) and shell necklaces, and it was an open bar. The only dish I didn’t like was the breadfruit (which I had never had before). I had hearts of palm for the first time (great), as well as ceviche (fantastic and refreshing), dragonfruit (like kiwi, but less tart), taro leaf (tasty), lilikoi (perfect addition to the dish), and fern (kinda tough, but not bad). I drank a Mai Tai (yum) and a Lava Flow (delicious, but picked mainly because it looked beautiful in photographs). Afterwards we were completely exhausted, and we didn’t get back to the hotel until 10:00 PM local time. We had a terrible time getting a parking space, and we had to do a ghetto park job in the second lot in one of those not-really-a-parking-spot deals.
By Jesus159159159, 8/26/2008 @ 10:22 pm
In that steamed/pressed/whatever link you posted, that guy in the flash video reminds me of how I will look in my 30s =3 (although not buff… or tall
)
When you wrote Bunky got a little pink, I had the impression that she was blushing because of the marriage license! XD I was like, “awww!” but then you ruined it by explaining it was because of the sun >:3
haha, cool! You had Ceviche! I’m pretty sure thats a spanish dish (I think a salad-like thing with fish thats very very lemon/lime-like). I sort of hate it though. The lime/sour feeling is way too much for me! I used to have chugging contests with it in my early days =D and of course, always losing.