Hawaii Day 03
This was the first day we had the house cleaning staff tidy up the room. I wore my goofy hat to protect my face, but it ended up being very overcast and so I took the hat off in the afternoon. Anyway, we started the day off with a giant breakfast at Longhi’s. I had “Longhi-style” French Toast which was completely indistinguishable from normal fancy French Toast but very tasty. Bunky had a stack of fluffy pancakes. Breakfast was delicious and filling, and the view of the ocean from Front Street was wonderful.
After breakfast we journeyed north to scope out the wedding location. It’s a good thing we checked it out ahead of time. Kapalua Bay was not that easy to find, and there was scarcely any parking. We ended up parking in a fake spot (the kind with the diagonal lines running across the surface), and taking a quick look at the beach. It was very small, with 12 families already there. There was a fellow with a leaf blower loudly cleaning the sidewalks, and there was some resort construction in the background. Bunky was really upset at first, but we found that careful photography resulted in stunning pictures just the same.
The two major issues we are worried about are rain and parking. Our wedding planner put everything together but hadn’t really been in touch with us all that much. She hadn’t mentioned the parking being such a problem. I talked to her on the phone and when I mentioned that some of the nearby restaurants had empty parking lots she noted that several restaurants are only open for dinner. This might be a solution if parking is tight again tomorrow. As for rain, I was told the photographer has permission to move to a different locale if rain is bad at Kapalua Bay. Rain is spotty and quick across Maui, so this really reassured me.
We were a little deflated by the locale at first, and so we drove on to the Maui Ocean Center. It was pretty small and fairly standard, but we watched a fish feeding show and enjoyed the sea turtle exhibit. The underwater tunnel was also nice. Still, we breezed through very quickly. The highlight was definitely the gift store, where we got several reasonably priced souvenirs for ourselves. On our way back we stopped for Baskin Robbins ice cream.
After the morning, we were both surprisingly tired, and so we took a quick nap. I fell asleep after two tracks of the relaxation CD I bought yesterday. We woke up feeling very refreshed, and then we went and had an awesome dinner at the nearby Hula Grill. The service there was fast and fantastic, and the scenery was beautiful. Bunky had some great roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and vegetables, while I had the seared Ahi and Opah with noodles, string beans, and tiger shrimp. The meal was so delicious, and we got plenty of Focaccia bread (with a great sweet chile dipping sauce). Bunky finished up with a flourless chocolate cake, and I had a “Baked Hawaii” which was a pineapple upside-down cake with Tahitian vanilla ice cream then covered completely with sweet meringue (with pineapple and a rum/caramel sauce on the side). We went back to the hotel completely stuffed.
After dinner we had to repair one of Bunky’s combs (a fake pearl fell off). We had tried all the stores in the hotel for Super Glue, but they were all sold out. We finally got some, but then Bunky got a bunch stuck on her finger. We also cleaned the jewelry and I did some ironing while watching the Democratic National Convention. Tomorrow is the big day!
By teahouseblossom, 8/27/2008 @ 8:30 pm
Wow…Hawaii sounds awesome!!! I want to go….