Post Vacation Happenings

I've been going full throttle since getting back from Hawaii. We hosted our first ever Fleureticademia workshop and it was super fly! But getting prepped for it was no small feat. Kendra and I spent countless hours scrubbing the place down, reorganizing, and throwing out trash. It was all very worth it to see how the space could be used!


On Sunday Joe was ordained as a pastor. I've watched this guy grow up from a pesky teenager to a respectable guy (he better be since he's married to my best friend :)). It was a very happy moment for me to see Christine stand next to Joe and watch them 'transition' into this next stage of life together...congrats to the Chou Family!

*the cutie in the center pic is Isaac, making his debut on my blog. he's such a happy baby!

After the service, David and I were starving so we swung by the nearest restaurant which happened to be Fab Hot Dogs. We were a little hesitant because of the name but also desperately hungry so we went. And we were so glad to find this gem in the middle of the valley.

*i got the chicago dog with neon relish, celery salt, mustard, peppers, and tomatoes. David got the ruben dog with pastrami and sauerkraut. we split an order of garlic fries which were good but stayed in our system for the next 5 hours. kekeke

Monday we went to the beach to go bike riding. I busted out my beach cruiser (finally) and biked from Santa Monica to Marina Del Rey. It really wasn't bad at all - it was enjoyable! How come working out can't usually be like this?

*scene around...and yes, we might have stopped for a snack or two.

*we lugged 4 bikes in josh's minivan. he refused to put my cruiser on the bike rack outside...there's no shame in having a girl bike!

*we came across an adult jungle gym, right outside Casa Del Mar & Shutters. i'll call it the testosterone playground.

It was back to work after a fun weekend. Kendra and I were cooped up at hq and decided we needed ice cream. We stayed local to Altadena and headed up to Bulgarini Gelato, a small gelateria in a run down mini mall. The gelato was authentic, rich & creamy with inventive flavors like yogurt with celtic salt and olive oil. Yum! For each size you order, you get 3 scoops of different flavors:

*Kendra got plum cognac, nectarine, and dark chocolate. I got blood orange granita, goat's milk w/ cocoa nibs, and dark chocolate. Notice the sample spoons...hehe

Everyday should be like this!

Where My Beaches At?

In the weeks leading up to our departure, I kept giving myself pep talks like "hiking isn't so bad, you can do it" and so forth. I even packed appropriate shoes. David is an eagle scout so I thought that he'd want to go on on some sort of nature hike (and make fires and build tents too). To my surprise and relief, he didn't. That worked out for me because that gave us more time at the beach!

Our favorite was probably Laniakea, a beach known for turtles coming onto shore to bask in the sun. When we got there, the turtles were a bit shy but they were still close enough for us to spot.
In one of the pictures you can see a lot of dark spots of turtles in the water, just hanging out and occasionally coming up for air or a bite to eat. David was ecstatic and swam with a family of honu. He may or may not have gone for a turtle ride. As he was taking pictures in the water, a big ass turtle pushed him out of the way. There were a few other interesting things to look at, namely these guys who were swimming with a contraption that looked like half of a rabbit cage. They tied half gallon bottles to their "raft" to prevent it from sinking and proceeded to dive for sea urchins. Then they cracked them right on shore and served up dinner!


Waimea was a fun beach, although overridden with high school cheerleaders and jocks. The water wasn't quite as warm or clear as other beaches. There was a small rock that you could climb and jump off:

We swung by Hanauma Bay even though we didn't snorkel here. It was still really beautiful from afar. We saw a lot of people stepping on the coral...and there was a lone surfer riding VERY small waves. It was kinda frustrating to watch them.


Ko'Olina was another great beach that I already blogged about...but because we had so much fun swimming with dolpins, you get a collage for it!


Waimea was also where we saw our last sunset in Hawaii:


Yes, that's me posing in the top left picture.

Hawaiian *Food* Adventures Part 2

I dragged David to a lot of food excursions and whether he had fun or not, I know I did! :) There were a lot of highlights cruising through Oahu in our rented Yaris and eating more than just shave(d) ice and malasadas. Bubbies was definitely a fun place to hit up (and a hard place to find). It was a seemingly innocent ice cream parlor until you walked in and read the menu:

'Functioning Prostate' was probably the most PG of the names given to their ice cream cakes. They make awesome ice cream mochis of which we tried 6. We chose lychee, passion fruit, guava, strawberry chocolate, chocolate espresso, and chocolate mint. The fruit flavor ones were pretty good but a bit soapy tasting. The strawberry chocolate had bits of chocolate chips and tasted exactly like neopolitan ice cream. Espresso and mint were REALLY good!

Eggs 'n Things is a cute little restaurant that serves breakfast all day. David was tempted to get a waffle (topped sky high with whipped cream and fruit) but we ended up with 'normal' fare like corned beef hash, eggs, pineapple pancakes, and loco moco. The syrups that came with the pancakes were a perfect compliment - coconut and lilikoi.

Next up was Shiro's Saimin Haven. The broth and all the additions to my saimin were so tasty - wontons, cha siu, egg, cabbage, etc. I got mochiko chicken on the side - it was fried juuuuust right! ;)


I was determined to find Pineapple pocky but all my leads of finding any were wrong. However, I did appreciate being misled when I came across Shirokiya, a Japanese department store in the Ala Moana Center. They had trinkets, gadgets and most importantly, food:

Here we feasted on spam masubi, bento boxes, okonomiyaki and gyoza. They also featured street foods like taiyaki, tako balls, croquettes, and anything your heart would and could desire. Surprisingly, it was all very cheap!

Okay, last food feature because I'm getting hungry. There were a few other places that we wanted to share about but didn't take as many pictures. So here's featuring:


1. fries from Kua 'Aina Sandwich Shop in Haleiwa. Haleiwa is a quaint little town filled with Oahu's finest (Matsumoto's, Giovanni's) and now Kua 'Aina. At the suggestion of Captain Rob, we tried some freakin good burgers and thin cut fries. 2. Curry and gyoza from Curry House. David isn't a huge fan of curry but even he liked the curry. I think it's a different chain from the L.A. curry houses 3. Shave ice from Beard Papa. I know, I know...we have a Beard Papas here. But we were determined to try every kind of shave ice. We liked this ice consistency much more than Matsumotos but the flavors were too sweet. 4. FURIKAKE GARLIC CHICKEN...i cannot explain how good it was so I won't even attempt it. Queen Street Cafe is located amidst a bunch of mechanic shops but it's there and you MUST GO. For $6, you get a choice of 2 meats, rice, salad or mashed potatoes, and a drink. It looks like they stopped decorating the place, but you forget about the ambiance once you start eating. Plus everyone in there is super nice and they have condiments for your food like wasabi aioli! 5. More features from Kua 'Aina 6. The kiawe chicken and kiawe beef (i'm assuming it means barbeque...?) Skip the chicken, go for the beef - cooked medium rare, flavorful, tender...i wish i could eat here everyday.

I hope you're hungry.

Hawaiian Adventures

I'm baaaack! Just got home a few days ago from a 10 day trip to Hawaii - Oahu to be exact! I was so excited to go because I've never been. As a matter of fact, I've never flown over the Pacific. It was great to relax on a real vacation and do nothing but play. Well, okay I did some work, but for the most part I played.

It was great to experience all the touristy places in Oahu but also to find the little holes in the wall to eat our meals. Thank goodness for Yelp. By the third day, we were getting a bit tired of plate lunches and mac salad. Mac salad is only good if it has teriyaki sauce poured over it. :S

Anyway, I took a ton of pictures and wanted to share some with you. Don't worry, I'm not here to overwhelm you. Kendra told me about Picasa, a neat program that takes your pictures and dumps them into a collage. Sounds fancy, I know. So here are my little vignettes of our adventures in Oahu!

First stop was Pearl Harbor:


We were able to tour the USS Missouri. I love battleships and war planes! It probably took us 2 hours to go through the ship and read about the history - it being the last battleship built, where Japan officially surrendered during WWII, how a kamikaze plane took out the upper main deck. It was a privilege to be standing on that ship. Now I must figure out a way to board that air craft carrier!

Next stop was the Dole Plantation. It was sprinkling by this time - otherwise David and I would have tried the maze. I tried the Dole Whip but we agreed that Nubi still reigns supreme in the pineapple yogurt department.



Everything else is kinda out of order from this point on!

We were able to visit a lot of beaches and quickly found some favorites. We went to Kailua where the waters were turquoise and fairly calm. There were a few fisherman with lines set up nearby and one guy pulled up a baby hammerhead shark. What a way to begin my snorkeling lesson...


We also hit up Kailua on a kayak excursion to the twin Mokulua Islands:

The trek was about 3 miles round trip but it was worth every row. Around the island were tidepools, birds, and a small hiking trail. My guns...i mean arms were super sore at this point but rowing home was much easier because we were going with the current. I also gave myself a goal of getting shave ice if I didn't stop. And I got my Island Snow!

Okay, last picture for tonight and then I'm off to bed. Food!

David and I visited Leonard's about 4 days in a row. You know me and donuts. Now you know me and malasadas. These cousins of donuts are soft, pillowy bites of sugar crusted dough. You can get them filled with custard, fruit (mango was the flavor of the month), or chocolate. The chocolate filled was almost like a bizarro chocolate glazed donut - with the icing in the center but at a softer consistency. We also checked out Agnes Portuguese Bake Shop in Kailua. It was good but was shaped and tasted like a standard donut. Some say this is more traditional. I won't complain either way.

L-R going clockwise: Agnes Portugese Bake Shop Malasada and a cute milkglass vase, Leonard's chocolate filled malasada, grilled fish tacos with slaw and crispy fries from South Shore Grill, green tea and pog flavored shave ice from Waiola (ice had a nice creamy texture), Rainbow Drive-In - known for their combo mixed plate, assorted goods at 7-11, Rainbow Drive-In's mixed plate (which was just okay), a mango filled malasada from Leonard's, and the candy aisle at Safeway.

More adventures to come tomorrow!

I'm On a Boat!

Okay, I'm totally blogging all out of order (and i'll probably regret it after a few entries) but day 9 of Hawaii was crazy cool.

Coming to Hawaii, I was most looking forward to food (obviously) and snorkeling. All the beaches we went to and heard about were truly disappointing. Hanauma Bay is like snorkeling in L.A. traffic and even the coral reefs at Lanikai were a bit sad. So David and I decided to hop on a boat excursion that guaranteed that we would snorkel with turtles, fish...and dolphins! I was crossing my fingers hoping that it wasn't some cheesy show with caged animals that we'd be looking at...and it definitely wasnt!

We woke up at 4:30am and set out to Ko'Olina, a beach about 30 minutes away from our hotel. We arrived at the marina:

Had some breakfast, met Captain Rob (from Santa Monica on a 15 year "extended vacation") got prepped and set out towards the ocean.

Luckily, it was a beautiful and calm morning:


Then everyone on our boat began to search for spinner dolphins. Found!


This was when my heart started beating a little bit faster. What if those fins belonged to sharks? What if the dolphins decided I would make a nice breakfast? When we started spotting more and more pods of dolphins, the captain decided to anchor ship and let us loose! We had a cool photographer that came on the boat and took pictures of everyone. I think he's a professional diver because he got some crazy shots at the bottom. Anyway, we got suckered into buying some photos...but it was worth it! :)

Everywhere we swam, dolphins were swimming next to and under us!


Here's one of David chasing an innocent turtle:


Surprisingly, we saw more dolphins than we did turtles. Here's another turtle just cruising:


About 45 minutes later, we headed off to see a coral reef. It was pretty fantastic! This guy had fish food with him - he got a lot of attention!


Shaka!

Everything seems to be moving around me so I feel like I'm still on a boat - and I kinda wish I was!