Honolulu, Hawaii trip

Every year Amy and Anthony take a trip late in the year to celebrate their anniversary.  It's a wonderful tradition that always seems to take us someplace much warmer than our Kirkland home.  This year we went to Oahu (Honolulu) just before Thanksgiving.

The hotel where we stayed offered a cocktail hour for new guests so we enjoyed some fruit juices (a terrible Mai Tai) and...

a native Hawaiian lager by the name of Kona Longboard.

After a night of chillaxing a bit, we walked around to seeing the sights.  Check out the awesome sand castle (above).  The sister hotel to ours (The Sheraton) had five like this on property.

After a very limited amount of appetizers at the hotel we found ourselves wandering around, not sure where to eat.  In a moment of desperation we decided to eat dinner at P.F. Chang's....and it sucked royally.  PF Chang's is officially dead to us.

Amy enjoyed the pink bathrobes that were provided to us in our room, despite their gigantic nature.  We were upgraded to a junior suite which was awesome so we could watch tv in our living room.  

That next night we watched the UW football team kick UCLA's butt while we waited for our friend Reid (who lives in Maui but was working in Honolulu that day) to get off work and meet up with us.  His cousin, Bryce, was also in town so the four of us went out for dinner and drinks at Hula Grill next door at the Outrigger.

What?  Reid drinking.....no way?  And look, he's making that "Reid's taking a photo" face...

Bryce, BTW, is a cool cat and we were glad he joined us for the evening. 

And once we realized that we were all representin' the Dawgs, it was time to Throw up DUBS in the hallway for a photo op!  Go Huskies!

Later on the trip we took some photos of the scenery including this shot, a view of our hotel from the driveway.  It was serene and so quiet.  Very peaceful.

The first couple of days we struggled to find good meals and places to eat.  So a couple days in we tried the buffet breakfast at the Westin a few doors down.  We had about 15 minutes before they closed the buffet, but that was just enough time for us to get our fill and take in the beautiful surroundings. 

The hotel was styled like an old plantation house.  It was all white and kind of old, but in a clean, newly renovated, super cool sorta way.  After our meal and a short rest, we took off on one of our morning walks around the city.  We got a fair amount of exercise despite our maxin' & relaxin' motto for the rest of our days in paradise.

That night, Amy did some research and found our favorite sushi restaurant a 1/2 mile away.

We had gone to a different Sansei last year when we were in Maui and it rocked.  It had been recommended to us before our Maui trip by our friends JB and John Champion.  When we arrived in Maui on our first day we saw an add for Sansei in the paper, then our friends in Maui talked the place up, so it was a no brainer to go.  After having the best sushi of our lives, we decided that was a place we had to visit every chance we got.  It will be hard to top that first experience, but it's always worth a try.

One of the best parts about Hawaii is the beautiful scenery.  This shot looks like a scene you might find on a postcard.

This was the night view from our hotel room window.  It was also an incredible place to watch the sunset, but the photos don't do it justice of course.

The next day we went to Hanauma Bay to snorkel.  We'd tried snorkeling in Puerto Rico earlier this year and loved it enough to buy our own gear when we got back home, so it was a requirement for us to get a chance to use it on this trip. 

It was super hard to use the camera underwater, but we managed to get a few good shots.  Here's an action shot of Anthony by Amy.

The rainbow fish was one of the coolest kinds of fish we saw.  We saw a bunch of corals and fish.  The colors were so vivid... again, the pictures aren't doing the experience justice.

The view from the beach of Hanuama Bay.

One last shot from the park at the top of the hill above the Bay.

For dinner we went to the Haleakulani hotel and went to the only restaurant where they would allow Anthony to eat without wearing either pants or a sports coat (since he'd brought neither on this trip, it's Hawaii who needs pants and a jacket?).  The place was called House Without a Key (previously recommended by Bryce) and it was delicious (thank you, Bryce).  

Being at a hotel for 8 days, we found many ways to avoid the elevators and get a bit of free exercise.  This stairway was the fastest way down to Azure, the seafood restaurant at the hotel, as well as the pool and some other fun things.  We had to take a photo because the stairwell was so crazy, it was not to be believed.  You had to turn at least 8 times before you could get to the exit... but it was worth it.  

Back at the Westin for one last stab at the buffet.  We had to wait a bit for a table, and the hostess was seating us and we just kept walking and walking till finally we were so close to the beach that we actually could throw our silverware into the ocean (or so we assume as we didn't actually try...).  So worth the wait and the walk, look at this view!!

Anthony's favorite: Palm Trees.

Tough to tell, but Amy is in the center of this shot swimming in the ocean.

Our last evening in Hawaii and we made sure to be on the beach as the sun started to set.

Diamond Head in the background.  

Some crazy chick shown here with the Royal Hawaiian in the background.

Some stud standing in the ocean in front of the Pink Palace, as many like to call our hotel.  It isn't tall but it sure is distinct.

Much Nub as Jason Aise would say.  We are orange due to the beautiful sunset!

We sure love Hawaii.  We should have stayed longer to get shots of the sky with all the pretty colors, but the hotel staff started kicking us off the seats we were using and we were getting pretty hungry and thirsty, so we packed it in.

But not before getting one more shot!

We went to the 2nd Outrigger hotel for our final dinner per the recommendation of our concierge.

And Amy wore her new dress...

We had a great dinner.  Amy had scallops that weren't RAW (Gordon Ramsay would approve) and Anthony had some bomb Ahi.  The dishes were rich, but SO Good!

For our last morning we went to breakfast at the Hula Grill and this was our view.  Not too shabby, huh?

Amy (and Reid) really liked our door and took a few shots.  This was our last time leaving our room.  We had a great trip and it was hard to say goodbye to the island and the sun, but there's no place like home!

Aloha!