Sunday, November 29, 2009

Ridiculously long post from our vacation in Maui

After such a mess on our travel day, we got in, ate and went to bed. As we were eating, maintenance came to our hotel room - it was so windy the wind was whistling, quite loudly, through our room. Someone came to our room and made the noise much better - thank you to whoever that was for giving us a good night of rest! When we woke up the next morning, this is the view we had. A huge rainbow (actuallya double rainbow but the picture doesn't show it) went right into the horizon. It was a great omen for the rest of our trip and the thickest rainbow either of us had ever seen. Again, picture doesn't do it justice! Reid, Sara and their roommate Larry came to our resort and we hung by the pool and beach all day. After a quick break, we went to Sansei (THE BEST SUSHI PLACE EVER!) and ate until we couldn't anymore. This place had been suggested to us by friends at home, then in the paper we were reading that morning, and then suggested again by Reid and Sarah, so this dinner choice was a no brainer. Our waiter was super funny saying that this dish was his 3rd favorite and the dessert we ordered was his 4th favorite. It was quite comical. In the photo below, we were waiting at the bar due to a 35 minute wait for a table - that's how good this place is. No, that's not a stripper pole - it's just part of the bar we promise!

Reid had the large beer, and struck a pose, like always.


We ate at the below restaraunt twice - nice view huh? It was called Leilani's (at the Whaler Village) and they have excellent Ono (fish) tacos.


Again, not a bad view from our room thanks to our double upgrade to a full ocean view...

We had yummy drinks like this a bunch. Pina Colada's with mango this time.

This restaraunt was called Long Boards and they had this cool car set up for a cool photo Op. This is a strange pose from Amy - she does those sorts of poses when she doesn't want her photo taken... which is often...

The only thing that sucked was the gravel you had to stand in...it got between your foot and the flip flop. No biggie. Just another reason Amy didn't want her photo taken :)

Just a sweet photo of one of my favorite things: palm trees

The hotel had 5 pools and 2 water slides. One was super small for kids (but that didn't stop us!) and the other was 2 stories tall.

Amy used the slide a little more - here (above) she is prepping to plug her nose for the big plunge! Needless to say she didn't get the memo about how you are supposed to sit up on the slide as you go down, and went WAY faster than she planned... but found laying down to be more fun, although more dangerous too...


Anth got some bruises from this last turn on the slide (below). It threw him up on the high ends of the slide.

Here is a video of the slide from Amy's perspective! (only a couple seconds, then a pause, then you see Anth come down the slide...)




We saw this cabana-ish area where the view of the ocean was gorgeous. We're pretty sure you have to rent this place out, or at least sign up for it, but it was finally empty and we wanted to sit somewhere to finally view a full sunset, so this worked perfectly!




Amy got a new dress. Fancy, huh?

The Maui invitational was going on while we were in Maui and Cincinnati, Wisconsin and Colorado stayed at our hotel.

Sunglass hut was in our hotel. Amy always says Sunglass Hut when we see one, so this was funny to us.


At Wailea with Reid.

This was the restaraunt that Reid works at. Yes, it has 21 letters and is abbreviated as either Humu or Humuhumu. Humuhumunukukukuapua'a... say that 3 times fast!


Before wine, appetizers, dinner and dessert, we strike a pose. Thanks to the stranger who took this photo and had to be calm with us as we had to change the setting on the thing 3 times before the picture came out...


Does this island ever have a bad sunset? Nope! This was the view from our table at dinner.

And again, but without the zoom...


Ahi tuna is our new favorite meat. It tastes just like steak! At least to people who haven't had steaks for 4 or 8 years...


Yes, after most of a bottle of wine, I looked a bit faded. Thanks to Reid and his buddies at the Humu for showing us such a nice time!


This was the last Bia that we encountered on our trip. The jist is that the kid behind her left shoulder accidentally spilled water on the back and side of her dress. She continued (after they apologized profusely and bought the couple 2 glasses of champagne) to complain to everyone she could, and throughout the dinner to her sad sorry companion (we say that because we feel sad and sorry for him to be with her) for the entire time we were there. She kept telling servers, hostesses, etc. She is an ugly woman inside and out. And really, that dress is awful. She was swearing, a lot, and talkign about how she's always being assulted, and now children are assaulting her, and complaining about children... pretty sure she isn't fit to be a Mom, good thing it appears she is ancient and still without child... a blessing on the world if you ask me... Sorry to stoop to her level, but she was just a horrible person, and ultimately it took a lot for us not to let our evening be ruined by her. Remember what I said about not talking loud enough for the whole plane to hear you... that applies to restaurants too... We blurred out his face, as well as hers, because he's probably embarassed to be seen with her anyway...

Reid's typical pose. Nice skirt, oh I mean "Lava Lava"


This was the $99 bottle of wine that Reid gave us for free. Nice having people in high places.


I miss this dude. Glad we were able to hang out a couple of times.




On our last night, we went to Merriman's off of Napili Beach. Another excellent view with great food. We shared 4 different kinds of fish. Butter fish (meh), Mahi Mahi (excellent), Ahi (delicous) and Opaka Paka (pink snapper, that was the best of the 4).


Amy got a Effen Shirley Temple and loved it. Yes, Effen, like....well you know. Anyways, this was a very funny drink name and we have to get some of that Effen Black Cherry vodka for home. Yes, the vodka is made by Effen!


Delicious, the drink....beautiful, my wife!


Last day of the trip....we needed more pool/reading time.


Amy may have a future profession as a Private investigator. She kept taking pictures of me reading from different places around the pool. Sneaky McSneak.


My final pose from Maui.


And Amy's with her new pool tank top.


Maui is awesome. Anyone who is thinking about going....DO IT! It was 37 degrees out when we left Seattle, 84 when we got in Maui and 39 when we got back to Seattle. Hawaii is the best of the best and Maui is the best Hawaii has to offer (at least... from what we've seen so far :)).

Getting to Hawaii



Our flight from Seattle to Portland was delayed over an hour due to maintenance issues. Alaska/Horizon airlines, we hate you. Our flight to Portland went out after two other later schedueld flights to Portland. Grr. Ok, so we get to Portland and don't even have enough time to get lunch because of the delay. We board the plane and oh wouldn't you know it, more maintenance issues. There was a strange smell coming from the back. So we stay on the plane for an hour while they investigate and then they ask us to deplane. So we are in the Portland airport another 3 hours before taking off. We got 1,000 bonus miles (big whoop), $8 each for food (after we already bought lunch, so we proceeded to use it at a store selling candy, chips and Vitamin waters, of which Anth dropped one on the ground and it exploded everywhere causing the lady working there to be not so happy with us). Anth called and got us another $100 each in Alaska vouchers so that helped, but really, we wanted to be on the beach - or at least in Hawaii before sundown... Bastards. This dude, above, (nice shirt btw - logo and face blocked out for libel purposes), wouldn't shut the F up all flight long. Really, he talked the whole flight with this lady next to him. We hate him. And here's a tip for all you travelers. If you want to be a chatty flight person, fine, but do it quietly. And if you are going to do it, do so with the person in the chair next to you only. And if there is an empty spot between you and the person you are talking to, try having one of you fill that spot so you sit closer and aren't having to talk so loud to be heard. Guess what, I said a lot of things under my breath about you while you were chatting away, but you didn't hear them because I, unlike you, didn't talk loud enough for the whole airplane to hear, you stupid idiot.


Above is the liar screen. It's a liar because it changed its mind about our flight so many times. Then within moments of it updating, we were given other updates, so the sign was not keeping up with the scoop, and lied many times. Ok, we are going to board at noon, no 1.15, no 12.45, no wait, 2pm, no, 1.45, no wait...


Below, Bad airplane....if you see this tail number, get a new flight!



Good airplane!



2 more people (below) who wouldn't shut up in the airport. Seriously, we hated so many people this day it was insane. We started out with them in Seatac. They drove Amy nuts. Here's another tip - if you want to talk with someone, say, your travel companion, sit NEXT to them... not ACROSS from them. And regardless of what you do - try to be courteous of the people around you. I have an easy phrase that can help you remember this fact... so just remember... "OPE" or "OPE (YEM)" Other People Exisist (You Effing Moron)


Fortunately, Amy and I like reading and kept ourselves as busy as possible. This photo was taken on the sly - so that's what she really looks like! I believe at the point in time depicted here she is using her phone to type ranting text messages to a friend to keep her sanity...



We ended up in Maui at 7pm when we were supposed to be there at 2:45pm. Oh well, that is part of traveling....As JB Champion would say, "I don't feel too sorry for you as you travel to Maui!"

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

UPDATED POST

If anyone was waiting for the NAIOP post to be updated, please see below :) Thanks!

Friday, November 13, 2009

i just love, all my lattes...

Ok... how many of you got the DMX reference? Let a latte know!

I just had to make it reeeeeeeaaaaalllly clear... I effing LOVE eggnog lattes! Bless you, Starbucks, for making the dream a reality yet again this holiday season. Bless you!

MMMM! Ok, don't hate on me if you don't enjoy the nog... but if you think you don't like the nog, but you haven't had any in years, come on just give it a little sip.... sippy sippy? That's what Anthony did and became a full on eggnog loving convert! So if you enjoy a latte from time to time, I'm telling you this thing is a little piece of heaven in any size, with jolt or no jolt, fo sho. Forealdo!

Give it up for the latte!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

JOHN HOWIE STEAK HOUSE

yum, yum! First visit to the Bravern for Amy and I and we had dinner with JB and Stephanie Champion. We went to JH Steak house and it was awesome. We had a drink, table side caesar salad, ahi sashimi appetizer, halibut, mushroom sides, 5 cheese baked potato (which for anyone wondering has bacon in it so we didn't eat it), chocolate volcano cake and meyer lemon pie. It was very good and classy. Reminded us of a Vegas restaraunt. A must go! Looked for pictures on the web but they were whack. So you must see it for yourself. And they validate parking so valet parking was free!

Kitty in a bag


How cute is she?




She loves this bag!

Seahawks come back against Lions

Taima led the team out and after that we fell quite flat on our faces. We were down 17-0 in the first quarter. Ugh. I like the Lions old uniforms....reminds me of Barry Sanders.
Helicopters, flew over head as they celebrated miltary/Veterans Day.
Look it is Jason Hanson, former Coug kicker and if you can believe it 18 year veteran. His first FG bounced off the upright. Haha, he Couged it!
Anyway, we scored 25 unanswered points and ended up winning 32-20. Josh Wilson had a 61 yard pick 6 to cap the end of the game. Woo Hoo. 3-5 overall record.