Lindsay and Tony in Hawaii

For an early Valentine's Day gift I bought Tony the HD GoPro Surf Hero camera. They make attachments for every adventure sport Tony might think of... Surfing, snowboarding, dirt biking, etc.

We are still making adjustments to the location on the board but the camera takes amazing photos and videos!

January 26, 2011
We attended a Yelp Elite party at Pablo's - "Revenge of Senor Mustachio". Check me out... I look like Daddy now!!

January 28, 2011
Happy Birthday Rusty!!!

January 30, 2011

Tony, Todd and I went to the Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium. Although the players weren't trying so hard, it was still exciting to see NFL players, and the excitement that surrounds a football game!

Me, Tony & Todd

That night, Tony left for a snowboarding trip to Vancouver to meet Mike and Welton. He had a really great time hanging out with the guys, but unfortunately there was no fresh powder the entire trip. I stayed in lovely Honolulu enjoying the 80 degree weather.

Hooray!!! I got an iPhone!! Finally!!

February 12, 2011

Tony and I celebrated Valentine's Day a few days early, with reservations at the Italian restaurant, Taormina. But before dinner, we stopped in at the Wyland Gallery to meet Heather Brown!

I introduced myself to her, explaining that I was working when Tony purchased my piece of her artwork. She remembered meeting Tony and signing the back of the print!

Dinner was great - food was OK, service was good. Picture below is of Tony trying cold split pea soup. Not a fan... but the rest of his meal was great. Even though we were in the heart of Waikiki, it didn't feel like it.

Me & Heather Brown

Tony & Cold Split Pea Soup

More fun with iPhone...

Cool Rusty

February 19, 2011

Our Christmas/Hanukkah/Anniversary gift to each other was to take a trip to another island. We had originally planned to go to Maui, but I wasn't sure if I would get the days off due to Presidents Weekend, so I didn't book anything. When I got my schedule, there weren't any hotels available on Maui except for the $500/night Ritz Carlton. We decided to go to Big Island, and stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa.

We arrived in Kona early on Saturday morning, and headed into Kailua Town for breakfast. Following breakfast we went exploring - lots of little stores and art galleries, as well as a farmers market that had great looking produce and beautiful flowers. We got back in the car and headed further down Ali'i Dr towards a White Sand beach and then to some lava fields.

Next up, we headed to the batting cages!

After swinging for the fences and then some lunch, we headed towards Waikoloa and our hotel. The drive took us down a long road through fields of lava. When we arrived on the property of the Hilton, it was like entered a new island... The Hilton Waikoloa rests on over 60 acres - with numerous swimming pools, restaurants, and not to mention a tram and boat system to get you from one end of the property to the other. We were able to check in a little early, and got settled in, in the Ocean Tower. After dropping off our bags, we began to explore the property.

If you look closely, Tony caught a whale in the background of this picture. We had to go back to the same spot to double check that it wasn't a rock! My first whale spotting and I didn't even know it!

That evening we took the tram over to the Japanese restaurant on property, Imari. They offer 3 different menu options: Sushi bar, Teppanyaki and a regular table menu. We opted for the teppanyaki menu, and indulged in some sushi as well. The sushi was absolutely fantastic! We ordered the MJ Roll - Shrimp Tempura topped with Spicy Ahi. YUM! The teppanyaki was just as good! We were stuffed by the end of our meal, but figured if the sushi and entrees were that good, how could we stop without dessert. Well we should have... we ordered the molten chocolate cake, but it didn't come with ice cream, so it was a bit too sweet... but the fresh strawberries and mango sure did help. The service here was great!!

The next morning we tried out the breakfast buffet (included with our stay), and were pleasantly surprised again by the service and food quality. Following breakfast, we made our way to the many pools. We started off by swinging together in a hammock.... which took me back to good old Walnut Ave. I really do enjoy a good hammock, but Tony is a bit of a hog! Next we snagged two lounge chairs facing the ocean so I could whale watch! They are everywhere out there... every few minutes one would spout... then another and another... it was fantastic. For lunch we had pizza and sushi from the pool bar. What a great combo! We sat and watched the on property dolphins for a while, before heading to yet another pool.

We witnessed a beautiful sunset that evening...

For dinner that night we ventured off hotel property to Merriman's Market Cafe.

And then our mini vacation quickly came to an end... But it couldn't have worked out any more perfectly! Everything went extremely smoothly and we had such a great relaxing few days.

March 1, 2011

Another star sighting at work... every night at Hula Grill we have live entertainment from 7pm - 9pm. Our Tuesday entertainer, Kamuela, asked if there were any requests.... a request came in from a little girl for a song by Train. KamuelaMonahan, walked in front of him. The two finished off the song together, drawing a large crowd in the bar!

March 6, 2011

Happy Birthday to me!! Tony decorated the apartment and Rust for my birthday! It was actually decorated a few days early, because we celebrated the big 2-8 over the entire weekend, because I had to work on the actual day.

On Saturday (March 5,) Tony took me on the Star of Honolulu for a Whale Watching lunch cruise. The boat took us a little past Diamond Head, with no whale sightings... Turned around and started to head back... we were close to our starting point and thought the trip was almost over with still no sightings. They took us out past downtown and finally a whale sighting! It was a quick sighting before they dove down, but there was another sighting not too long after. Did you know, that if their weight was distributed evenly throughout their body, that humpback whales weigh approximately 1 ton per foot - and that the average female is about 45 feet! That is one big..... whale.

Next we headed to the mall for some birthday shopping. Check out one of my sweet gifts from Tony!

That night we ate a quick meal at Hula Grill before heading out to celebrate my joint birthday with Logan. Birthday Twinsies.

Nice Josh

Birthday Twins - boo hiss on getting older

Nate and Stacey enjoyed the festive birthday hats!

The next morning, on my actual birthday, Tony gave me the greatest honor of trying one of my favorite meals... pho! And even better, he didn't hate it!! Yey!

Rusty says hello, and he would like you to meet his new friend Geoffrey the giraffe.

March 10, 2011

While at work on Thursday night, we caught wind that there was a big earthquake in Japan. Though it sounds far away, we immediately started hearing reports of possible tsunami waves headed towards Hawaii. We were already in the process of closing up shop for the night, but we expedited things a bit so that everyone could get home safely. Hula Grill is in the Outrigger Waikiki, which sits a few feet from the beach. The hotel made plans to evacuate floors 1-3 at 12am, sending everyone to higher floors or higher elevation. I was concerned about the possible incoming wave, but was also worried about Mandi and Jared's flight to Hawaii getting re-routed. At 3:07, which was the projected impact time, nothing much was happening, so I tried to make myself fall asleep. Then at 5am I got a wake up phone call from my parents checking in. They were worried.... due to that fact that CNN exaggerated quite a bit. The tsunami waves did hit the state of Hawaii, mostly to Ali'i drive on Big Island that I mentioned before. Overall, there was damage to about 200+ boats whose floating docks broke loose, with a few sunken boats, and damage to some houses on the Big Island. Oahu went relatively unscathed.

Mandi and Jared's flight took off as scheduled... I tracked their status all morning long.