My Birthday

I had a fabulous 27th birthday weekend! We ate so well it has taken me until today to recover and blog! 

Friday night, we went to Roy's Waikiki (see pictures from previous post). Yummy Yummy in our Tummies!! We had heard nothing but rave reviews about Roy's, so needless to say we were PSYCHED about finally trying it out! There is a Roy's in Baltimore, but we had never dined there. When we arrived, they sat us right away - this place was WAY bigger than I had thought - the hostess stand is outside by the steps, you walk through a sliding door to a seating area with sofas and tables, pass the bathrooms (with two great surfer paintings that I want), and face the kitchen, where you see all of their fresh cuisines on the line, which instantly made me hungrier!

We had a nice booth along the back wall of the restaurant, which allowed me to check out everyone else's dinners as I walked by. Someone came RIGHT over to fill our water glasses, and our waiter was right behind him. He told us about the menu - and how it is constantly changing, except for their signature dishes, so that it is always a new experience for return visitors. Tony ordered the Pre Fixe menu and I ordered the Shellfish Combo.

Tony's meal started with an appetizer that we shared - 2 pieces of seared Ahi, a Chicken Spring Roll, and a Rib. All very yummy! The Ahi tasted super fresh, and we both really enjoyed it. The meat on the rib practically fell off the bone with the touch of my fork. Brought back memories of when I would only eat Spare Ribs at Mr. Chan's Chinese Restaurant as a kid... but this was oh so much better!

Next, our meals came out - Tony ordered the Macadamia Nut Crusted Shutome (which is a swordfish) with roasted potatoes and asparagus, and my Shellfish Combo came with 2 Scallops, 2 Shrimp, and a Lobster Tail, over mashed potatoes.  Everything was DELICIOUS!! The mashed potatoes were perfect! The shrimp tasted slightly overcooked, but still good. I think next time I am going to get the Scallops wrapped in Prosciutto - because the scallops were my favorite part. Tony REALLY enjoyed his shutome.

After we finished our entrees, the dessert that came with Tony's Pre Fixe menu arrived - the "Roy's Melting Hot Chocolate Soufflé." Mmmmmmmmmmmm! It came with Vanilla bean ice cream - I love when you can see the beans! We put a fork in the souffle and out poured the oozy chocolate center! YUM YUM YUM! I only wish there was slightly more ice cream, because I like a spoon of ice cream with every chocolaty bite!

After dinner we were to full to go anywhere else, so we walked along the beach, before returning home to prepare for Saturday! We watched TV until 12am, so that Tony could wish me Happy Birthday (even though the celebration had started at 5 hours before on the East Coast). 

Saturday morning, Tony woke me up with breakfast in bed (that we took to the living room to eat). After we ate, we headed out to the beach to float in the lagoon on our rafts. After getting a birthday tan, we headed home to eat a quick lunch, before heading to the Na Ho'ola Spa at the Hyatt Regency. 

The Hyatt Regency is walking distance from home, so this was very convenient. We walked into the Hyatt, and took the elevator up to the 5th floor. When the doors opened, it looked like we were arriving to Heaven - BRIGHT sunlight shining in through the window. We wrapped around the corner where we were greeted by a few ladies. They checked us in, and showed us to our locker rooms - the men's was right near where we checked in, but the women's was upstairs. We changed into our robes and our slippers (flip flops), and met back downstairs in the relaxation room.

The relaxation room had a few lounge chairs with nice thick cushions, and a few other wicker chairs with the same nice cushions. The chairs faced a LARGE windowed wall with the curtains drawn, but the heat was still coming through. There were nice books all about Hawaii on the tables. 

After just a few minutes our masseurs greeted us and took us back to our therapy room. We each slipped under the sheets of our massage tables, which were nice, warm and cozy.

My massage was A-MAZ-ING! As many of you know, I have a bad neck from an accident in 2007, and desperately needed this! After our 50 minutes was up, I did not want to get up - but Tony was ready to go! He liked his massage, but had a hard time relaxing with someone touching him. 

After leaving the spa, Tony was craving shaved ice, so we walked towards the Waikiki Marketplace. We went to Island Freeze.

Look at the size of this thing!

It wasn't the greatest shaved ice, in fact Tony didn't like it at all. We tried! We returned home to relax. We hadn't planned anything for that night, but decided to go to dinner at BLT Steak (Bistro Laurent Tourondel,) which we have both been wanting to try. Our reservation was for 8:30pm, but they were waiting for a few tables to get up - so we waited for 15 minutes.

As soon as they had us seated, the manager rushed over with all sorts of appetizers, apologizing over and over for the wait! We weren't even bothered by the wait, but I thought it was awesome they way the restaurant responded. Usually when you are seated, they bring over chicken pate, but we got that, PLUS little cheesey breadsticks, a fresh meat platter (the proscuitto was yum-o), and some pickled vegetables. 

To start, I ordered fresh oysters on the half shell (Tony forced me to order them, because he knew I was craving them) - they are surprisingly hard to find on the island - probably because they are imported from the mainland. They were all pretty salty tasting, but still hit the spot. 

 They brought over their popovers, with fresh sea salt and butter - these suckers were gigantic! 

I ordered the 8oz filet, Medium Rare, and when I went to cut into this bad-boy the whole thing jiggled like jello! It was so tender, and cooked JUST RIGHT! Tony ordered the Rib Eye, which as expected, had a lot of fat running through it - looked like a little too much, with all that he had left behind! We shared the Potatoes Gratin and the Macaroni and Cheese. I would highly recommend the steaks, but skip these to particular sides. After we were completely stuffed from everything we had eaten, they brought over the dessert menu, which none of us could even fathom. But to our surprise, they brought over dessert for my birthday anyway... AND it had my name on it :)

But we couldn't even finish these!!

The raspberry candle holder was my favorite part of dessert, well next to having my name written on the plate!!

I had a really great birthday weekend! On Sunday, I worked my first serving shift alone, with no casualties, so overall perfect weekend!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!! 

Love & Aloha!

Again sorry for the abandoment... Where did we leave off? Bad sunburn... 

Tuesday, February 16, continued: That afternoon, when Tony and Russell finished work, the four of us went to "the wall" so Tony and Kyle could do some body-boarding. The wall is part of Waikiki Beach - The wall being part of the lagoon. I, of course, took my Valentine's Day gift, my new camera!

 

This is the pier - where Russell and I sat to watch the boys. Tony went to check out the waves.

 

Tony waxing up the board.

 

Tony jumping off the pier and into the water.

 

 

See "The Wall"?

 

Tony waiting on the waves

 

  

  

  

Tony & Kyle

 

Aloha Tony!

 

  

  

  

Happy with that last wave/picture

 

View of Diamondhead

 

Sunset

 

Wednesday, February 17: Kyle woke up bright and early and took a 9 hour bus tour of the island.  Here are some pictures of his adventures. I don't know too much about the locations of each - so Kyle if you read this and can fill me in, I will update!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

  

 Surf competition on the North Shore

Thursday, February 18: Kyle and I took the day to tour Pearl Harbor together. We arrived at 8:30am, after dropping Tony off for work, and getting breakfast. We went to get admission tickets for the USS Arizona memorial. Tickets are free, but they only allow a set number of people to board the boat and the memorial at a time. At 8:30am, the earliest available time was 11:00am. We took our tickets, and headed over to the ticket office to buy tickets for the other memorials and sites. We boarded a bus to the USS Missouri. 

  

Interesting fact: The USS Missouri can be seen in the movie Pearl Harbor, even though it was not finished being built when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.

  

This doggy sat on the boat the whole time we were there!

  

  

  

   

"On April 11, 1945 USS Missouri is struck by a Japanese Zero during the Allied invasion of Okinawa. A fire is quickly extinguished with minimal damage resulting. Among the wreckage of the aircraft the body of the pilot is recovered. He is given a military burial the following day. "  President Roosevelt passed away on April 11, 1945, which is why the USS Missouri's Captain Callaghan insisted on a military burial of the Japanese pilot.

Can you see the Zero in the picture?

This is the only damage from the Japanese Zero.

 

  

  

View of the USS Arizona memorial from the USS Missouri.

 

Kyle intently listening to the tour guide.

 

  

"OVER THIS SPOT ON 2 SEPTEMBER 1945 THE INSTRUMENT OF FORMAL SURRENDER OF JAPAN TO THE ALLIED POWERS WAS SIGNED THUS BRINGING TO A CLOSE THE SECOND WORLD WAR"

 

  

During World War II, there were 4 beds per column, rather than the 3 seen here from Desert Storm.

 

  

  

In the Control Room.

 

  

After the USS Missouri, it was time for the USS Arizona Memorial - but unfortunately, we missed the bus we needed to get back, and missed our boat the memorial by just a few minutes. We got new tickets, for 2:40pm, and continued on our tour. We started at the Museum. 

 

Pages from the soldiers calendars, that they journaled on...

  

A model of the USS Bowfin submarine

The USS Bowfin's bell - notice the year "194"

"Since the bell was engraved prior to commissioning, Navy personnel could not give the engraver the final completion date. After  commissioning the final number was not added."

Also, most submarines don't have bells, because they want to be as quiet as possible, so the bell was not used!

 

Next, we headed onto the USS Bowfin.

 

 

  

  

LOTS of controls and knobs- all of which Kyle tried to flip or turn! 

The bunks

 

The head

  

  

After the Bowfin, we got back on the bus, and went to the Aviation Museum, where we ate lunch and learned about the aircraft used in World War II. We arrived back early for the USS Arizona, because we didn't want to miss our boat again!

 

  

The Flag Room - The Maryland flag represents the USS Maryland, which was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked.

 

 

A map of where the  USS Arizona currently lies underneath of the memorial (shown in white). The pieces in pink are what can be seen through the water, only the bottom deck was left. 

  

  

The oil still coming up from the ships

  

The names of all those that passed away on the USS Arizona.

 

These are the names of those that have passed away since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, who have been cremated and buried in the ship with their fellow soldiers. A ceremony is held at the memorial, and then a diver goes down and buries the urn in the ship, where the water carries it further inside the ship.

That night, Tony and Kyle attempted to go surfing, but there were no waves, so they watched the sunset instead. 

 

After the sunset, we went to dinner at Hula Grill, where I work, for Kyle's last night out in Hawaii. It was a very yummy meal, and we sat on the lanai, overlooking the ocean. 

We had a great time with Kyle on his visit! I know he had a great time, escaping the snow! He changed his flight to leave on Friday rather than Saturday, because once he landed he had to drive another 4 hours from Norfulk to home, and he wanted a day to rest before returning to work. 

Today, we received our team medal for participating in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk '09. Thank you again for everyone who donated for the cure!

 

 

Tony and I are doing great... I am working a lot, and I finally had the night off tonight! I made stuffed shells for Tony and Russell, after their first softball game at work. Back to work tomorrow through Saturday.

Sorry no pics of me Dad! I will have some for the next post! 

xoxo & Aloha!