Tony's 27th birthday was yesterday, but unfortunately I had to work - so we celebrated all week long! 

On Wednesday night I took Tony to a surprise dinner at The Top of Waikiki, which is Hawaii's only revolving restaurant, located at the top of the Waikiki Business Plaza. He had been wanting to go there since we moved to Hawaii, so he was happy with my choice. The 360º view of Waikiki is pretty neat, but probably even better before the sun sets. We went at night, so the pictures don't give the view justice. We debated for the first 15 minutes about which way were revolving (I was right). After checking out the view for a while, we finally checked out the menu. Both of us were starving, so we started with the Day Boat Scallop appetizer. 

For dinner, Tony ordered the Roasted Garlic Grilled Ribeye with Soy-Balsamic Glaze. He liked the Ribeye, but wasn't impressed with the potatoes or the bacon that it was served with. I ordered the Cioppino with Linguine (seared day boat scallops, Mexican white shrimp, fresh island fish, calamari, NZ mussels, crab with a roasted pepper & tomato seafood broth & garlic crostini). The entire dish was ok, not much taste to it all. The garlic crostinis were SO hard - I let them soak in the broth, but they never got softer. Thought I was going to break my teeth on them.

Tony trying to figure out which way we were revolving....

The menu...

The view

I worked on Thursday and Friday nights, but on Saturday afternoon I had another surprise plan for Tony's birthday. Russell and I took him to the Wet n' Wild water park in Kapolei, because they had the Flowrider, which is basically an artificial wave that you can bodyboard and surf. He was totally psyched to finally try this thing out! And I thought Tony was going to jump on and master it!! Check out his "ride."

All of us in the "Spa"

Bubbles!! Underwater camera is so cool!

Gorgeous rainbow on our ride home! 

We were all exhausted after being at the water park until it closed at 4pm, so we went home and napped. When we woke up we made dinner reservations at Benihana. If you've been reading the blog you know we love our tepanyaki restaurants, so this was exciting, since we had never been to a Benihana before. Russell and his dad joined us for dinner. The food was really good, and there was a LOT of it! Mmmm!

They sang a Japanese Happy Birthday song to Tony!

I had to work on Sunday afternoon, so when I woke up I made Tony a birthday breakfast, as well as a birthday cake :)

Tony's birthday present arrived earlier in the week. He is excited to try out his new pool cue on Wednesday night. We had it engraved with part of a quote from Grandad

Tony said he had a great birthday weekend. We hope everyone had a Happy Easter! With the end of Lent, last night, we enjoyed some late night Taco Bell. Mmm it was yummy!

He is now looking forward to his trip to Las Vegas with his Dad, Uncle Robbie and cousin Adam. When he returns, Mike will be arriving for a week long vacation at Casa de Lindsay & Tony. We can't wait!

xoxo & aloha! 

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!

Last night, we went to Roy's in Waikiki, and it was DELICIOUS!! We are getting ready to go to the beach, so details of our meal/review will come later.

 

At Dinner

 

On the Beach

xoxo and Aloha!

Aloha! Hope everyone is having a good week so far.

My friend Jamie and her father arrived in Hawaii on Thursday. They were in town for Jamie's cousin's wedding. On Friday night, they met us for dinner at our very first experience with Thai food. We went to Phuket Thai. I ordered the Sampler Platter for an appetizer - just so we could try a little bit of everything. The platter came with Spring Rolls, Fish Patties, Shrimp Rolls and Stuffed Chicken Wings. Our first mistake was missing the word "stuffed" in the chicken wings - Tony cut into this odd looking "chicken wing" and we were more than surprised to find noodles and some other crazy stuff inside (looked like the chicken wing had intestines!) Neither of us really liked the taste of it, and I don't think we got over the sight of cutting it open (and lets just say the 2nd one just sat on the plate, going uneaten). I have had Shrimp Rolls at pho restaurants before, and already knew I wasn't a fan. Our guests tried it, and weren't into the basil taste. I enjoyed the Spring Rolls, but had mixed feelings on the fish patties.  Next time I think we will skip the sampler platter and go with just the spring rolls!

For dinner Tony ordered the Thai Crispy Fried Chicken. I ordered the Seafood Combination, minus the fish. Jamie, ordered the Thai Fried Noodles with Chicken. I didn't try the other two dishes that were ordered - Russell ordered a curry dish and Jamie's Dad a broccoli noodle dish. Tony's chicken was very good. I really liked Jamie's Thai Fried Noodles - I think I may order this next time with shrimp, because I was mixing hers with my Seafood Combination, and it was really good. She was surprised by the spiciness of the dish.  Tony surprisingly liked the restaurant, and we both agreed we will be trying Thai again!

Jamie and her Dad

Russell & Tony

Me & Jamie

On Saturday, Tony went surfing with his friend Mike. He had a really great time, and caught his first barrel! That afternoon we took Rusty to a beach by Diamondhead. Rusty hasn't been off leash anywhere besides inside the apartment, since we moved to Hawaii, so we were really excited to take him there! He stayed closer to us off leash, then he does on a leash!

 

 

 

 

 

Rusty swimming above the water... 

 

There was a modeling shoot while we were there! 

 

 

 

 

 

 Saturday night, Russell joined us for some Pizza Hut pizzas at the apartment. Afterward, we went to Dave & Buster's for some games. Tony, of course, won a monkey from the giant claw machine!

On Sunday, Tony and I went to our first week of the pool league we joined at Hawaiian Brian's Billiards. Unfortunately, the team we were supposed to play couldn't make it, so we will be playing TWO teams this coming Sunday.

 

We had a good time, learning some new techniques from our team captain, Dean.

That's all for now... more to come later this week.

xoxo & aloha

Today has been a good day (besides the all day drizzle)....

The Ravens dominated that Patriots... on to week 2 of the Playoffs!

I found out that my college roommate, Jen, got engaged over the weekend! Robbie proposed in front of her whole family! They make a very cute couple, and I am very excited for them!

Tony's cousin Chris arrived to Hawaii this afternoon. We ate lunch at Zippy's - a Hawaiian favorite. It was actually our first time going, because it isn't walking distance from the apartment - and it was very good! We shared some Chili Cheese Fries - they are known to have good chili... and I got the Fried Chicken Mini Plate lunch - the "mini" comes with a scoop of white rice, a small salad and two pieces of chicken!! Gotta love Hawaii! The boys are surfing it up in the rain now (Tony  has the camera, so we will hopefully have some pics up later) and I am headed to Safeway.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I know I did!

xoxo

Aloha!! Hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas! We had a nice, sunny and relaxing holiday.

A few new pictures for your viewing pleasure...

On Saturday, we went to the beach in the afternoon.  

 

 

 

 

For lunch, we went to our favorite - Wolfgang's Express. We "switched it up" and tried the Pepperoni pizza for the first time. 

 

Mmm Mmm Good!

 

 It was delicious AS ALWAYS! 

Saturday night we went to the famous Duke's Waikiki restaurant, to celebrate our 5 YEARS together!! We made a 4:45 reservation, which is early, but the dining room is on the beach and the perfect spot to watch the sunset.

Us, walking to dinner... 

There is live music from 3-6ish (until right after the sunset) on Friday - Sunday. 

 

The sunset...

 

 

Dinner was good, nothing to write home about - although I am :) - probably a first and a last.

 

After dinner we talk a walk along the beach, towards home. Water was nice and warm. It really was a perfect night.  

 

 

 

On Sunday, we went to the beach again, having more fun with the new waterproof camera.

Tony in his custom sand beach chair...

Floating in the lagoon...

 

The "Christmas" pot roast got postponed until Sunday - we ended up eating with friends at Yard House for dinner on Christmas.  The pot roast was gooood. Nice and juicy.

Thank you for all of the holiday cards!!!  We love them!

Tony has a 4 day work week, with New Year's Day on Friday. No plans for NYE yet... we hear that there are fireworks EVERYWHERE On NYE in Waikiki. Can't wait!

xoxox