Matt, Mikko, and I woke up Saturday, cleaned the apartment a little, and went to walk out the door to pick up Mom, Dad, and Paola when....
I got an unexpected call from Mom, asking where we were. Their flight schedule had changed and someone (cough::Dad::cough) forgot to let me know they were getting in an hour earlier. After some reshuffling and direction-providing, Mom, Dad, and Paola completed the last leg of their long trip and arrived! They were greeted with Matt-made Mai Tais:
 |
| They were a teensy bit strong |
 |
| [Note: Most of these pictures have been taken by this lovely photographer] |
 |
| We made it! |
 |
| Riding to the top in the glass elevator |
Dad bought us ladies some really beautiful leis. Dinner was great, but the company was better :)
[Not pictured: pictures ruined by a variety of people making a variety of drunk faces]
The next day began with another short Paola photo shoot...
...after which we made our way to the beach!
We watched Mikko surf, got some shave ice, and reeeeelaxed.
 |
| Crazy trees with seed pods that look like muppets |
After the beach, we walked into town for the Hilton luau. We stopped to check out some 'mingos:
and waited for the show to start by this handsome guy:
 |
| Action Shot! |
 |
| The set-up |
 |
| The Ladies! (all wearing the necklaces Dad bought us) |
 |
| The Men (they passed on the flower necklaces, but are rocking the shell leis) |
 |
| Enjoying the first of two "free" drinks |
 |
| Paola and her future husband? |
 |
| Action shot of Mikko and Matt Hula-ing (Matt's favorite part of any luau experience) By the way, Mikko does a lovely rendition of "The Hukilau Song". You should ask him to sing it to you. |
 |
| Blowing the conch to start the party |
 |
| Fire dancers! One of the guys accidentally threw his lit stick into the crowd...whoops.. |
 |
| Mikko and I demonstrating that Rhode Island and Honolulu really aren't THAT far away |
 |
| The memorial |
 |
| So thankful for modern dive gear. I'll never complain again. |
All too soon, we had to bring Mikko to the airport :( Mikko, your visit was wonderful, but far too short. Come baaaack!
From the airport, lunch at Nico's was an easy drive. It's a great open-air restaurant with incredibly fresh fish. (Fun Fact: I can not say "fresh fish". It sounds more like fresch feesch)
 |
| The ocean is cut out of this picture, it's riiiight to the right |
We got some fish and chips and seared ahi. We also got a lava flow or two...
 |
| Not our exact beverage, but you get the idea. |
After lunch, we did some shopping. We got only vegetables and water. Except that by vegetables I mean Cheetos and by water I mean wine:
 |
| Cristina Wine! |
We unloaded the groceries and went up to the pool where we planned a dinner with my Aunt Maryann! We went to an Italian place near us and dinner was delicious until I got food poisoning. Yeah, not so fun.
What WAS fun was that, feeling much much better the next day, we traveled to the North Shore for the day!
First, we stopped at Laniakea Beach. Turtles feed along the shoreline and rest on the beach around midday. We didn't see any turtles out of the water (like Mikko did), but we got some great pictures:
 |
| Like a catalog.. |
 |
| Dad thought Paola was messing with him for this one. "What are you doing?! Get away!" |
 |
| That's a good looking family. |
 |
| Dad :) |
 |
| Any Lost fans out there? |
We continued our driving tour and stopped by Shark's Cove. This is one of the places Matt and I dive. Don't worry, it's named because of how it looks from the air, although there are some places where sharks nap.
 |
| The shallow part where people are wading is like the "baby pool" of this spot. Matt and I normally jump off the ledge to the far left and dive on the far side of the wall. The ledge is barely covered by water, you can see some water breaking on it past those two pointy rocks. |
 |
| a little lizard! |
After our tour, we settled on the beach at Waimea Bay. We watched people jumping off rocks and others getting pummeled by the surf. Then...it was lunchtime. Lunchtime on the North Shore means Shrimp Trucks. After eating with Paola I will forever call it "Shreemps".
 |
| Paola got garlic shreemps from Giovanni's |
 |
| Dad and I got the best shreemps at Dat Cajun Guy |
...and Mom made a huge little mistake and got coconut shreemps from some other truck. No, it wasn't that bad. The shreemps were good, but nothing compared to Gio's or DCG.
 |
| Paola's Shreemps! |
That night, we went to Side Street Inn and ate ourselves silly. As usual, the food there was amazing. This time, we tried some ribs and kahlua pork sliders with pineapple (among other things). YUM!
 |
| Matt and Dad on the way to the restaurant. This was one of our tamer elevator moments. (See: impromptu elevator dance parties) |
 |
| View from the top. Beautiful day! |
...and the Hanauma parking lot was closed. Since snorkeling was out, we went to the beach by the Hale Koa Hotel, where my parents honeymooned. We spent the day relaxing and throwing small rocks at each other (Multiple Attack!). Occasionally, we would walk about 20 feet to the Barefoot Bar and enjoy a drink:
 |
| lava flow |
 |
| the famous mai tai |
Matt met us after work and joined the relaxing:
 |
| I did nothing to deserve this. |
After dinner, we walked through Waikiki and watched this guy scare the crap out of some Asian tourists. Hilarious!
The next day was Hanauma: Take 2. The lot was open, the movie was long, and the songs were catchy. (Don't step on me - at Hanauma - under the seaaaaa) We saw a ton of fish:
 |
| Humuhumunukunukuapua'a |
 |
| I've never seen this species before. |
 |
| Ahhh!!! It's aggressive!!! |
Dad also got in the water. He didn't snorkel, but he walked in up to his knees and saw some pretty big fish. In his words: "I just did way less work than you and still saw as many fish as I wanted to see". So true. We completed the delayed Mikko H Special with a trip to Kona!
 |
| The beers. Not listed were some specials like the Lemongrass Ginger and Bulldog Brown. |
 |
| Don't worry, folks, she had a Wailua Soda :) |
That afternoon, Mom and I decided to spend some time just us. I made a courtesy call to a wedding dress shop near me to make sure they were open and to see if we could stop in. The woman was awful!! Here's the conversation:
Me: Hi! I was wondering if it would be ok to stop in around 3 to try on some gowns.
Lady: No....
Me: My mom is visiting and this is the only day we can come in. Is there a better time?
Lady: No....
Me: Um. No?
Lady: No....Goodbye.
So that store was out. Instead, we went to the mall and found that Neiman Marcus has an "unofficial" wedding section. I tried on a couple for fun:
This was the unanimous favorite:
 |
| ...just kidding. |
That night, we ate some Chicken Parm at home and took it easy. It was so nice to have a home-cooked dinner with Mom and Dad. It felt like we were all back in Portsmouth. Can't you guys just move to Hawaii so I can have paradise and my family all together, all the time? Is that too much to ask? :)
The next day, we planned to do North Shore Part 2 as Mom, Dad, and Paola's flight wasn't going to leave until 8pm. It was a good thing Dad checked his email, though, because the flight changed so that they'd have to depart at 3! Instead, we had breakfast at the Hale Koa and another relaxing Hale Koa beach day. It was cut far too short, but I think I'd end up saying that about any time I was given for the last day with my parents. I miss you guys already!! July can't come soon enough!
Did you hear about the frog who traced his family history to Warsaw? He was a tad Polish...
No comments:
Post a Comment