Hawaii

Marukame Udon was our first stop on the island.  My cousin Allison and her friend Dean recommended this place to us last year, and it was love at first bite.  The line is always out the door, and the cooks work quickly, rolling out dough, cutting noodles, boiling, draining, dishing up, garnishing, and finally presenting each person with a steaming bowl of curry udon.  Next up, the tempura bar, where you can select all kinds of tempura-battered goodness by the piece.  My favorites are chicken, sweet potato, eggplant, and squid.  I think we ate there 4 times during our 2 days in Waikiki.

Freestone was a different kid on this trip.  He was a level of happy that Scott and I have never seen.  He tried all the new foods, laughed, smiled, played.  It's sad to realize that your child, the one who goes to junior high and comes home and does homework and practicing, is not the true person.  He's just a barely-coherent shell of the kid he was in Hawaii.  It made me feel so gratified that we had pried these kids away from their drudgery for some family time.  I don't know if there's another way t do life that's less crushing; junior high isn't a picnic.  Some perspective in the form of curry noodles helps.

Two kids out on the town, free of school.

Our second day started early because Hawaii is three hours ahead of Utah, so we were wide awake by 5 am.  Araceli, Ruby, Scott and I walked to the famous Leonard's Bakery for some hot malasadas, a 5 mile roundtrip.  That's a hefty walk!  But these cinnamon-sugar-covered, custard-filled puffs of heaven are well worth it.

Our hotel room at the Hyatt Regency was so nice, the kids started bawling when we walked in the room.  I scored this hotel by getting a Hyatt Visa that came with 2 free nights anywhere at any Hyatt.  It was all part of my master plan, entitled in my mind, Get Back to Hawaii.  I think it started the day we got back last year.  The day after a trip is the most dangerous time.  Nobody should let me near a computer the day after a trip.  Anyway, we got upgraded to an ocean-view luxury suite, I guess because I was a platinum guest, just b having a Hyatt credit card.  The service at the hotel was insanely good.  They had a number I could text anytime if I had any questions, and I used it.  It was nice.

Scott's nacho fail has to be documented.  We don't usually get overpriced food that's ridiculously bad, but in this case, it happened.  A pizza box full of nachos.  Canned sauce, bad chicken.  Horrible.  We laughed.

The Hyatt also offered free classes in lei making, hula and ukulele.  Ruby needed extra credit for dance company, so we went for the hula.  Except lei making was first.  We ended up taking all three classes, even though the teacher, "Auntie," was a tyrant!  She was so mean and impatient, it was comical.

But look at our leis!  So worth the time spent being ridiculed and scolded by Auntie.

The pool and hot tub were beautiful.  One night there was a band there.  Two poeple, really.  Someone requested Hotel California, and these guys just went for it.  They nailed it, too.  They riffed and soared on that part in the middle with all the guitar.  (Wow, my music vocabulary is not helping me here.)  It was almost transcendent, how "in the pocket" they were.  That night, we found out that Glenn Frey of the Eagles had died, so that cover of Hotel California was our Eagles tribute moment, experienced with tiki torches and ocean waves crashing in the background.

I love, love, love Waikiki.  The crowds, hotels, people, beach, ocean, food, culture...

The Swatch store was in our hotel, and since we were special, we got 10% off.  Freestone chose a Swatch to spend his money on, as did Araceli.

View from our room.

I love this.

The Swatch guy recommended this little place for spam musubi.  They do it just right, he said, and I savored every bite.  Freestone tried it and didn't love the seaweed paper.  Good effort, though, Free!

So happy.  Both times I've been in Hawaii, I've felt so happy, I can't imagine any other emotion except fr maybe gratitude.  Lots of that.

Freestone quipped, "I'm going to go barefoot to school and carry a can of Spam."  He was so funny on the trip, the girls got fed up with Scott and me laughing at everything Freestone said.

Close up of my new fave

Araceli made this bikini out of a one-piece, and a couple of my friends offered to pay her to make them one.  Now she wants to buy swimsuits and alter them for people.  I said no.  I mean, really.

Oh look, Marukame Udon again!