Seizin' the Day...@ Walker Way : ALOHA! Part 1

January 29, 2009 Day 1:

I woke up at 4:15 this morn to finish packing (which I procrastinated on and most definitely over packed. But I figure, since I have to pay $15 anyway…I might as well take everything that I might want in the next 6 days with me). So I turn the corner to get on the highway and I find one of the remaining patches of ice on the roads and swerved and skidded. Did I mention its 21 degrees outside? I am glad to be leaving this crazy cold weather! Yeah, I know it’s January and WINTER, but ice on the road is NOT conducive to my happiness. ;)

I get to my window seat (which I luckily stumbled upon yesterday) and get comfy and drift off as the Hawaiian music plays over the P.A.…

I got to sleep for about FIVE hours! (Getting to sleep for 5 hours straight is not a common occurrence for me.) It’s awesome!

I awoke just in time to see Ratatouille (1^st time, pretty cute). At the moment I am watching Good Will Hunting on my ipod. In a bout an hour, I will be landing in Honolulu, Hawaii. I will be spending the next 6 days my best-est friend on the entire planet (of 27 ½ years) Stephanie. I can’t wait!

I arrived at the airport and Steph and I headed over to Thrifty Car Rental to pick up my car for the week…or so this was the plan. If you value my opinion in the least please DO NOT EVER rent a car from THRIFTY CAR RENTAL. They are sooo not cool. Somehow their computers were jacked up and they kept refusing my form of payment. So not only embarrassing, but also super frustrating after waiting in line for roughly 30 mins…with no A/C.

So Stephanie & I’s first adventure of the week would be heading back to the airport to find a car…any car at this point. Well it turns out not ANY car…the only other place that happened to be open at the time were just plain ridiculous with their pricing. Luckily, Steph’s boyfriend, Ed was near by and saved the day by taking us to a place that rents to “locals.” Success! And we were on our way.

***NOTE***

For those of you first time visitors of Seizin’ the Day the following blog posting will and does contain pictures of beverages and food…along with other things…go ahead and laugh…it’s what I do. ;)

Back to the story…

After arriving at Stephanie’s apartment, in Kailua, and getting a quick shower, we (Stephanie, Ed and I) set off down the road to a place called Lucy’s for dinner.

There were a couple of fruity adult beverages involved...

I had some of the best coconut shrimp ever…

It was a good dinner.

We continued down the street and decided to get some ice cream. (unfortunately there is no picture of my birthday cake ice cream, in a sprinkled waffle bowl…but trust me it was delicious…well the 4 bites I ate were before I decided I had had enough. ;)

Wandering back to the apartment I had the “pleasure” of meeting Lucy their cat and their roommate Brent.

It’s about 10 o’clock and I am exhausted. Ya see, there’s a 4 hour time difference between Dallas and Hawaii.

See ya in the morning. :)

January 30, 2009 Day 2:

Last night the sky opened up and the rain came pouring down hard! But thankfully it was done by the time the sun came up.

The first stop was to Cinnamon’s (apparently Rachel Ray has enjoyed this place as well) where we had way too much food for breakfast. The Portuguese sweet bread French toast was pretty darn good.

We then headed back to pick up Ed and off to Lani Kai Beach we went. I can honestly day that if I was to live here in Kailua, I would make this beach a mandatory part of my everyday routine.

Back to the apartment to pick up Brent and we were on our way down the Kam Highway on a very scenic route towards North Shore. (Steph and I had two of the craziest backseat drivers/singers ever!)

Thanks to Brent, we stopped at a Mac Nut Farm…as in they have everything you could possibly want with macadamia nuts in them. Yeah, I made a purchase or two. :)

Lunch time was upon us and there’s several shrimp trucks along the way to North Shore, so of course we had to stop. We ended up at the Romy Shrimp truck/farm.

***Side note: I’m not big on seafood, but I do have a fondness for shrimp…mostly of the coconut, fried or grilled variety…oh yeah, they also always come to me sans HEADS and LEGS.

So we ordered and found a picnic table in the shade and waited for our order to come up.

And to my surprised, what I was about to consume needed a little more preparation…by me. As in, I had to de-shell, head, leg them. EWE! (one of the many reasons I don’t cook lol)

Anyways, I sucked it up and did it…when in Rome right? Nana would be soo proud. :)

After a hand washing, it was back in the car, heading towards Sunset Beach. So pretty.

But there was definitely a “kick” to this current. Notice the signs…

…but of course that didn’t stop me from getting in. I was told I should probably leave the sunglasses with the towels. Did I? Course not. Did I lose them in the ocean? You bet it did! Lol No worries though, I stopped buying expensive sunglasses years ago. ;)

The water felt amazing. And then I met a set of waves that decided that I was to be pounded into the beach…yeah that’s me in there somewhere under the current.