hawaiian-beach-party-julie-asfeld-2-25-18
PAUL INTERVIEWS JULIE ASFELD WITH LQPV COMMUNITY ED
PAUL INTERVIEWS ANDREA YOUNG WITH LQPV COMMUNITY ED
PAUL INTERVIEWS KIDS AT THE HAWAIIAN BEACH PARTY
PAUL INTERVIEWS STEVE STERUD LQPV COMMUNITY ED DIRECTOR
Hawaii was a trip of a lifetime for my wife Roxie and me last October. This was our first trip to Hawaii. Our daughter got married on Kauai, so that was the reason for our trip. I have blogged about our trip in detail but I have never talked about the food. As you can see by the pictures, I always snapped a picture of each meal while in Hawaii. These are just a few of them. For the most part I did enjoy the food in Hawaii. I always tried to order something on the menu that looked Hawaiian or was different then what I am used to
The pictures shown are some of my favorite foods that I consumed while in Hawaii. Let’s begin with one of my favorites: shaved ice! We had some friends tell us to make sure we visit Wailua Shave Ice on Kauai. Here is a link to their website. (www.wailuashaveice.com) What a unique place that was. Located in the town of Kapaii, located right off Kuhio Hwy. You walk up to an Airstream Camper, and all they sell is the shave ice. My wife and I shared the Lava Flow shaved ice because it was so big. I think it was only $6. We sat on some picnic tables they had behind the camper, along with the many chickens that run wild on the island. Each bite of the shave ice was heavenly.
By far my favorite food I ate in Hawaii was at Tiki’s Grill and Bar (www.tikisgrill.com) that was located in our Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel in Honolulu. (www.astonwaikikibeach.com) This might surprise you with me being a meat and potatoes guy. My favorite was a fruit yogurt salad! Yes, I had two of them while we were there. It was a large pineapple, cut open sideways and filled with coconut yogurt, mixed fruits and covered with granola. It was amazing!
Other foods I remember were the pulled pork sandwiches, onion rings and a breakfast sandwich. Our luau buffet was fine, but nothing special. Raw fish is food I did not care for. I tried it a couple of times, but couldn’t stomach it. We also ate at a Mexican restaurant, which was very expensive and my burrito was not good. One thing that surprised me was how much the Hawaiian people love Spam. Spam everywhere, and served in most restaurants. We stayed away from the McDonald’s and Burger Kings.
When we returned back home, the first thing I did was drink a cold glass of milk, I missed that. Plus, I put a good steak on the grill.
ANOTHER HAWAIIAN ADVENTURE
We went to Hawaii to attend our daughter’s wedding on the island of Kauai. The wedding occurred at the Grand Hyatt. Listed as one of the top ten resorts in the world, and believe me it is an amazing place.
The day of the wedding went much like a normal wedding day, with the exception of a church building we were on a beach with waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing at our feet. Which was really cool! The weather was absolutely perfect and everything went as planned. My daughter looked stunning and so beautiful in her wedding dress. The wedding party, relatives and friends that made the trip over all looked awesome and were having a good time. And I must say I looked pretty good in a Hawaiian shirt.
Seth and Brianna were married on Friday and Roxie and I were scheduled to fly back home Saturday evening, leaving Hawaii at 9pm. We arrived at the airport early, went through security and boarded our plane. To make a real long story short, our plane backed away from the gate and experienced mechanical problems before taking off. So we went back to the gate and sat on the plane for over three hours while mechanics worked on the left engine. Finally, about 11:30 they cancelled the flight and let us off the plane.
We stood in line at American Airlines for another hour with 300 other people. We received our vouchers for another night at the Grand Hyatt and three meals a day. After getting our vouchers we were told to go stand on the corner and a shuttle bus or taxi will come pick you up and take you to the Hyatt. Well after waiting for a while with 300 people on the corner, we all realized no taxi or shuttle bus is coming to get us. This airport is about the size of the Sioux Falls airport, so people were calling taxis themselves and I saw only two or three taxis come and they were mobbed by people trying to get to their motel.
I called my son who was sleeping at the Grand Hyatt and he came and picked us up with his red Mustang car he had rented. That was funny watching all those people still waiting watching us jump in a Mustang. I found out the next day from someone that most of the people were still standing there at 5am.
We returned to the airport the next night with the 300 people and were told that flight to go at 11pm was cancelled and they gave us another voucher, this time to the Marriott resort, with three meal vouchers. On Monday evening at 11pm we finally boarded a plane and left Hawaii. Arrived home Tuesday evening around 8:30pm. Another adventure to talk about for years. We did really enjoy our trip to Hawaii, it was a trip of a lifetime.
HAWAIIAN ADVENTURE
We had an interesting day on the island of Oahu during our vacation/wedding in Hawaii. It was an adventure. It started at 6am in the morning when we were to be on a street corner outside our hotel on Waikiki beach to catch our coach bus to take us on a tour of Honolulu, then up the northern coast to the Polynesian Cultural Center.
The Polynesian Cultural Center is like a theme park and is Hawaii’s #1 visitor attraction, with villages and exhibits representing the island cultures of Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, and Tahiti.
We really enjoyed the ride up the coast to get to the Polynesian Cultural Center because our tour bus took us by a number of sites where movies were made, we saw the mountains and valleys where Jurassic Park was filmed. A favorite movie of mine, First Date with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler the café on the ocean where most of the movie was filmed. Not to mention President Obama’s home, and where Obama and Bruno Mars went to high school.
After a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which included an amazing luau we were tired. It was time to get on the bus to go back to our hotel in Honolulu. It was about 9:30pm when we boarded our coach bus, the bus was full. Roxie’s sister Becky was with us, Roxie and Becky sat together and I sat behind them. The bus took off for our hour and half drive back to our hotel.
About halfway down the highway, our bus died alongside the road. It just quit. The bus driver got it pulled over to the side of the road before it stopped. My first reaction was that he ran out of gas. The bus driver tried over and over again to start the bus but It would not start. That’s when the fun started!
With no air conditioner running it started to get warm quick with a full load of people on the bus. People were trying to figure out how to open the windows. Then another bus from an another company pulled alongside us. The bus driver from that bus climbed aboard our bus and made an announcement. “I have room for fourteen people”
Well, of course mostly everyone jumped out of there seat to get off. We were just about close to the cutoff since we were sitting up front. Roxie and her sister Becky stood up to hurry off the bus. I stayed seated behind them. My wife looked at me and said “Get up!” I responded “No you go ahead I’ll wait” Her response was “Get Up, you’re coming with us!!”
I said “Women and children first”. She said “This isn’t the Titanic…get up!!!!
So I stood up and got in the aisle, embarrassed that I was one of only a few men standing to get off. One young man in a hurry to get off started climbing over the seats to be one of the first fourteen off the bus. Unfortunately, we didn’t make the cut and had to return to our seats. When I sat down I crouched low still embarrassed that I tried to get off the bus ahead of women and children.
Another empty bus finally arrived and we all boarded that bus and made it back to Honolulu around midnight. Fun day, but tiring day. Roxie still shakes her head at me when we talk about that bus breaking down. Good for laughs.