hawaii part III

it was a huge goal of mine not to over eat in hawaii. i love to eat. i really love to eat new foods in new places with my favorite people. for the most part, i did really well. it wasn't hard considering my dads taste in food. i am forever amazed at what types of food that man can consume.

day three we went into hanalei {you know, where puff the magic dragon lived} which happened to be my favorite spot on the island {as far as i could tell anyway} and where trav and linds tied the knot. in this little town there sits an infamous "bubba burgers." imagine a five year old on his way to disneyland. this was my dad on our way to bubba's. like it is the best food he's ever had in his entire freaking life.

one look at the menu and my stomach hurt. "the slopper" was the first thing i saw; open faced burger smothered with bubba's famous coors tavern chili and topped with diced onions. excuse me, where's the bathroom?

luckily for me, bubba burger is located right next to the local coffee house, java kai. i love love love coffee. did you know this? i guess you could say that visiting a local coffee shop is like my trip to disneyland. so instead of a bubba burger and diarrhea, i enjoyed a maui mocha anu which is a frozen mocha made with coconut milk. oh my gosh, heaven. thank you java kai for existing.

after my dad downed his bubba burger he really did say "let's get a shave ice" and i'm thinking i could puke so i suggest we do so on our way back from the beach. fast forward to that moment, two or three hours later and were back at bubba burgers because the shave ice happens to be right next to the java kai. as we sit waiting for our shave ice {mine ordered with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom}, my dad says "i should get a chili dog." unbelievably impressive, right?

anyway, back to the shave ice which is amazing. my mom said so the second we got off the plane. she went on and on about the shave ice and wasted no time to grab one the first day we visited the beach leaving us all behind as we dove into the waves and played in the sand. after i had my first taste, i knew she wasn't kidding. i even said "what if you remember it being really good and you tell us all it's really good and we all get one and then it really sucks? that would suck." she was confident though and rightfully so. we visited the shave ice stand on our trip more than once. there's nothing like it in utah. they actually shave the ice off the block then it just melts in your mouth. super cool.

waiting for their bubba burger

most of the time we ate our dinners at the condo in an effort to save a little cash, eat healthfully and not have to dine out with three kids every night.

after the wedding we went to a little restaurant that josh found. we waited and waited for a table. i was so tired, the kids were tired and i was almost wishing we could just go grab mcdonalds and head home but i'm so glad that we didn't because the food was so delicious and everything on the dessert menu looked mouth watering.

unfortunately, cayden kept falling asleep in his chair. this not something i have ever witnessed before, my son being too tired to eat and so tired that he's sleeping while sitting at a table filled with people. so we finished up and left without enjoying any dessert. another reason i need to go back.

in these set of pictures we had made a short trip to the bali hai hotel restaurant which overlooks hanalei bay. the food wasn't good {mine wasn't anyway} . i ordered a curry dish and it had zero flavor. a thai curry dish with no flavor is weird and my dad was all, why would you order curry in hawaii and i was all, because it's asian food and their asian. yep, i said that. i said that to my dad who isn't very patient with ignorance. i was wrong, hawaiians are not asian. you can laugh at me, i don't mind. but! and a big but! i also ordered pineapple salsa and chips and the salsa was also terribly bland. hello! i know they grow pineapples right there. it was a missed opportunity to showcase a lovely mixture of flavor. thumbs down.

but the pictures are cute ...

my dad giving marital advice to cayden {i'm sure} or possibly telling him he'll cut his thumb off if hurts so badly. cayden had injured himself just moments before. there's not a lot of sympathy floating around in my dad's heart.

view from our table