Tag Archives: cat

Lanai: Trip 3

Posted on by
4

A few weeks ago, we went to Lanai for long weekend to celebrate birthdays! We stayed at the Four Seasons, which was just an unbelievable experience. We landed on Friday afternoon, checked in, and had a late lunch.

Our beautiful view.
These beautiful birds are rescue birds. They greet you on your way to your room and say “hello” among other things.
Local Fish Sandwich: tomato, onion, arugula, kalamata olive aioli with white rice & black quinoa

After lunch, we relaxed in our room and enjoyed the sunset from our lanai before dinner at Nobu. Neither of us had eaten at a Nobu before, so we weren’t sure what to expect. It absolutely blew us away. Every single thing we ate was delicious and ended up being our best dinner of the weekend.

Cheers!
Grilled Shishito Peppers
Yellowtail Jalapeño
Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna
Black Cod Miso in Butter Lettuce
Local Whitefish Tempura
Spicy Tuna Roll
Nobu Lanai FIJI Water Shave Ice: Mango Granita, Red Bean, Tropical Fruit Confit, Locally Grown Tropical Fruits & Fresh Coconut Sorbet
Banana Toban-Yaki: Soy Caramelized Bananas, Pecans, Banana Nut Bread Croutons, Rum Raisin Ice Cream

On Saturday, also Josh’s birthday, we started our morning with a walk to the bay. We were extremely lucky and caught a pod of dolphins entering the bay. After watching them for a bit, we went back to the hotel and had an açai bowl for breakfast. Pretty much the perfect morning.

So, so good.
Such a view!

After breakfast, we left for the Lanai Cat Sanctuary to spend the day with all the cute kitties!

Josh’s cat that he sponsored in place for his birthday.
Kittens who did NOT want to be our friend.
Josh in his element. So happy!
Selfie!
Not so sure about being my friend.
Definitely wanted to be my friend.

After about four hours with the cats, we arrived back at the hotel to a surprise birthday cake for Josh in our room! We enjoyed a couple bites of cake and then got ready for dinner at Lanai City Grille.

So delicious!
House-made chips and crackers with crab dip, pimento cheese dip, and shallot crème fraîche.
Truffle Butternut Squash Bisque
Grilled Mahi Mahi served over local-style fried rice with crispy tempura scallions and sea asparagus in a miso clam broth.
Forcing Josh to love me.

On Sunday, we spent the morning and early afternoon at the beach. We relaxed, read books, snorkeled, and saw a few whales in the distance! Such a completely surreal place to spend the day.

Could spend every day here..no problem…
Doesn’t get much better than this!
Lunch!

After the most relaxing day, we enjoyed dinner at One Forty for our last evening on Lanai. We wanted to try a bunch of items so we ordered smaller plates and shared everything.

Ali’i Mushroom Soup: Crispy Shiitake Mushrooms, Spiced Macadamia Nuts, Crème Fraîche, Chives
Locally Caught Ahi Poke: Sliced Avocado, Hawaiian Kukui Nuts, Maui Sweet Onion, Avocado Puree, Soy Sauce
Kauai Shrimp: Saffron Poached-Grilled Pineapple, Sweet and Spicy Heirloom Tomato Sauce
Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese
Lemon Sorbet & Fruit

On Monday, we walked the beach, hiked to Pu’u Pehe, and enjoyed time by the pool before we had to (sadly) leave. We are ready to go back!

Perfect weather. Perfect view from the pool.
One last look at our lovely view!

Cruise: Taihiti

Posted on by
Reply

Our last stop on our cruise was Tahiti, the largest island in French Polynesia. We had one full day there and took full advantage of it. We started the day by having a lovely breakfast in our room, wandering around Papeete and visiting the market, then renting a car to drive around part of the island. Once we picked up the car, we headed North to start our trip around Tahiti Nui (we only had time to drive around the larger part of the island).

Lovely view for breakfast.
First visit to the market.

After stopping at a black sand beach and waterfall, we continued our rainy drive by a bright colored church and stopped at a botanical garden. Unfortunately the botanical garden seemed pretty desolate. However, we did see a Galapagos turtle but we were somewhat concerned since no one seemed to be there.

Our final stop on our tour of the island was the Maraa grotto. It was pouring down rain but well worth the stop. We met the cutest kitten and wished we could have taken her home with us!

Sweetest thing.
Such a cool photo of them walking away.

After a decent amount of time at the caves, we drove back to Papeete to return the car and explore more. We walked around the city, visited the market for lunch and souvenirs, and eventually made our way back to the ship to eat dinner and pack our bags for an early morning departure.

Loved the pearls everywhere.

 

 

 

Lanai: Trip 2 – Day 2

Posted on by
1

On our second day, we got up and had breakfast and coffee at the hotel and took full advantage of the big rocking chairs looking out over the front lawn. After breakfast, we packed up the Jeep for our adventures that day.

First stop was the Munro Trail. We didn’t do the whole thing, only the first couple of miles. We found a really cool swing and stopped at a lookout that had some lovely views of Maui and Molokai!

The view on the way to the Munro Trail. Just love those pine trees!
Stables at Koele. So beautiful.
We found a swing!
Just breathtaking!

The next stop was Garden of the Gods. The trail there was insanely muddy with tons of potholes due to the amount of rain Hawaii saw in the early Spring. It made for quite the adventure!

So muddy!

After taking in the view for a bit, we kept going down to Polihua Beach. The last time Josh and I were here, it was SO windy we couldn’t even enjoy it. Luckily, this time it was perfect. We sat for a long time and just enjoyed the empty beach and sunshine!

Heading towards the beach!
Beach pose!
I thought this was a really cool picture.
Jeep shot for Josh.

After plenty of sun, it was time to head back! It took us a little over an hour without any stops due to the rough terrain.

I made a friend.
The Lanai cat sanctuary needs to come find this guy!
Holding on for dear life!
Loved these flowers!

Once we got back, we wandered around Lanai City for a bit and relaxed before dinner at Lanai City Bar & Grille. Dinner was at our hotel, so quite convenient! We sat outside and listened to live music for a couple hours to end our night!

Hotel Lanai!
Delicious drinks!
Calamari
Roasted brussell sprouts
Crispy green beans
Amazing fish special
Caprese salad
Steak
The best thing ever…bananas foster deliciousness!

Lanai: Trip 2 – Day 1

Posted on by
2

In April, we took a long weekend trip to Lanai with my mom and Tom. Josh and I left early in the morning on Friday so we could go visit the Lanai Cat Sanctuary, which we missed on our first trip. We picked up our jeep and went to Blue Ginger Cafe in Lanai City for breakfast. After that, we drove back towards the airport to go visit the kitties! We spent three hours (and I could have spent more) feeding them treats, playing with them, and giving them attention. The facility and staff were wonderful and I love their mission. We also sponsored a cat for a year (her name is Ava and she’s pictured below). She’s 11 and SO sweet! Can’t wait to go back!

They had tons of fun hiding places.
Ava! We sponsored her in place.
Just eating my sunglasses.
Naha escaped while we were leaving and wanted to come with us.
How to grow a cat.
They didn’t really want to be friends with us.
The welcome committee.

After we pulled ourselves away from the kitties, we checked in to Hotel Lanai and changed to go pick up Linda and Tom from the airport. After picking them up, we walked around Lanai City for a bit before heading to dinner at One Forty at The Four Seasons at Manele Bay. The dinner setting was beautiful and the food was delicious!

View from dinner!
Salmon poke
Bread and dipping items
Baked Mahi Mahi – Fondant Potatoes, Sicilian Olives, Golden Raisins, Marinated Artichokes, Citrus Aioli
Mushroom Crusted Monchong – Onion Fennel Soubise, Sea Asparagus, Ginger Beurre Blanc
Catalan Shrimp – Meyer Lemon, Tarragon, Lime, Saffron White Wine Broth, Grilled Garlic Bread
Kiawe Smoked Chocolate Mousse – Hazelnut Crunch, Macadamia and Local Honey Ice Cream

The Big Island: Trip 4 – Day 3

Posted on by
2

Saturday we woke up and had coffee on our lanai before embarking on a long haul to the Hilo side of the island for a packed day. We drove through the middle of the island and stopped at Kaumana caves first.

Exploring the caves.

After exploring the caves, we drove a few minutes down the road to Rainbow Falls. We spent some time enjoying the falls and the banyan trees.

After exploring, we decided it was time for breakfast at Ken’s House of Pancakes. The goal was to eat enough so we could make it through the day to our late dinner after our hike. We definitely achieved that goal!

After breakfast, we drove through the Puna area and stopped at MacKenzie State Park and to watch some turtles.

Such a neat shot.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the turtles so we could meet up for our lava hike at Kalapana Cultural Tours! Josh and I went with this company before and they are so wonderful. The hike was different than a few years ago (as expected) and we started by riding bikes a couple miles down a gravel road and then hiked the remainder of the way to the surface flow. We lucked out as there were quite a few breakouts. After that, we hiked back to the ocean entry to check that out before hopping on our bikes for the ride back.

Walking out through the baby palm trees to the black sand beach.
Such a pretty black sand beach.
Ocean entry

After our hike, we were all pretty hungry and ready to relax. We drove back to Hilo and stopped at Pineapples for dinner before driving back to the other side of the island. It was perfect after our long day — good food, good drinks and open air seating!

After dinner, we drove back and completely crashed after much needed hot showers…very excited to sleep in the next day!

 

The Big Island: Trip 4 – Day 1 & Day 2

Posted on by
3

In the beginning of September, Josh, my mom, Tom and I all took a much needed vacation to The Big Island for a whole WEEK. This is the first trip to another island that lasted longer than a few days for Josh and I…which was wonderful!

Josh and I met them at the airport and we all flew to Kona together. We checked into our hotel in Waikoloa (which was lovely) and then headed to Lava Lava Beach Club for drinks, dinner and a beautiful sunset.

Cheers!

The next day, we didn’t have a ton planned (on purpose) so we could relax and explore where we were staying. We had coffee on our lanai and then my mom and I went on a walk to explore. It was a gorgeous day and we had the walk along the beach mostly to ourselves. After that, we ran to the grocery, took a nap and then got dressed for dinner at Roy’s. Linda had two restaurants that she wanted to eat at and this was one of them. The food did not disappoint and we lucked out with a corner table surrounded by water!

There were lots of cats by our hotel ❤

 

 

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 2

Posted on by
1

Day two started out with all of us being just a bit sore (maybe not so much Kyle) but the rest of us were feeling it. We made coffee and breakfast and then set out to explore! Our day consisted of checking out the the rocks at the end of the beach that had all sorts of things growing on them, walking the beach and visiting the caves at the end, lounging around camp (including in our tents when it decided to start raining) and then enjoying another beautiful sunset on the beach after it rained. We finished the evening by enjoying the stars. They were absolutely breathtaking. We also made friends with a black kitten. It took everything I had to not take him home with me. ❤

What a view.
Cousin love
Walking to the caves
Enjoying the shade and coolness of the caves!
Kyle relaxing in the cave
Sibling love
Bailey enjoying the waves
Walking back from exploring the caves
These birds were everywhere and not afraid of us.
Camp!
Enjoying the rain
Rainbow!
Getting water
Such a beautiful waterfall!
Just beautiful
Loved these flowers. They were everywhere.
Love that you can see the rain in the distance.
This cat..I was so upset I couldn’t take him home.

Hawaii Cat

Posted on by
2

After a long day, Nola has made it to Hawaii! Special thanks to my Mom and Tom for taking care of her for the last few months. She started her day at 5:00 AM ET in Indiana, had a nice two hour layover in Denver, landed in Hawaii at 2:50 PM HST, went through her quarantine inspection and arrived home about two hours later. She’s checking out her new view and settling in.

Gunstock Ranch

Posted on by
Reply

Today, we went on a field trip to Gunstock Ranch on the North Shore for fall break. We had a blast hiking, watching the kids swim and leading them around on the horses!

The pregnant goat that LOVED us!
Hiking on the ranch.
Horses!
Donkey..roaming around freely.
Fun time in the pool.
Sunshine the cat.
Jenn and Elise!