Tag Archives: food

The Big Island: Trip 4 – Day 4

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We had a relaxing day planned for Sunday after our big Saturday (thank goodness). It was also Linda’s birthday! We woke up and had coffee on our lanai with our cats and left late morning to drive to Waipio Valley. It was a beautiful day and a great drive there!

Just trying to annoy Josh
Tom..he looks so small!

After enjoying the view, we drove to Honokaa for lunch. We wandered around a bit and then settled on Grandma’s Kitchen.

After lunch we drove down the coast and back toward Mauna Kea as our plan was to enjoy the sunset and check out the stars. It ended up being too cloudy so we decided to eat at Merriman’s in Waimea. On our way there we saw an owl…which was rather amazing!

Loved the view of this road
So amazing!

Merriman’s was maybe my favorite meal of the trip. The atmosphere was so great and the food was delicious. A great way to celebrate Linda!

 

The Big Island: Trip 4 – Day 3

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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

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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 ❤

 

 

Cafe Maharani

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Catching up on some very late blogging since I’ve been slacking lately. A couple months ago we tried Cafe Maharani and it was absolutely amazing. The atmosphere was really fun and every single thing we had was delicious. Cannot wait to go back the next time I’m craving Indian food!

Veggie and Chicken Appetizer
So much food!
Chicken Tikka Masala

Bethel Union

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Last weekend, Josh and I went on a sporadic date night and decided to try something new. We used to go to a restaurant when we lived here the first time called Du Vin. It closed a couple years ago and Bethel Union opened in its place. The food was unique and the restaurant had a great atmosphere!

MEATBALLS savory, bite sized meatballs in a marinara sauce
GRILLED CORN, RICOTTA PECORINO AND HEIRLOOM TOMATOES tossed in lemon mint vinaigrette served on a bed of mixed local greens
PHOENICIAN FRIES sumac, parsley, and parmigiano reggiano

Over Easy

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We’ve had brunch a couple times over the last few weeks at Over Easy in Kailua. We shared a bunch of stuff so we could try a few things. Everything was delicious!

Pickled Veggies
Coconut Shrimp Burger: crisp greens, wasabi cream, mixed greens
Fried Chicken Sandwich: cole slaw, Asian aioli, French role, fries
Custard French Toast: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, orange crème fraiche
Brunch Bowl: avocado, soft eggs, house made yogurt, spinach, tomato jam, candied bacon, microgreens

Kauai: Trip 3 – Day 4

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We had one day on Kauai to explore the rest of the island. We decided on breakfast in Hanalei (delicious) and then driving around the rest of the island. Our first stop after breakfast was Kilauea Lighthouse and seeing the bird sanctuary. We then made it to Waimea Canyon where we spent most of our time stopping to see the views. It looks so much like the Grand Canyon! We made it to the top of the Kalalau Valley lookout. It was so weird to think we were down there the day before. Our last stop before dinner was the glass beach. There were tiny bits of sea glass all over the beach. We treated ourselves to dinner at Duke’s in Lihue before catching our flight back to Oahu. Had such an amazing trip!

Kilauea Lighthouse
Cousin love
Josh & Kyle
Waterfall!
Kalalau Valley
Looks like a painting
Glass beach
Our view from dinner!

Livestock Tavern

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Finally tried out Livestock Tavern for dinner last night! We’ve had delicious drinks at Livestock before but never dinner. The food was absolutely amazing and we cannot wait to go back!

Team date night!
Fancy Old Fashioned and Limoncello Sangria
Gnocchi & Smoked Tomato Bisque topped with Burrata & Applewood Bacon
Tavern Burger: Bacon Onion Marmalade, Gruyere, Frisee, Tomato & Brioche
House-made Cornbread: Maple Honey Glaze & Jalapeno Butter
Herb Roasted Chicken: Stuffed with Fontina, Spinach & Mushrooms, Truffle Yukon Mash

Molokai: Trip 3 – Day 3

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On our third day we again started our day with coffee on the lanai and a beautiful view. We were up early as our adventure for the day was riding a mule down sea cliffs to the Kalaupapa peninsula.

We arrived to the barn, checked in, and were assigned mules for the day! I was assigned the same mule that I had four years ago! Tita and I had just as much fun this time :).

Ready in our boots!
Linda and Makani. He was so sweet.
My friend Tita!

After we were all assigned and on our mules, we headed down the road to begin the 3.5 mile (and 26 switchbacks!) ride down the sea cliffs.

Plenty of spiders and webs on this trail.
We made it!

We were quite happy to give our bums a rest and enjoy the tour and beauty of the area.

Mother Maryanne’s Grave
Saint Philomena Catholic Church
Remains from the original settlement.
Love palm trees on a blue sky.

After an amazing few hours, it was time to get back on our mules and start the long journey back up!

Josh and Stripes ready to go back up!
Linda and Makani
EB! Josh’s mule from last time. He is retired now :).

After a long ride back up, we said goodbye to our mules and went back to shower before dinner. We decided to go to Kualapu’u Cookhouse (our favorite breakfast place from other trips) as we heard they had an amazing dinner menu. It definitely did NOT disappoint. We had three really unique entrees and all shared everything. After dinner it was time for what we had all been waiting for….Hot Bread!! We got the works (strawberry, blueberry, butter, cinnamon, cream cheese). It was just as good as I remembered it to be!

Stuffed shrimp with crab and bacon in a sweet chili sauce
Opa in Lilikoi sauce
BBQ ribs with homemade guava sauce (unreal..my absolute favorite)
Hot bread!

Molokai: Trip 3 – Day 2

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On our first full day on Molokai we woke up to our incredible view of Maui. We sat and enjoyed coffee on our lanai and listened to the ocean. Quite the way to start our day!

Our morning view.

After a our leisurely start, we packed up the car to drive towards Halawa Valley. Our first stop was Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, another Saint Damien church.

Joshing signing the guest book with a gecko friend (above the painting).
Grave of a Marine.
Just love this shot.

It started raining on us, so we got back in the car and continued on our journey! The drive there was breathtaking and as we got closer, it stopped raining and we had a great view of the Halawa Falls.

Halawa Falls

We arrived in Halawa Valley and headed to Kalani’s Farm. We chatted with him for a bit and then we were able to sign waivers and hike to the falls since we had already gone on a tour with him a few years ago. We had the trail to ourselves for almost the entire way. Unfortunately for me, there were a ton of spiders (which I do not remember from the last time) so Josh took the lead and was in charge of knocking down webs. We made it to the river crossing but it was still flowing pretty fast. We decided to play it safe and head back. Sad we didn’t make it to the falls but it was a gorgeous hike.

Starting our hike.
Papayas
Waiting to see if we can find a way to cross.
GIANT taro leaf
Standing under the taro leaf

When we got back to the farm, Kalani showed us some of his flowers and gave us two different types of bananas…which turned into an incident for Josh. One of Kalani’s ducks saw that we had bananas and she started racing towards Josh (apparently they are her favorite thing). This turned into Josh running from the duck and her flying at him (I was in tears). We went ahead and shared some with her :).

The duck chasing Josh.
I fed her a banana :).

We were ready for lunch after our hike so we stopped at Manae Goods & Grindz for the best chicken katsu I’ve ever had. We ate lunch and then went back to our place to change and prepare for the rest of our afternoon.

Such a narrow road.
Love all of the glass bottles.
Veggie burger
The best chicken katsu

After lunch, we drove to the West side of the island to show Linda around. Our final stop of the day was Papohaku Beach for sunset. Once again we had the beach to ourselves. The waves break really late here so Josh spent most of the time chasing the perfect picture. He did an awesome job (please see his work below 🙂 ).

Linda and I enjoying the waves

Our first full day was packed and we were exhausted. We reluctantly left the beach for our long drive back. We weren’t super hungry due to our late lunch, so we stopped in Kaunakakai for some ice cream for dinner (my type of dinner). Great way to end our day!