Tuesday, March 30, 2010

No exciting news to report, but wanted to post some photos from Tony's softball game last week. He was very surprised... and excited when he heard a female voice call out "Hey 24."

Tony at bat
Russell mid swing - I even got the ball in the picture.
"Good Game"
Team Photo

I am taking Tony to a surprise dinner on Wednesday night, and we have surprise plans for Saturday as well. So more pictures to come! 

XOXO & Aloha!  

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I have been scolded by Michelle for no new blog posts in "10 whole days." 

Where should I pick up from... On Saturday, March 13, we took Rusty to Pacific Paws at the Koko Marina, for a much needed grooming. Pacific Paws also has doggie day care, as well as boarding - which we need to start looking into, so we are prepared for a visit home at some point :). They were VERY friendly, and knowledgeable. Told us the name of a new oral medication for flea prevention, that supposedly works, unlike Advantix and the other topicals we have tried. 

While Rusty was getting groomed up, we met up with Tony's friend Jimmy, who took us around the Koko Head/Hawaii Kai area. We had a nice breakfast, on the water. Hawaii Kai is gorgeous! 

Rusty only took about 2 hours, and when we picked him up he was very excited to see us. He looked SO HANDSOME!! They did a great job! 

Tony and I were on opposite schedules most of last week, with him working during the day and me at night. We watched a lot of March Madness basketball, and saw our brackets slowly falling apart, one by one! Very sad to see the Terps out :(

On Friday night, we ate dinner at PF Changs, thanks to the Davidson Family (our Hanukkah present). After that we headed to Dave & Buster's for some fun and games! 

Tony was excited to get out and surf the big south shore swell over the weekend. He went out on a friend's boat in Hawaii Kai, and surfed the "biggest wave" he has "ever surfed." After I finished work on Saturday night, Tony met me at work and we had a yummy Hula Grill dinner - the Ahi is soooo good! Tony enjoyed the Coconut Shrimp.

We had a tough pool match up on Sunday, for our pool league. Tony's game will soon improve when his birthday present (coughpoolcuecough) arrives in the next few weeks. More details and pics to come when that arrives! 

Today, I am off work, and have the car - so I am off to run errands at my favorite place, Target. I may even try to surprise Tony at his softball game tonight! 

We have tickets to Thursday night's Honolulu Twestival, at Oceans 808, which we will be attending as long as I don't get called into work for my On Call shift. Here is a quick explanation of Twestival:
On Thursday 25 March 2010, people in hundreds of cities around the world will come together offline to rally around the important cause of Education by hosting local events to have fun and create awareness.  Twestival™ (or Twitter Festival) uses social media for social good.  All of the local events are organized 100% by volunteers and 100% of all ticket sales and donations go direct to projects.
There will be pupus, prizes and lots of live music! I am excited to check it out!
This weekend is also the Honolulu Family Festival, aka a carnival. I promise more pictures and stories to come!! Tony's birthday is less than 2 weeks away!!

Aloha!! 


Sunday, March 14, 2010

Today is Daylight Savings time for all US States except Arizona and HAWAII!

So we are now back to a 6 hour time difference between the East Coast and here!

Time for the beach! Aloha!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Six Months

Six months ago today, Tony, Rusty and I boarded a plane and moved to Hawaii! 

We can't believe it has been 6 months already, but we have loved every single moment! 


Wednesday, March 10, 2010

My Birthday

I had a fabulous 27th birthday weekend! We ate so well it has taken me until today to recover and blog! 

Friday night, we went to Roy's Waikiki (see pictures from previous post). Yummy Yummy in our Tummies!! We had heard nothing but rave reviews about Roy's, so needless to say we were PSYCHED about finally trying it out! There is a Roy's in Baltimore, but we had never dined there. When we arrived, they sat us right away - this place was WAY bigger than I had thought - the hostess stand is outside by the steps, you walk through a sliding door to a seating area with sofas and tables, pass the bathrooms (with two great surfer paintings that I want), and face the kitchen, where you see all of their fresh cuisines on the line, which instantly made me hungrier!
We had a nice booth along the back wall of the restaurant, which allowed me to check out everyone else's dinners as I walked by. Someone came RIGHT over to fill our water glasses, and our waiter was right behind him. He told us about the menu - and how it is constantly changing, except for their signature dishes, so that it is always a new experience for return visitors. Tony ordered the Pre Fixe menu and I ordered the Shellfish Combo.

Tony's meal started with an appetizer that we shared - 2 pieces of seared Ahi, a Chicken Spring Roll, and a Rib. All very yummy! The Ahi tasted super fresh, and we both really enjoyed it. The meat on the rib practically fell off the bone with the touch of my fork. Brought back memories of when I would only eat Spare Ribs at Mr. Chan's Chinese Restaurant as a kid... but this was oh so much better!

Next, our meals came out - Tony ordered the Macadamia Nut Crusted Shutome (which is a swordfish) with roasted potatoes and asparagus, and my Shellfish Combo came with 2 Scallops, 2 Shrimp, and a Lobster Tail, over mashed potatoes.  Everything was DELICIOUS!! The mashed potatoes were perfect! The shrimp tasted slightly overcooked, but still good. I think next time I am going to get the Scallops wrapped in Prosciutto - because the scallops were my favorite part. Tony REALLY enjoyed his shutome.

After we finished our entrees, the dessert that came with Tony's Pre Fixe menu arrived - the "Roy's Melting Hot Chocolate Soufflé." Mmmmmmmmmmmm! It came with Vanilla bean ice cream - I love when you can see the beans! We put a fork in the souffle and out poured the oozy chocolate center! YUM YUM YUM! I only wish there was slightly more ice cream, because I like a spoon of ice cream with every chocolaty bite!

After dinner we were to full to go anywhere else, so we walked along the beach, before returning home to prepare for Saturday! We watched TV until 12am, so that Tony could wish me Happy Birthday (even though the celebration had started at 5 hours before on the East Coast). 

Saturday morning, Tony woke me up with breakfast in bed (that we took to the living room to eat). After we ate, we headed out to the beach to float in the lagoon on our rafts. After getting a birthday tan, we headed home to eat a quick lunch, before heading to the Na Ho'ola Spa at the Hyatt Regency. 

The Hyatt Regency is walking distance from home, so this was very convenient. We walked into the Hyatt, and took the elevator up to the 5th floor. When the doors opened, it looked like we were arriving to Heaven - BRIGHT sunlight shining in through the window. We wrapped around the corner where we were greeted by a few ladies. They checked us in, and showed us to our locker rooms - the men's was right near where we checked in, but the women's was upstairs. We changed into our robes and our slippers (flip flops), and met back downstairs in the relaxation room.

The relaxation room had a few lounge chairs with nice thick cushions, and a few other wicker chairs with the same nice cushions. The chairs faced a LARGE windowed wall with the curtains drawn, but the heat was still coming through. There were nice books all about Hawaii on the tables. 
After just a few minutes our masseurs greeted us and took us back to our therapy room. We each slipped under the sheets of our massage tables, which were nice, warm and cozy.

My massage was A-MAZ-ING! As many of you know, I have a bad neck from an accident in 2007, and desperately needed this! After our 50 minutes was up, I did not want to get up - but Tony was ready to go! He liked his massage, but had a hard time relaxing with someone touching him. 

After leaving the spa, Tony was craving shaved ice, so we walked towards the Waikiki Marketplace. We went to Island Freeze.
Look at the size of this thing!
It wasn't the greatest shaved ice, in fact Tony didn't like it at all. We tried! We returned home to relax. We hadn't planned anything for that night, but decided to go to dinner at BLT Steak (Bistro Laurent Tourondel,) which we have both been wanting to try. Our reservation was for 8:30pm, but they were waiting for a few tables to get up - so we waited for 15 minutes.
As soon as they had us seated, the manager rushed over with all sorts of appetizers, apologizing over and over for the wait! We weren't even bothered by the wait, but I thought it was awesome they way the restaurant responded. Usually when you are seated, they bring over chicken pate, but we got that, PLUS little cheesey breadsticks, a fresh meat platter (the proscuitto was yum-o), and some pickled vegetables. 

To start, I ordered fresh oysters on the half shell (Tony forced me to order them, because he knew I was craving them) - they are surprisingly hard to find on the island - probably because they are imported from the mainland. They were all pretty salty tasting, but still hit the spot. 
 They brought over their popovers, with fresh sea salt and butter - these suckers were gigantic! 

I ordered the 8oz filet, Medium Rare, and when I went to cut into this bad-boy the whole thing jiggled like jello! It was so tender, and cooked JUST RIGHT! Tony ordered the Rib Eye, which as expected, had a lot of fat running through it - looked like a little too much, with all that he had left behind! We shared the Potatoes Gratin and the Macaroni and Cheese. I would highly recommend the steaks, but skip these to particular sides. After we were completely stuffed from everything we had eaten, they brought over the dessert menu, which none of us could even fathom. But to our surprise, they brought over dessert for my birthday anyway... AND it had my name on it :)
But we couldn't even finish these!!
The raspberry candle holder was my favorite part of dessert, well next to having my name written on the plate!!
I had a really great birthday weekend! On Sunday, I worked my first serving shift alone, with no casualties, so overall perfect weekend!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!! 

Love & Aloha!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Hooray!! Our Kokua Festival tickets are here - sold out concert with Jack Johnson, Ziggy Marley and more!! Can't wait!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Last night, we went to Roy's in Waikiki, and it was DELICIOUS!! We are getting ready to go to the beach, so details of our meal/review will come later.
 
At Dinner
 
On the Beach


xoxo and Aloha!

Friday, March 5, 2010

My Birthday Weekend

I just got another GREAT gift in the mail from my sister, Mandi... She sent a gift card to one of my favorite stores, Sephora, which will be used up the first chance I get!! Yey!! So, I am all set...  I will be looking purrty with my new makeup, smelling great with my new perfume from my Mommy & Daddy, and looking good with my new purse from Tony!

I have two days off in a row, for the first time since I started working, and they are jam packed! Tonight, Tony and I are having a romantic b-day dinner at Roy' Waikiki. There is a Roy's in Baltimore, but ROY is from Hawaii - and the restaurant has quite the following here. 

Tomorrow morning, we are going to spend my birthday morning at the beach, and then spend the afternoon getting a couples massage! SO EXCITED!! Hopefully, lots of pictures to come!! 

Aloha!!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Awesome Birthday Gift!

As most of you know, my 27th birthday is this Saturday. I just received an AWESOME birthday gift from Michelle - I love you, thank you so so much!
 
I open the box and the first thing I see... UTZ Crab Chips! UTZ chips don't make it to Hawaii because of their fresh by date... Needless to say the bag was opened before I continued on in the box... 

A note... "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINZ! We may be 3 hours from the nearest beach, but don't forget where you came from! Maryland misses you hon." Love it! 

I continued on into the box to find Bergers Cookies!! And then two boxes of Matzo Ball and Soup mix!! 

Like I said, awesome gift! Chips will be gone tonight!
Xoxo
(Crab chips for breakfast, and bereger's for lunch...mmmmm)