Day 4 later on & Days 5/6

Friday night's dinner was amazing.  Grilled halibut with tons of grilled veggies.  Gorgeous.  Oh, and did I mention the tons of wine?  Yeah.

P.S.  Hangovers are not good for the dairy-free, wheat-free, processed foods-free diet.

Day 5:  I wake up horribly hungover, and I have to go to work.  Sigh.  I make myself a PB&J on Udi's gluten free bread for the road, and it does help.  Udi's is surprisingly good.  I mean, the slices are small, but still.  It'll do in a pinch. 
I felt like crap all day, but it definitely wasn't because of the diet.  I'm fortunate to work at WFM because I am able to have someone fix me grilled salmon and arugla salad for lunch.  So even with a hangover, I managed to stick with it.  Post-lunch, and feeling better.

Sadly, it's all downhill from here.

Evening of Day 5:  We head out to a bar, and I eat a grilled cheese sammie with 2 cheeses on sourdough, and I have 3 beers.  Not good.

Day 6:  It's Sunday, and I already know I am not going to be strong.  I start off well - a slice of frittata.  But it's all downhill from there....

We head out for a late lunch, and I eat wings and salad and fries - which all would have been okay (no dairy, no wheat), but then I added blue cheese dressing and 2 beers.  Once again, not good. 

Overall, the weekend has not been good for my elimination diet.  But Monday is another day, another week, another chance to deprive myself of things I love.

Day 10 - Kauai - Aloha Kauai

Waking up on our last morning in Kauai, there is definitely an air of melancholy hanging around the cottage.  Clicker, our gecko, is chilling on the headboard, sort of watching over us as we pack up our clothes, kick the mud off our boots, and search for our flight confirmations.  Our flight's not til 9pm though, so we're determined to enjoy the last few hours of our vacation.  We decide to come full circle and hit up one last trail.

We picked a pretty short hike near our cottage - can't even remember the name actually.  It was unmarked, and the only reason we knew about it was because of the Ultimate Kauai Guidebook (recommended).  Our last hike was an easy hike, but still really beautiful.  It was a great way to spend our last morning in Kauai. 

After the hike and one last outdoor shower (sob!), we had to pack up and leave the Surf & Ski Cottage.  Again, I must tell you, this is a GREAT place to stay.  We loved it.  If you go, say hello to Clicker for us.  And I hope you love the outdoor shower as much as me. Although I would think that is damn near impossible.

We still had a bottle of wine and a couple bottles of beer in the fridge, and obviously we needed to drink those before going home.  We headed out to the beach in front of the Islander on the Beach and soaked up the afternoon Kauai sun. 

A hike, a few drinks, sandy feet, ahi sammie, and a little more sun - the was the perfect end to a perfect holiday.  Really, our Kauai trip was incredible, outstanding, more than we could have hoped for, fantastic. 

You should go. 

Kauai - Day 9 - Lazy Sunday

You will never believe what we have planned for today.  No. 

Nothing.  We have absolutely nothing planned today.  We can't wait.

We wake up early anyway though, and with the time difference, the Pats game starts at 8am.  This was quite the depressing way to start the day.  (WTF, Tom Brady?!)  It actually forced us to begin drinking much earlier than normal.  No matter because we are in Kauai, in our open-air cottage, lounging in bed while watching Sunday football and drinking beer.  We can hear birds and the wind, and we can smell the jungle and the ocean.  Lazy Sunday = Bliss.

After a few hours of this, hunger begins to set in.  We have a plan to cruise down to the Marriott in Lihue because they are supposed to have an amazing Sunday brunch complete with champagne. All you-can-drink champagne and a huge seafood selection?  Yeah, that sounds like us.  Imagine our sadness when we arrived and we are told that they are no longer hosting this brunch in the "off-season".  Apparently we smart and thrifty travellers are not good enough for their champagne and sushi.  Screw 'em.

So.  What now?  We were planning on doing a little snorkeling in Poipu after brunch (unless we overdid it on the bubbles), so we decide to head down that way.  Surely there must be a good food option around there.  Well, there's actually not that much. We end up at a place called Keoki's Paradise in the Poipu Shopping Village.  We sat in the bar (much cheaper than the restaurant), and it was actually pretty good.  Mahi mahi sammie for me, kalua pulled pork for Tim.  MAI TAIS all around!  It was sort of touristy-cheesy, but the food made up for it.  And so did the amount of rum in the maitais.

We did end up doing some snorkeling off of Poipu Beach afterwards.  If you ever go snorkeling here, make sure you enter the water on the right (facing the ocean) side of the beach.  If you go in on the left (as we attempted to do), you'll find out quickly that the reef is right there.  And then when you fall trying to put your flippers on, you'll cut your hands and it hurts.  Don't make our mistake.  The right side is super sandy and lovely, and you can swim over to the reef area later.  The snorkeling is okay here.  I would love to see what Kauai snorkeling is like in the summertime. We saw some cool fish, and the reef is interesting, but nothing spectacular.  After snorkeling, we attempted to "beach" for awhile. 

Sadly, Tim and I have realized we are not good at doing nothing. 

After about 10 minutes on the beach, we decide to pack it up and head back to the East shore.  Hey, it's 230p - almost Happy Hour!  With no plans, it seems like a good day to drink around the island.  And drink we did.

We started at the Pool Bar at the Islander on the Beach resort at Coconut Plantation.  This is definitely a local bar - the Islander is a timeshare, and the bartender had been there for 16 years.  Everyone sitting at the bar knew everyone else, and it was a real friendly "Norm!" kind of place.  Their happies are from 4p-6p, and they have a drink called Kamanawannalaya.  Heeheehee.  Kamanawannalaya!  That's funny.  And the drinks are hella strong.  And so it begins. 

After the Pool Bar, we walk back over to Hukilau Lanai.  We had a couple more drinks and also tried their ahi nachos . This is raw ahi on top of crispy wontons topped with a wasabi cream sauce.  Holy Hell - these were freaking incredible.  Tim also really liked this place 'cause the bartender commented on his Ween t-shirt.  This could be the reason why our drinks knocked our socks off. 

We then went over to Trees, and we already know that their happies go til 7p.  And then it was 7p, and we had basically been drinking all day long.  We were tipsy, sunburned, happy, and in love.  What could make this day better?

Yeah, pizza.  Back to Brick Oven for some carryout, and the day is wrapping up.  While waiting for the pizza, we drunkenly decided that we should hike the Inca Trail for our honeymoon.  Hell yeah.  More hiking.  Oh damn.

The Golden Rule

Last weekend we went to Sasquatch. For all of you non-Pacific Northwesterners, it’s a giant, three-day music festival at a gorgeous outdoor amphitheatre called The Gorge in Eastern Washington. We went last year too. You’re guaranteed gorgeous weather, good music, fun camping. All in all, a fabulous time. Except for one thing. The ridiculously overpriced $9 beers. Yes, I said $9. And that’s for Coors Light! Now I know that when you go to a baseball game or something you’re paying the same price. But look at it this way: 1 day at the festival costs $60, and many people go for all three days. Gas to get there and back, well, probably $40 or so. Maybe more. Weirdly, I never seem to know what gas costs. The show begins at noon and pretty much runs til midnight. Even if you don’t get there when the gates open, you’re still going to be there for at least 6 hours. If you drink just one beer an hour, you’re looking at $54. And you’re probably gonna wanna eat so that’s another $20! Good lord, you’ve spent ONE MILLION dollars in a weekend.
At any rate, we only went for the one day. We had a few drinks before we left the campsite. We had another before we entered the show. But we still managed to drink a few beers inside. Lushes? No, just vacation. And it was hot—we needed to hydrate. Toward the end of the night, I turned to Tim and asked him if we had enough money left for another beer. “Nope’, he said sadly. Oh, boo. And then all of a sudden, the guy walking next to me hands me a $20 bill. “For beer,” he says. I honestly can’t believe it. I didn't have to flash him or anything. “What? Really? Why?” I stammered. He says, “You seem like a nice person.” And he walks away. I sort of yell thank you after him, still kind of not believing. Now I totally believe in karma, and I like to think Tim and I do nice things for others. But this was definitely not expected. We hopped over to the beer line though and truly enjoyed our last Coors Light.
Clearly, I’m going to continue putting this good beer karma out into the world. So from now on, everyone just be nice to everyone cause you never know. You just might be standing at a bar, sad because you have no money and you have no beer, and there I’ll be, handing you a $20 because you look like a nice person. No flashing required.