Messages from abroad, not massages from a broad

I’m back in Somerset again.  This time around, everything is the exact opposite.

It’s cold here now and the weather report calls for a couple inches of snow later today.  I can’t wait to drive 15-20 miles on the highway in this shit weather.  I hope my Kia Spectra rental can handle the conditions.  The car is practically brand new (only 500 miles on it), so hopefully that will translate into decent tires.  I flew into KY this time around with very little trouble.  I had to rush to my connecting flight because my first flight was delayed about 45 minutes.  I was the last one to arrive to the gate for my connection and everyone else had already boarded the plane.  That was the only minor hitch.

For my first meal here, I decided to try out Cracker Barrel; a country style restaurant.  It showed promise but alas, it was crap too.  I shoulda known better.  $13 doesn’t get you a good ribeye.  It was cooked to my liking, medium rare, but the meat was chewy and tough.   The worse part were the vegetables.  I ordered corn, green beans and carrots.  Surprisingly, the carrots were the worse.  They tasted like they had been prepared in sugar water.  They were wayyyy too sweet.  The green beans were out of a can or frozen.  They were all mushy and tasteless.  The corn was by default, the best of the lot.  I tried this coca-cola fudge cake that was apparently their signature dessert; it was chocolate cake made with Coke.  It was good, but wayyyy too sweet too!  I couldn’t finish it.  I had a few bites and turfed the rest.   Food here sucks and as adventurous as I’ve been, I think I’m going to stick with places that I know are good for the next couple of nights (like Papa Johns or Pizzahut).

My stupid mouse is broken.  I brought my Microsoft wireless optical notebook mouse but it doesn’t work.  The optical light will not turn on.  So I went out to Wal-Mart after dinner and bought the cheapest one I could find for $10.  I brought it back to the hotel, only to find out that it was a PS/2 mouse.  Fuck!  I wanted to do some work and I hate using the pad cause it slows me down.  So I dragged my ass back out to Wal-Mart to return it and buy another one.  This time I spent $20 for a basic wired optical scroll mouse.  Man, I hate that.  I have had way better deals than that before.  For $20, it ought to be wireless, laser, and have 5-6 buttons.   What a scam.  That’s my quick update for the day (week, or month even).   Perhaps more will follow.

I cannot make up my mind as to whether I really liked Maui or not.  I think the trip was pretty fun in the sense that most of my good friends were there and spending time in a foreign place is always a rare treat.  Gladys and Adrian’s wedding was great too!  I really enjoyed the intimate approach of their wedding.  No presentations like videos, skits or anything fancy; just a straight forward wedding, gathering and celebration.  I loved it!  Maui itself was dreary.  It rained a lot!  And when it wasn’t raining, the clouds threatened to piss on us.  Everything worth seeing seemed really far away too. 
Volcanos and black sand beaches were hours away.  We even drove 1.5 hours away to find a fruit stand along the highway.  I’m glad I got to experience it though. 

The luau was the first big event.  It was really cool.  The food wasn’t too bad and the show was quite enjoyable.  I wish I had brought out my camera, but I forgot to bring it out with me.  Rain looked imminent all evening, but miraculously, it held off and the night went very smoothly.  The next day was the wedding day, we arrived at the hotel and promptly boarded a shuttle bus that took us to the chapel.  The problem was that no one told the driver which chapel.  So he brought us to the wrong one.  After a 10 minute wait, we felt it didn’t feel/look right.  The chapel door were closed and not a soul was in sight, so we walked back to the Ritz to double-check things.  Lucky for us, it was right next door.  Thankfully we went back otherwise we would have risked missing the whole darn thing.  Gladys looked beautiful and their
ceremony proceeded without a hitch.  Pictures and champagne followed and then it was off to the hotel for an open bar session before dinner.  The bartender was this woman who sounded like she smoked 6 packs a day; very friendly but obviously a bit crazy.  It turns out that she was a recovering alcoholic!  Oh the lunancy of the situation!!  Let’s just say she was very happy to be pouring us drinks.  Dinner was awesome.  The food was terrific.  The dancing was a lot of fun too.  Adrian, your sisters are wild!  We apparently scared the shit out of the hotel too.  I don’t think they had ever seen Asians drink the way that we did.  At one point, they made us take a 15 minute break because we were taking way too many shots.  Petron is so delicious!  All in all,
it was a great evening.  We wrapped up the night in one of the hotel rooms, drinking, and chilling.  Adrian’s family entertained us with kung fu, a hula-hoop, and spot-on re-enactments of various 80s music videos. 

Our favourite place to eat was the Paia Fish Market.  It was about 40 minutes away from the hotel but totally worth the drive.  I ended up eating there 3 times.  The fish plate was great, and a big hit with most of us.  Their ahi sashimi was pretty damn yummy too.  I pretty much tried everything on their menu in my three visits: deep fried shrimp, fried calamari, the chowder, the fish burger, etc.. I never tried their seafood pasta though.  Drats!  We also went to Roys steakhouse.  I thought their food was pretty good.  Una said she didn’t like it.  I thought she was crazy.  My ribeye was great!  Their sushi was decent.  And my banana crisp dessert was
fantastic!  Becky and Darren went earlier that night and said they enjoyed the banana crisp a lot too.  I told everyone to try it but they didn’t.  Their loss. 

The 5 nights flew by quickly.  Before I knew it, it was time to go home.  Most of the gang were headed home early in the afternoon.  Only Becky and Darren were moving on to Honolulu.  I was in a terrible position of being alone on the island for 5-6 hours because my flight wasn’t until about 10pm.  Darren told me about this awesome sushi place he had been planning on going to when they landed in Honolulu and he mentioned that I should extend my trip and go out there with him.  Well, I didn’t really extend my trip, but he did convince me to fly out there to have dinner with them.  So that’s exactly what happened.  I checked in my luggage 6 hours early, and then I bought a round-trip ticket to Honolulu.  It’s only 30 minutes away from Maui and although I was cutting it close again, it really solved the problem of finding something to do for a few hours.  In the end, I was in Honolulu for 2 hours, where I enjoyed a kick ass meal at Mitch’s Sushi. 
Hamachi, lobster sashimi, and monkfish liver were so good.  As soon as I passed through security in Honolulu, the plane had started boarding.  That’s how close it was again.  It worked out perfectly though.  Great idea Darren and thanks for dinner again! 

In one moment at the airport, we were going through the airport security check and Becky was nailed for leaving her water bottle in her bag.  I was right behind her and giving her plenty of grief because it was in plain sight.  Well, just as I was doing this, they called out ‘Bag Check!’  Apparently I had some contraband item in my bag.  They opened it up and pulled out a bottle of water that I had conveniently forgot about.  Deservedly, Becky took the moment to give me ’shit’ too.  The security guy thought it was kinda funny because he knew I was giving Bex a hard time about her water just moments before.  My bad, my bad!!  My foot tasted great in my mouth.

It seemed that we were always missing a room card or two during the trip.  As we boarded the plane, Darren whipped out a room card for our hotel.  Becky accosted him but Dar insisted this was one of the two that we had been using all week and he failed to hand it in during check-out.  I distinctly remember making a comment that someone would find another card in their pockets when they got home.  Well, a day later, I was unpacking my luggage, and low-and-behold, guess what I found in one of pants pockets?  Now I have a plastic souvenir. 

Fun times.  Good seeing everyone!  The Super Bowl was decent, but I lost some money on that stupid game!  Oh well.  The rest of my pics can be seen here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/biganthony/MauiFeb200802. 

Next stop, Kentucky (groannnn)!  Cya’ll in March!