leap day

Aloha and happy leap day. This morning we flew to Hawaii for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. Wanted to get some warm sun and eat some good food. Our day started off with the computers at the airport not recognizing leap day and we had to get checked in manually by an agent. We were hoping this was not a bad sign. Our flight was good and we arrived in Honolulu in one piece.

Jeff was really looking forward to trying a new saimin place that Uncle Richard told him about. It has strange hours so Jeff thought he should try it on the first day in case it is really good he wanted to make sure he could eat it at least one more time. He said he knew where it was located but an hour and half later we could not find it. Jeff called them 3 times for directions and each time they hung up on him. I was starving and almost died of lack of food so we ate at Zippy's. We got saimin and a zip pac which consisted of rice, spam, fish, chicken and teri beef. Our food was good but Jeff was still disappointed he didn't get to try Palace Saimin Stand.

Close up of Zippy's saimin

noodles, soup, green onion, fish cake and bbq pork

Long Johns another of Jeff's favorites of Hawaii

long doughnut filled with custard

We are missing the grand opening of the very first Nordstrom in Hawaii.

Opens March 7th.

We stayed at our favorite hotel. Hilton Hawaiian Village. This time we tried a different tower, Kalia. It is the newest one. Our room was nice and came with an ocean view.

Jeff ordered extra pillows on the internet. They arrived before us. Last time we didn't get them.

Bathroom, small but nice.



View from our room.

Diamond Head

Sunset

Every Friday night there are fireworks at the Hilton. This is our 4th stay and the first time we have seen the fireworks on the beach. It was really nice.

Finally, Jeff looked up the location on Palace Saimin Stand on his computer and found out that it's close to the airport on the way to the hotel. We decided to drive by it at night (they open at 8pm for dinner) in case it was in a bad neighborhood we would just check it out and if it's safe we would stop and eat dinner.

It looked OK so we went in.

Pretty small menu and cheap too.

Wun tun min

Saimin

BBQ sticks

After eating our dinner. Jeff declared that this is his new favorite saimin place. Even better than Hamura's in Kauai where it is not uncommon for him to eat three meals there a day. He liked the crunchy (not literally) noodles. He vowed to come back tomorrow again for dinner since they are closed on Sunday and Monday...

new eats

While visiting Mom in the hospital we discovered some new places to eat. Chicken Pie Shop. It was like going back to the 50's even the waitresses were all old and grouchy too. For $5 you could get soup or salad and a chicken pot pie and mash potato. It was really good.

The other place is Portillo's. Clyde and Kelly first told us about it. They specialize in beef sandwiches and Chicago style hot dogs. Jeff' claim's it's the best chili dog he has ever had. Can't wait to go back. Just wish they had one closer to our house!!! There is only one location in California. The rest are in Chicago.

Interesting decor






Chili Dog




Beef sandwich

mom

Mom at the rehab center

Update on Mom. On Febuary 6th, Mom didn't feel well. The next day she finally went to the hospital and found out she had a heart attack. That night she had a balloon pump inserted next to her heart and found out that most of her arteries were badly blocked. On Febuary 10th (Brian's birthday) she had open heart surgery (5 bypasses). She did really good in surgery but was not stable and had some bleeding so that night she had a second surgery. They opened her up again. Looked at her heart and stopped the bleeding. It took her a long while to wake up. Slowly, each day she got better and better. She was released from the hospital on Febuary 15th and is now in a rehab center. At first she was really weak and couldn't sit up or even walk. She is making very good progress and will go home when she is able to resume normal everyday tasks.

As you can see she is doing really good.

toffee

On a recent trip to Disneyland we discovered these tasty treats. English toffee. It is the best we have ever had. We thought we would share some photo's of how they are made. If you are at Disneyland, this is a must try. Although, these treats are pricey at $12 a bag!!!

First they make the toffee.

They are hand dipped in chocolate.


Lastly, they are rolled in chopped almonds.

Jeff enjoying his Engish Toffee!!!