Is still warm!! By now you guys must know what a sucker for warm weather I am. My mood is dictated by the sun so I am truly in heaven right now. And even rain storms passing through don’t bother me because IT IS STILL WARM. Hawaii is heaven.
You know what else is heaven? The ability to order food from a restaurant for all members of our family. I will never ever take that for granted. We still have a kitchen in our room, but I can do as little or as much as I want. It’s obviously more economical to make food for them in house because they overcharge you SO MUCH here, so I’ve been doing a combo (mostly feeding them breakfast and lunch in the room and doing dinner out). I am bringing home every tiny scrap of leftovers, which has made it possible to buy very minimally. The shopping list is basically: veggies, fruit, bread, eggs, and different forms of dairy doses (yogurt/cheese). All organic, too! And beer and kombucha, naturally. And kettle chips (because for some reason they were on sale for cheaper than you can get them anywhere else in the US).
In the morning, Kyle and I alternate working out at the gym. I have been totally half a$$ about it, but it’s kinda awesome to watch TV on the elliptical and then blink your eyes and an hour has gone by. I never have that amount of time to take for myself and just zone out, so it’s for sure feeling like a luxury. I have been watching BRAVO shows on my phone while working out too because that takes the mindlessness to the next level. I probably barely raise my heart rate, but I don’t even care. I’ll get back in peak shape once we are home again.
Now that I’ve gotten ahead of myself let me back up a bit. You see, we were only at our first place for three days, so I didn’t want to go shopping until we were settled for a longer and more permanent length of time. Instead of making breakfast in (like I did basically every other day we were on the island), we all went out to eat.
Joey’s Kitchen is a little mom and pop type place in Whaler’s Village. It’s a little like a food court since it’s a mall and there is communal seating for a couple of other eateries there, but it’s Hawaii, so it’s not like Panda Express or anything.
We got three orders of the same plate – 2 eggs (prepared however), sausage or bacon, potatoes, and toast. A lot of food and very generous portions for $9. Bang for your buck indeed. Thank you, Joey’s Kitchen.
Kyle chose fried eggs and sausage, but the kids and I got ours scrambled with bacon and shared the two plates between the three of us. It was MORE than enough and we brought the leftover bread and jam home for lunches.
This was after spending all morning in the pool, so they were famished by the time we got out of our swim suits and cleaned up.
Kyle and I each got Caesar salads from Choice. The Ka’anapali location is new (we have only been to the Lahaina location before). It’s right next to Joey’s Kitchen in Whaler’s Village and is more of a take-away looking stand, so they don’t offer the full selection that the larger Lahaina location offers, but they still make things to order.
We each got the Caesar (raw and vegan with a cashew based dressing), but since it wasn’t quite enough to fill us up we bought kettle chips too. The salad was fantastic. I would definitely get this again and again. I loved the capers and dried tomatoes with mac nuts on top. Salty, savory, perfection.
We were back at the pool for the rest of the day with snack breaks as needed.
For dinner we walked back to Whaler’s Village (third time that day!) to try out Monkeypod.
It’s another restaurant by Peter Merriman (and slightly more affordable than Merriman’s). Kyle and I have been to Monkeypod in Wailea before as well as Merriman’s in Kapalua, and I love his food and mission, so we were excited to try out the newest addition here in Lahaina. And let me tell you, their business is BOOMING. Holy moly, was it ever a scene.
We had a reservation (not making that mistake again!) and still had quite the wait…
By the time the server came around we were so hungry we put in an order of the poke trio appetizer.
Guess who likes octopus? My kids.
After hemming and hawing for a while I decided on the special of the night – which was some kind of steak with a grilled cauliflower and pinenut side and fried potato balls.
Honestly, the steak was good, but I was a little bummed because I ordered it because of the cauli dish and it was super underwhelming. Basically just grilled cauliflower. No sauce. Oh well.
Kyle got fish tacos and while they were good, there was nothing super amazing about them, and he had a similar complaint of them being dry and lacking sauce.
The kids had no problems with their (CHEESE) burgers though. Also, they think french fries are the bees knees (which is a totally legit sentiment).
For the first time ever on this vacay, we attempted sibling bed sharing. I am happy to report it has gone quite well. Since V goes to bed first anyway, it allows her time to pass out before we put P down. That way they don’t talk (or fight over sheets, pillows, etc.) into the wee hours.
Mr. P was still adjusting to the time change on day two though, so he passed out with his headphones on during his quiet time on the lounge chair in our room! We transferred him with ease and the next morning they were smitten as could be to wake up next to each other!
A little earlier than we were hoping for but that’s why hotels have PBS kids. Insert Daniel Tiger and Word World and everyone wins!
