Honeymoon in Hawaii, day six.

Dinner at Chuck's was good last night, but not how I remembered it. I guess since my last visit I've been spoiled with nicer Steakhouses like Mastro's, Fleming's, and Morton's. In any case, I felt as if I was coming down with a cold, so that might partially to blame. The atmosphere was great, the company even better (my new wife), but the food just didn't make it on my favorite-5 list. It ended up being a short night, right after dinner we headed back to the room to get some rest.

This morning we headed to the Moana Surfrider Resort, next door to the Outrigger Waikiki to be picked up for Kualoa Ranch. The name of the company, named after the mountain on which the ranch sits, is Hawaiian for "long back" which was given to the mountain for its distinct shape. We decided on a half day tour, which included any two 90-minute (or so) activities, which worked out perfect since it started raining just before lunch (on our Ocean Voyeuge).

This activity came highly recommended, and I would say that goes well deserved. Kualoa itself is really a natural wonder. It's apparent though that Hollywood has taken advantage of this phenomenon of a place, and not that I'm one to talk but between the movie props left in place and the explosives that have permanently disfigured the land, it's obvious this is no state park.

A couple impressions I left with. First, American, English speaking, tourists are far outnumbered by Japanese here. In fact, for each activity we were split based on Nationality (actually for the tongue the tour guide spoke in). And second, though convenient (and especially so after a long day I would imagine), the provided tranportation is a bit of a hassle if you're use to being in charge of your schedule. I would recommend driving and avoiding the package that includes lunch. While lunch isn't bad, it's not great either, and we finished about an hour ahead of schedule meaning we were waiting for the bus.

This is a neat place, and it's obvious there's a lot to Kualoa, and more than what you might remember from Jurassic Park.

We're off to satisfy our sushi craving at San Sei in the Waikiki Marriott.

Honeymoon in Hawaii, day two.

To wrap up from yesterday: the restaurant where we ate dinner, Azul, was nothing short of amazing. We both we left with a great feeling leaving the restaurant. I had originally planned on ordering a rack of lamb, which wasn't available, and I would have to say I was glad it wasn't because the pork chop I ended up ordering in its place was the best I've ever had. Our server, whose name escapes me right now (actually, Steward), was magnificant. He explained every item on our plate, to the ingredients in the dressing. He explained the pork was the pork version of Kobe beef. We ordered the 'Ahi 3-ways' to start things off, which was also decadant. Talia ordered swordfish for her meal, and again, was some of the most flavorful and tender I've ever tasted. All in all, we had the best service we've ever had along wit some of the best food we've ever had, so not bad. My hat goes off to the servers at Azul in a big way.

Today, we woke up at around 7am and shortly after headed to the resort Spa for our 9am appointments. Nice place that is. We both had facials on the menu for our visit.

After breakfast we went back for a quick workout. Talia went to the lap pool and ended up in the aqua class while I worked on my biceps. We otherwise spent the day at the main resort pool, where Talia managed to get quite burned. Unpleasantly so, and we decided to move the Luau to later in the week so we could hang out in the room and avoid the sun. That's where we fell asleep for a little over an hour. I must have been tired because I usually don't fall asleep while watching movies...