My 30th

I've decided for my birthday I wanted to treat myself to a trip so I decided to go to Honolulu, Hawaii with my bf. We left on Jan 14 Wed at 5pm and we got back on Jan 19 Mon supposedly at 11:30 but our flight was delayed till Jan 20 Tuesday at 1:15am. So here is the overall trip I wanted to write about for memory purposes. So we got packed and ready to go and got dropped off the airport around 3:30pm. Our flight was on time. Had a meal at Tim Hortons. Partake the turkey rice soup, a bagel with garlic cream cheese and shared a all meat salami sandwich and cream of leek soup with my hunny. Decided to grab 2 muffins to go for the flight to Honolulu. Go in the plane. More turbulence then I ever experienced before. The weather was mild. Got to budget to rent our car upgraded to a black mustang. Took way to long the service was way to slow only having 1 associate to assist the customers. We got upgraded to a black mustang convertible. Drove to our hotel at the Hilton Waikiki. On the 31st floor. Had two standard beds. The room was ok and the view was ok. Had a nice balcony. Arrived around 12-1ish in the AM. Went downstairs for some food checked out the MAC 24/7 had the truffle oil ramen and my bf the siamin noodles. Very interesting flavors mine and my bf tasted like a Chinese soup noodle. He had the Mai tai which was a happy hour special. After that we just headed to bed.

Next day Jan 15 Thursday: headed to the Ala Moana Mall....had the Kokko Special at the food court which consisted of spam, fried rice, pulled pork, egg and sausages. And for drink we had the Guava Canned drink from Hawaii. Walked around watched a hula dance/singing performance. Drove to the beach. Walked around. Drove around the shoreline

We went snorkeling at the Hanauma Bay. It was a lot of fun. It was my 2nd snorkeling experience and I enjoyed it the 2nd time more then the 1st which was in Mexico.

Jan 16 Friday (my birthday): I got a special chocolate/fruit plate from  Headed out early to hike up the Diamond Head Crater. Took only 30 mins easy hike up and down. Headed to North Shore for some garlic shrimp at Giovanni's food truck. Was too greasy but the shrimp was big, juicy and tasty. Afterwards we headed to Matsumoto for some shaved ice we choose the tropical flavours which consisted of guava, lilikoi and papaya. Then we headed to the Dole Plantation for some dole whip which is our ultimate favourite. After trying it at Disneyland we knew we had to have it again. We had the dolewhip with fresh pineapples. It was delicious. We bought some dried pineapples and partake of the samples of the fresh royal pineapple with Li Hing Mui powder. It was a salty and sour flavour that enhanced the pineapple flavours. It was delicious. Afterwards we headed to home to get ready to go to Morimoto, my favourite iron chef. The place was so modern and chic. Simple colors of white, and aqua marine colors embraced the room. We tried the omakase. Which featured the chef's freshest ingredients in an array of different combinations of different plates of food. We decided to sit at the bar to watch the bustling chefs at work. It was a great experience. I enjoyed every plate placed before me.

Jan 17 Saturday: We decided to head to the outlet but there was nothing there. There was the Leonard's Bakery food truck so we tried the Malasades. It was a Portuguese donut light and fluffy. Afterwards we went to grab a Acai Bowl at the Jamba Juice.

Jan 18 Sunday: Dolphin Encounter day. We went to the Sea Life Park to experience kissing, playing with the dolphins. It was my childhood dream to do it so I knew I had to experience this on my 30th.
Afterwards we went to the Chief Luau. It was filled with games, bamboo leaf braiding, temporary tattoos, spear throwing, fire making, hula dancing fun. There was culture dancing, fire dancing, music, buffet of Hawaiian foods such as salad, poke, fish, pulled pork, chicken skewers, fruits, and coffee and pineapple cake. The chief was amazing, super funny and entertaining.

Jan 19 Monday: We decided to wake up early to watch the sunrise which began at 7:11am in the morning. We drove up to Diamond Head Crater to watch it. It was amazing. Beautiful bright orange sun rose in the air while listening to edm music. Afterwards we grabbed food at the Diamond Head Market and shared a plate of Loco Moco which consisted of a hamburg steak on top of rice and an egg with kimchi as our side. It was simple but delicious. We also had a pina colada drink on the side.

We headed to the Ala Moana mall to partake of the ramen at the Shirokiya Japanese market there. We also ad the spam sushi which was delicious. We got another fill of the mochi ice cream from Bubbies.
We walked along the luxury strip mall at night. Bought some Hawaiian cookies.Went to buy snacks at the market. We had dinner at the Town organic restaurant we had the tombe (fish), gnocchi dishes and we shared a Lilikoi drink.

Overall, my trip to Hawaii, Honolulu was amazing. We both had a blast and definitely would come back for more fun and adventure.

Tsubaki

I was on facebook the other day and I saw a classmate of mine who was Japanese post about this place in Richmond, Tsubaki and she mentioned she had Hirame "flounder" which I love. My first time eating flounder was at Ajisai in West Vancouver. So me and bf decided to go visit Tsubaki. We went on a Sunday and they open everyday from 5-10pm I believe. Only for dinner. So we got there right around 5pm. We were the first one there. Since we were the first one's there we had really good customer service. I believe the person serving us was the manager or the head of the restaurant. He seemed professional and very kind. We had a dish complimentary from the chef of stewed salmon and white carrot. It was simple and I was hungry so I devoured the small dish. We ordered the flounder which was cut into very fine pieces, very delicate flavours and no fishiness at all which I loved. We had the chef recommendation special of the day which consisted of: sockeye salmon, Squid, Ebi, Salmon wrapped with cuttle fish, Mackerel, Tuna, Aji (Horse Mackerel), Seared Scallops. The dish was very fresh, no taste of fishiness at all. I thoroughly enjoyed the textures and the flavours of each seafood. We had the sake clams in broth which was very delicious. Warming to the body. It was a great way of getting ourselves off the cold dishes with something warm. We had the Miso Cod which was very good as well. Quite small for the price which was about $15.00 for a slice. Overall I had a great experience. Everything was delicious. Next time I'll try out their rolls. It was a carbless meal that day. Afterwards we headed for some shaved ice at Icy Bar in Vancouver near Kingsway and Joyce area.  We shared a lychee shaved ice with a regular shaved ice of mangoes, pudding, rice mochi, black rice. It was delicious. I was super cold after eating that...thank goodness for my jacket
Had a nice sunny day playing Tennis at Langara. Overall a wonderful Sunday.

Toronto Blue Jays

This past weekend I went to Seattle with my bf and his parents for my first baseball game. The game was held at Safeco Stadium. I was very excited because this was a passionate sport for my bf who played since he was little. He had stopped due to a serious injury and he had to stop playing the sport. It is quite sad, I wish I was there to watch him play because I think he would have been amazing on the field. We started off getting up early on a Saturday around 7am. Headed for a 3 hr drive from Vancouver to Seattle. We had lunch at a nearby stand near the stadium which consisted for a hot dog, chips and pop. We also grabbed a bag of Kettle Popcorn for the game. We had a round of shots at a nearby pub and went straight to grab our seats at the Stadium. The seats were great the atmosphere was lively. There was definitely more Blue Jay fans then Seattle Mariner fans. I finally saw my first professional home run, people catching balls in the audience, singing "Take me out to the ball game." Overall, it was a fun game not boring at all. I realized when you are in an actual event its much different then watching it on the TV at home. Afterwards we headed to PF Chang's for dinner in Belleville and then we went to the Seattle Premium Outlets and we were on our way home. Overall, a very eventful day!