our timing was pretty good, because when we got inside it was fairly empty, with just one party in front of us ordering from the counter. this gave us some time to peruse the menu and check out the goodies in the bakery case.
the bean decided to go for it and ordered a mini chocolate-macadamia nut pie. i didn't get a bite of it, but she and her sister said it was super delicious.
the old lady ordered a bloody mary, while the hub tried the banana bread beer. he said it was really good and tasted exactly like a slice of banana bread.
this was the "fried salad" - brussels sprouts, mixed greens, celery leaves and radish with an orange vinaigrette.
chicken and waffles:
blue cheese burger:
the stacked burger had not only a burger patty, but corned beef AND pastrami with caramelized onions, provolone and whole grain mustard.
and i opted for the pork, pork...mmmm, pork sandwich. just as it sounds: bacon, ham, prosciutto, and salami with swiss cheese and mustard plus balsamic. so good.
as we drove towards wailea the guys pointed out some pretty thick black smoke coming from that direction, and twitter told me that there was a brush fire that had broken out just an hour before. we made some jokes about getting stuck on the side of the island where the four seasons and fairmont resorts were, and kept on driving. little did we know...
i was pretty excited to visit the four seasons again - it's where we got married, and we haven't been back since then. you know how i love a good walk down memory lane, and in fact i'd secretly bought the hub a new wedding band that i'd planned on giving him during this trip. he's lost so much weight that his original band literally falls right off of his finger now, and i thought it would be a fun surprise. i probably should have had it ready in my bag while we were at our wedding venue, but we'd rushed out of the condo that morning and i totally forgot to grab it. damn. oh, well.
the memories came flooding back as we parked the car and headed into the resort, and noticed how dark the sky had gotten and the ash that was falling on us as a result of that fire. it was clearly spreading, and you could smell the smoke in the air.
we'd walked down this pathway on our way to the garden area where we got married:
and the three of us had taken a picture in front of this fountain after the ceremony.
i found this in my camera roll right after that one...not surprising since the bean had taken that picture of us.
we headed down to the cafe next to the pool and sat down to grab some drinks, and the bean ordered some sushi from the bar menu.
there was a pair of guys seated at the table next to us, and we rolled our eyes as we overheard them complaining to the server. "what is all this black stuff that keeps falling on us?" and "ugh, the sky is so dark and ugly." it didn't seem to sink in as she politely explained that there was a brush fire nearby, and they continued to bitch and moan as she left to place the order for their drinks and food. meanwhile, we just sat and enjoyed the view...dark and smoky as it was, we still thought it was beautiful.
it was at this point that the hub got a phone call that none of us were expecting. for one of our days on maui, we had booked a boat to take us to molokini for some snorkeling and lunch before watching the sunset. somehow, we'd had it in our heads that it was booked for the next day - and you can guess where this is going. sure enough, our guide and the boat were waiting for us in ka'anapali - and we were already ten minutes late. we were a good half hour away, and i started to panic because i'd totally screwed it up. at the very least, we'd lose an hour of our boating time as long as we skedaddled out of there ASAP and hightailed it back to meet up with the guide. so we paid our server and made our way back out towards the valet.
the hub knew that i'd really wanted to do more reminiscing about our wedding, but of course we didn't have time for any of that now. instead, he had us stop at the fountain again long enough to re-enact that photo we'd taken almost 14 years ago with the old lady. here's the original:
and present day.
as we got into the car and started heading back towards ka'anapali we realized that it wasn't going to be as easy as we'd thought. turns out that brush fire had spread so much that residents in the kihei area were being evacuated - and on top of that, the main road that we'd need to take had been closed down. we didn't have any way to get back to the dock to meet up with the boat, and they weren't willing to sail down towards us to pick us up at another location. we sat in traffic for a good long while, along with hundreds of other cars who were trying to flee from the fire. and as the hub did his best to make some moves and find other ways to get us to where we needed to be, we finally realized that it simply wasn't going to happen and resigned ourselves to staying in wailea and waiting it out. we had a dinner reservation at ruth's chris, where we'd had our wedding dinner, and since most of us weren't dressed for such an outing we headed to the shops at wailea to find some suitable attire for the evening.
and guess what? somehow i'd screwed that one up too, and it turned out that the reservation i'd made for dinner was for THE NIGHT BEFORE. omg. i died a little as i sucked it up and admitted my second screwup to the group, and i took a ton of teasing and cracks about old age as i tried to disappear into the backseat of the car. ugh.
the hub drove us past the resorts and down some dirt roads that were lined with piles and piles of lava rock, and eventually we ended up here:
we found a nice trail to hike along as we explored the beach and found a cool blowhole.
the sun looked red and angry.
we decided to head back to the resort area to see if we could get in somewhere for dinner, stopping at the fairmont kea lani first to try our luck. as we were going down the stairs towards the restaurants i noticed a familiar figure heading in our direction and realized it was michael easton, who plays "hamilton finn" on general hospital. i silently freaked out and pointed him out to the old lady behind me, who nodded in recognition and grinned at me as he passed her with a smile. i know, i'm a dork.
of course, with the fire and the fact that the resort was sold out, the restaurants were all booked solid and we were turned away. we decided to walk along the beachfront path towards the four seasons, which was a lot longer of a trek than any of us had imagined.
and when we got there, we heard the same thing: booked solid, with no walk-ins being taken at any of the restaurants and a two-hour wait at the poolside cafe we'd been to earlier. damn.
the hub decided to uber us to the shops at wailea so we could hopefully find some dinner there. i'd already looked at availability at ruth's chris earlier and found nothing, but i decided we could just stroll in and see if they could seat us anyway.
while the hub headed back to the fairmont to get our car and the kids waited on that bench, i went inside and worked some magic with the hostess at the podium. they somehow managed to find a table for us way back in the furthest corner of the restaurant, and we were happy campers.
their famous, delicious barbecued shrimp:
carpacccio:
ahi poke:
mmmm, steak.
we were in the same room our wedding dinner had been in, and while he wasn't particularly excited about it i took a quick selfie of us:
and downstairs, we checked out cheeseburger in paradise where our rehearsal lunch had been. we thought it was a little odd that it was closed, but maybe they thought the fire was closer than it was.
as we headed back out towards the main road, we came upon some police officers who were managing the road block. we'd lucked out yet again as they told us to hold on for a few minutes because the road was going to open up, and we were among the first to be allowed through. yay!
at least there was a happy ending to the day, right?
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