Christmas - Hawaiian, Jersey, Italian Style

This Christmas was unlike any other. First of all, I had to work. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I didn't really get to relax and lay around all day watching basketball and football games with my bros. Nor did I get the royal breakfast treatment of my Dad's sausage biscuts and gravy or my Mom's french toast, bacon and eggs. I got cold pizza left over from my Christmas eve lunch/dinner.
When I got to work it was a little slow. Some of the servers were bitching about being there and having to work when it was so slow. This didn't last for long. About an hour later I was face down in the well banging out bloody mary's and guava mimosa's like a maniac. The people were just a little slow in getting there, but once they did it was busy. It was the busiest day I've had at the old Seawatch and it was pretty fun. Everyone was in a good mood which reflected in their tipping of the bartender. Nice.
After work I came back to the house and relaxed for an hour or so. Then Kevin and I headed up to Rick Pounds' house. Rick is a guy I met through Kevin, he's retired and plays golf almost everyday. He's from Jersey and is a riot. He's always got either something to say or a quick comeback to anything you say. A real funny guy. His house was awesome. It's in the same neighborhood as our's, but definitely not in the same price range. It's three stories with a flat top roof with ocean and town views.
The first difference in the Christmas meal was that everyone was barefoot wearing shorts and aloha shirts (all slippers are checked at the door in Hawaii). The second was that I actually ate my dinner outside on the wrap around lanai. No way you could eat a Christams dinner outside in Oregon.
The third difference was the food. I usually have the more traditional American style dinner with my family of meat and potatoes. But this spread was Italian. We had all sorts of good stuff like homemade meat balls, roasted shredded pork, pasta dishes, roasted red peppers, and chicken skewars. It was a fun night.
So, I guess this Christmas was a good one even though I didn't get to be with my family I got to spend some time with new friends and people I hope to know for a long time.
Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!!

Maui Prince

Today after training I went to the beach in front of the Maui Prince. It was my first time there and it was pretty nice. They have lawn chairs out there, probably for the guests of the hotel, but there was no one using them so I figured I'd put one to good use. I could only hang out for about 25 minutes because I had to pick Kevin up from work but I made good use of my time. I swam around for most of it and found a snorkel and mask on the bottom of the ocean as well as a lawn chair! I returned the snorkel and mask to the little activities shack, my good deed for the day, and the chair was upside down with just the legs sticking out of the sand so I just left it there. Here are some pics from the beach.
Aloha!!

La Perouse

Howzit!!
Today, after work (I'm still training at Fred's), Kevin and I went down to La Perouse. La Perouse is a little cove at the very end of the road past Big Beach and the other cove my last snorkeling adventure was at. You go past pretty much all of the houses and civilization on the road and end up in a lava field. It was kind of murky because we went at about three o'clock in the afternoon but the reef was cool and there were some nice fish to check out. I saw at least ten different species, most of them I posted pictures of in the first snorkeling post, but there were a couple of new ones I hadn't seen yet.
I just can't get over the fact that everyone I know is basically freezing right now, and I'm going snorkeling. I mean, I had the air conditioning working hard in the car today and my family is dealing with temperatures in the 30's. I really dig it here.
Anyway, one of the pictures is of the cove I was at, one is from the road to the cove (looking back up the mountian), and the other two are of road side stands that serve 'ono grinds' for people coming to or from the beach. There were a few more food stands on the road but they shut down before we came back. I'll post pictures of them later.
Aloha,
Jeff

Mike's Birthday

Yesterday was Mike's birthday so we went down to the beach they call 'white rock' and had a little fun tossin' horse shoes and drinking beer. Chillin' on a beach in Maui with the sun going down and the waves crashing having a good time with friends, it doesn't get much better. We got there about 45 minutes before sunset and played into the night. It was a full moon, so once the sun went down we waited for the moon to fully rise and then played by moonlight. It was sweet. In the first shot you can see a horse shoe flying across the the picture. We grilled up some sausages and hot dogs but my camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get any shots of the feast. The players included: Mike, Keith, Brett, Jay, Kevin and myself. In two of the shots you can see a house in the background. It's Clint Eastwood's. Aloha!

Between Shifts

Aloha! So this week I've been training down at Fred's Mexican Cafe, it's been fun so far and I think it's going to be an awesome place to work. The prices are right for both food and drink, so I think there will be a lot of local traffic. Monday and Tuesday I also worked the night bar shift at The Seawatch. Yesterday I decided to take a little break in between shifts and go to the beach. I went to one called Kamaole 1. There are three "Kam's" along South Kihei road and Kam 1 is the most northern of the bunch. Here's a few shots of the place. The boat has been sitting there for about two or three weeks, I don't know why. Shoots.

Oh yeah, I thought I saw my good buddy Justin there. If you click on the picture in the middle, I thought he was the guy in the bottom left of the shot, in the speedo. But when I got up there I realized that the old guy filled out the speedo much too much to be Justin. :)

The Seawatch

Aloha once again. Here are some pictures of the place I've been working at for the last few weeks. It's called The Seawatch and it's located at the Gold and Emerald Courses at Wailea. It's right accross from the pro shop where Kevin works. You can't really beat the view. People tell me that during whale season, the next three months or so, you can see them jumping and playing around in the ocean from the restaurant. Every night the servers usually end up playing photographer for the guests when the sun goes down. It drops into the sea just to the right of the two islands, Molokini and Koolawe. It's a pretty cool place to work.

Right now it's about 80 degrees outside and I'm chillin' in my surf shorts with the windows open and the birds singin'. Hope it's not too chilly on the mainland!!

Aloha,
Jeff

A few more pictures

Aloha, I know that I haven't really posted much for the last few days but I've been busy working and trying to get a second job. I got the second one yesterday so I drove by the place today and snapped a shot of it. It's called Fred's Mexican Cafe and it's still under construction.
The other pic of Mimi's Karaoke Lounge is somewhere my good buddy Kevin took me, as a joke. He said they'd be showing the Monday night football game there and that drinks were cheap. He was correct on both accounts however, he neglected to inform me before we entered the joint that it was a 'hostess bar'. When I walked in I knew something wasn't right. It was dark and there were seedy lookin' asian men all over the place accompanied by girls who looked like they weren't there to watch the game. Mimi herself sat us in a booth and asked us if we had been there before. "No" was of course my answer and Kevin said "maybe once or twice" with an evil grin on his face. She then asked us what we'd like to drink, we told her, and she proceeded to let us know that the girls can sit with us while we watch the game for a cost of $20-$1,000. We respectfully declined any "company" for the moment and when she left I looked at Kevin and he was laughing his ass off. We pounded our drinks and left quickly. Kevin is sooo funny, huh?
Aloha,
Jeff