Hawaii – day 3

My parents had planned to drive to another location on Day 3 for a hike in the forest (not sure where but it was another 60+min drive) so Gerry and I decided to opt out of that trip and just putter around our hotel. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in the back of the car looking at the highway again … especially because we had plans later that night to drive back to Paia (another long drive) that evening for the party at Paia Tattoo Parlor. 🙂

We planned on sleeping in but ended up waking up early so we went down to the pool for a swim and because it was so early we had the pool to ourselves. Just me, Gerry and Perogy Cat! Yes. Perogy Cat came with us … he deserves a vacation as much as the next guy (or cat). You may remember him from some of my other trips to NY, San Fran, etc.

Perogy Cat and Gerry chillin in the hot tub!

After breakfast we decided to go for a walk and have lunch at one of the other hotels up the strip … From our hotel you can walk along the beach or the boardwalk all the way to the end of the beach where The Sheraton Black Rock hotel was located.

Along the way we got to peek into the backyards of all the other resorts and some of them were incredible and some of them had seen better days (like the 70’s) but it was a nice walk. We finally reached The Sheraton (about a 45 minute walk) and wandered around trying to find a restaurant. They had an amazing tropical garden with beautiful flowers …and I almost lost Gerry in the trees. *laugh*

I only  had my iphone to take photos (left my good camera back at the hotel) and I was cursing myself for not bringing it when I saw all the flowers… but I think iphone did a pretty nice job.  🙂

This flower was as big as my head … and I have a GIANT head!!

Lunch at The Sheraton was “meh” but we knew it wouldn’t be great. We shared a simple flatbread pizza with grilled veggies and Gerry also decided to have a Mai Tai (his first ever) with lunch. It was pretty boozy and since our lunch wasn’t very substantial coupled with the sun popping out of the clouds and blazing down on us … it made for a very sleepy/drunk Gerry.

On the walk back to the hotel we had to take a “nap” briefly on one of the other hotels lawns … it was pretty funny.

Got home. Had another nap and then got ready to meet our friends Adam and Sarah (of Tattoodles.com fame ) who were also in Maui hiding from the Olympics just like us.

We met for dinner at The Fresh Mint in Paia. The food looked really good (Gerry enjoyed his dish) but the menu was SUPER soy-based so there was only a few things I could eat on the menu and even when I asked for “No soy” in my dishes they all arrived with soy (I think there was a bit of a language issue) but I picked out the tofu and it was fine.

After dinner we walked down the street and hit up Ono Gelato Company for dessert. HALF of their items for sale are vegan (woo hoo) and I ordered The Sea Mist and it was incredible. Ooooh I wish I could have some right now.  YUM!

Then we hit up the party/art show to look at the 101 Valentine/Tattoo themed paintings that Justin Yates (can’t find a website for him – sorry) had painted.

The paintings were all super cute and were selling for $20 a piece. We bought 2.  🙂

Everyone at Paia Tattoo Parlor was really cool and it was a fun party – but Gerry and I had to leave pretty early. We had to get up early the next day for the big volcano trip my parents had planned (another car trip) so we said a sad good-bye to our new/old friends and hit the road back to the hotel.

Day 4 was going to be a looooong fun day and I needed a good sleep so I wouldn’t be a back-seat grump!