Must Do Checklist: The Luau

It's one of those extremely expensive tourist things that has to be done, so here we are queuing on the beach, near twilight waiting to get our hands on those free complimentary Mai Tai's.

To be fair, it was a free bar and all you can eat, what else could you ask for?

Here's the pig going into the ground. For those that don't know, a Luau is where they cook a whole pig in the ground before serving it up.

View photo's of the Luau

Basil Tomatoes

So we finally settled in and on the first night we decided to all go out together and sample some of the local cuisine. Mike recommended Basil Tomatoes just down the road from Ka'anapali. I have a video of the event but I haven't got round to editing yet.

Some of the highlights include being served by the militant waitress we nicknamed 'butch' (wait till you see the video) and being served purified 'clear' milk (also in the video).

Mike had already finished his drink at this point. I guess no one has mentioned to him that you toast first and then drink.

Since we paid for the meal on my card, we ended up with a fistful of dollars. I didn't get to play with it long, as Donna was already comfortably getting ready to be in wife-mode.

View the photo's

Trail, home of 'Fluff n Stuff' and The Colander!

Here is Donna with Aunt Dora outside her church, the Family Worship Centre, Trail, BC. Below is a picture of the street the church is on. You can just make out on the photo (if you zoom in) that the church is right across the street from Fluff n Stuff: Adult Boutique!

It brings to mind the childrens hymn we sang at first school:

"Cross over the road my friend, ask the Lord his help to lend..."

Indeed. Your own jokes in the comments please...

We stopped here overnight to visit with Bob and Dora, Donna's aunt and uncle and we ate, ate, ate. It started at the infamous Colander. Here they just serve you spaghetti, meatballs, chicken and potatoes till you can't reach the table because your gut has pushed it further away during expansion. I have to admit though, it's great food!

Pumpkins

We stopped off in this small town called Creston(?) on the way to Vancouver. Elsie was having a meltdown because the car was having trouble starting. She'd just spent $1000 (£~500) on a new transmission on her van. Turns out they had left the battery cables loose is all.

This is the biggest pumpkin I have ever seen. I think there was a competition to guess the weight and you could win it. I think the competition should have been eat it in one sitting and you don't have to pay for it.

Ha, check out that witch, Canadians have a terrific sense of humour.

Photo's on Facebook

Pizza Time!

Far left: from the left: Mike and wife Shannon, son Erik and me. Near left: Donna's mum Elsie, Mike and Erik.

MIA: Kyle & Ryan Moskal

There are 4(?) computers in their house (next door to Elsie). My brother-in-law, Mike has even built his own games arcade (below). Mike if you build a fruit machine we could be on to a winner.

A & W

My first A&W, and my first experience of the Mozzaburger and the beginning of a beautiful relationship. After this, going back to McDonald's was just never the same.

This photo was taken in Canmore, just outside of Banff. We had 4 more hours to go before Cranrook (6 hours with the tourist, aka Wes).

I didn't take any pictures of Banff, it looks like every ski resort/mountain village in Switzerland and I already have tons of pictures of Switzerland.

Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Pancakes and Ice-Cream

A good place to start, my first breakfast on my first morning in Canada. I flew into Calgary the night before to meet Donna before we head to her friends house. I'm told the Ice-cream is not Canadian, but just their own house speciality.

It's a strange combination to have for breakfast, but amazingly it works, and tastes delicious.

I find this is also ironically symbolic of our relationship. An Englishman who met a Canadian in Switzerland, who up till recently lived in Germany, and getting married in the US. Add our age-gap into the mix and pretty soon you have something like bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes and ice-cream. A combination you may not think would work, but it does. It's fun, it feels good, made with the ingredients we love and when you taste those combinations and flavours, you realise, it actually make sense.

Our Maui Wedding starts here, I've backdated the post to the date the photo was taken. The date now is 26th November, I am in the UK and Donna is in Germany in the process of applying for her marriage visa- don't ask. We have recently moved into a flat in Ealing and have no Internet connection, so this blog will not be updated regularly till nearer Christmas. Please check back for more posts and and wedding photo's (subject to approval by the Mrs). Since our married life is currently on hiatus pending said visa, the reception/celebration for UK friends and family is unfortunately suspended till the New Year. We'll keep you posted.