#HawaiianEye: Ahaaina

So, some readers may recall that on another holiday trip to warmer climes - Palm Springs, 2014 - Coco and I had splendid dinner on Christmas Eve and improvised our Christmas Day dinner plans, winding up at an out-of-the-way Chinese restaurant. The young staff, working the first holiday the restaurant had remained opened, were completely overwhelmed by the unexpected slam, and we wound up waiting literally two hours for any food beyond a bowl of wontons and some sweet-and sour sauce. The crew was wonderful and we were pulling for them, but still and all it was not the evening we had anticipated.

This trip, we were sort-of following the same pattern. We enjoyed a grand meal at the fancy Pacific'O restaurant on Christmas Eve, but we had made plans to see the 7:00 pm showing of Moana in Kahalui yesterday night, so we just wanted a place to grab a bite. We verified that the Tiki Tiki Thai Restaurant was open for dinner beforehand, and when we arrived, I was a bit anxious that we were going to repeat the Palm Springs experience. The Tiki Tiki, a small strip mall eatery, seats maybe 30 people, if I am being generous. There were people waiting, and we had only allowed a little more than an hour before we needed to head to the theater.

5:35 - We are seated within minutes because we are a party of two and not one of the hopeful clusters of four or six or eight - a very good start. The white plastic illuminated tree adds a "festive" touch to the table.

5:42 - Our order is taken by the youngest staffer, a teenage (tweenage?) girl in an Anime Convention T-shirt. Things are looking  good, but I overhear the cashier telling some people ordering takeout how it might be 30 minutes for their order.

5:58 - We get our beers, brought by the boss, whose red and black service smock is oddly reminiscent of a Star Trek uniform (Next Generation). Hope remains strong as Coco and I play I Spy.

6:19 - The food arrives - yay! Not only do we have sufficient time to eat, but both the Pad Thai and the pad See Ew are very good. History does not repeat itself; all is well.

PS: Moana is really good.

Bonus photo: We fared much better with our holiday breakfast - we were the third in line when the always-in-demand Gazebo restaurant opened for breakfast at 7:30, had sweet banana pancakes while watching the morning waves, and then visited the tide pools to look for turtles.

(Shortly after this exuberance, Coco went back to bed for nap before her morning swim.)