Well, sorry about the lack of posts. Things have been quite busy, activities and exploration every day! Plus, I'd been having issues with WiFi in some areas and was unable to download photos from my phone until yesterday.
Anyway, after leaving Oahu, where the heck did we go?
Well, this photo will just give it all away!
You know where right?
We arrived rather late in the evening and after catching the train, which was fast, efficient, and inexpensive, then taking a short walk to our hotel. We settled in with just one full day.
In order to familiarize ourselves with the area….arriving when dark can be somewhat disorienting; I booked a private walking tour for the morning which did a great job of getting us oriented with this city of over 5 million!
The friendliness of the people, the cleanliness of this large city was wonderful.
And the range of wildlife, all protected, was something to see. Imagine walking down the street to see a wild turkey scrounging around? And most creatures seemed quite colorful!
Strangely, our dinner in the city was our only rather disappointing meal to date. Though the service was wonderful.
Soon, we were off to see something that has been on our "bucket list" for ages. Located in an area appropriately called the "Outback" resides a massive monolith!
It has always provided an air of mystery to the Missus and I. We flew in and stayed at the nearby town and did both a sunset program and a sunrise visit. We came to learn much about the native people of this area, though we just scratched the surface. We gained so much respect for their beliefs and the efforts being made to preserve both the area and those beliefs.
We got a taste of some of the indigenous flavors.
Though after our third meal of kangaroo; the Missus had eaten enough!
Which was fine because our next stop was a fantastically laid-back beachfront city. We had things going on every day.
On the first evening we decided to make a visit to the aquarium on the spur of the moment. Upon arriving, we made the decision to purchase tickets for the small group after hours tour, which ended up being one of our favorite things we've done so far. The small group was led by a Behavioral Biologist and she was wonderful. More on that later.
In short, she knew all the creatures by name!
One of our favorites was this curious puffer fish.
Who is appropriately named "ET"!
We also booked the Skyrail, the cable car that took to and above the oldest rainforest in the world!
We enjoyed our time exploring the village at the top and taking a nice walk thru the rainforest.
And the views from the train that returned to the city was quite good.
We also did two boat trips, which included three snorkeling adventures in the largest coral reef in the world.
Our favorite was a boat trip to a nearby island.
And a snorkel with a Marine Biologist.
Where we learned so much about the reef systems and the animals that inhabit the area!
Of course, this is a food blog, right?
Well, let me tell you right off that we were so pleasantly surprised at the food in this city! Especially the seafood!
And whether it was fusiony type dishes or straight up Chinese, all the seafood was fabulous!
Yes, we had a flamin' good time!
We're now back where we started. We'll be heading "home", then back to San Diego soon after!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm hoping to resume regular posting soon!
The San Diego franchised locations seem to have disappeared and 'our' location (on Clairmont Mesa Boulevard) has been re-named Bei Yuan Tea & Boba.
The chicken pieces were quite good; larger pieces of dark meat, lightly breaded and with a proper fry (not greasy). This was quite enjoyable. 
This is the Hot Pot menu which looks interesting. 
The Cold Brew was ok, on the milder side. The scone was pretty good, not overly dense, nice chunks of corn, and not too sweet. I did not find it to be overly salty. Quite filling to be sure.
Slices of pork belly wrapped around cucumber; looking at it, we were reminded of what we’d had 
Which was perfectly fine, except that the Sesame Dressing was quite salty. I came to find out that this is the "house" dressing that they actually sell. My favorite item in the salad were the kyuri-asazuke, the pickled cucumbers which held up well to the salty dressing.
I'm not going to go into excruciating detail here. I will say, that my favorite item was the scallop; the hotate was tender and sweet. 
Was it what I thought it was? Because you can't really interact with the Itamae, I asked the young lady working and she confirmed that it was 
First thing I noticed was how dark the broth was. Second thing was what was slightly submerged. Good lord, it was a huge slice of brisket! Unfortunately, it was too thick, and ended up being very chewy.
I had to kind of take my time since that broth was super hot, so I'm not sure if it contributed to the noodles, being delivered in the typical clump on the bottom of the bowl, being on the mushy side.
