Honeymoon: Day 4

Day 4 of our trip was Thursday, my birthday! My birthday wish was to just spend a day in the sun doing nothing but relaxing. So, we woke up early (per usual) and got going. Andy insisted we have a real breakfast, so we went to a little breakfast cafe/stand on the balcony overlooking the pool. Andy got some donuts and I got fruit, toast, and a boiled egg. This was also the point where Andy fell into the tourist trap and bought one of the insanely overpriced Marriott mugs. If you had a mug, you could refill it at any time in a few placed around the hotel for no cost. However, I will say that people without the assigned mugs were still using the stations so it was really pointless... Anywho, after that we went straight to the beach.

One of the things on our list of to-dos for the week was to get a couple's massage. The hotel's spa had stationed huts outside along the beach, and as soon as we arrived we knew we wanted to get hooked up with them! We set our massage up to be on my birthday. We had an 11 am appointment and met the two ladies in the hut in the sand. (Side note: Andy's masseuse was a little worried about his sun burn. By this point it was more spotty, so she didn't want to hurt him) They got right going and it was amazing. Can you image a 50 minute massage on the beach with the sound of the waves in the back? It was seriously the best. Andy is a boy and he is already excited to get another one.

Afterwards, we went to the poolside restaurant, Kalapaki Grill, and got some lunch. I had a tuna pita with hummus, and Andy ordered the Kauai pork taco. The grill had good food, and it was super convenient (yet dangerous) to just charge everything to our room.

After reapplying some lotion, we headed back to the beach for an afternoon of reading, snoozing, and drinking our complimentary Mai Tais. What a way to celebrate 23 years of life, on the beach in Hawaii with my new husband..

We had an 8 pm reservation at the Beach House restaurant, one of the nicest restaurants on the island that my parents said was a must. It is on the south shore, maybe 20 minutes from our hotel. We were ready early so we left before 6 to sight see a bit before eating.

I can't remember the name of this place, but it was just down the road from the Beach House.

Then we bit the bullet and just went to the restaurant. It was literally right on the water and had gorgeous views! Most of the restaurant just opened up like you were sitting outside, but the areas that were closed off were simply glassed in, so the views were not lost to anyone. The surf was good, so we saw a handful of surfers.

We spent the remainder of our time waiting at the bar, and finally got seated. Here's where it gets interesting. From the beginning, our waiter bothered me. Picture a Hawaiian version of Santa Claus - overweight and very jolly. It was very noisy inside so I remember having to talk loudly and move closer to hear Andy. I didn't like this part either. When the waiter asked for our drink orders, Andy ordered a cocktail of some sort and I said "I'll just have water." The waiter spouted off something and all I heard was "we have Evian bottled, would you like sparkling or still." The look on my face was utter confusion. I think I replied with "regular?" He again replied with the sparkling or flat options so I hesitantly just went with the flat. I was so confused and I know my demeanor showed it. Then I saw on the menu that Evian bottled water was $9 and my level of anger shot to about a 12 out of 10. I wanted to punch the little sneak. The table of kids next to us had glasses of regular tap water, so I knew he had been taking advantage of us to raise our bill. My mood plummeted - little things like that really get to me. Andy was really annoyed with me because I was acting like a child at a nice restaurant and letting it ruin my birthday (he was right). We waited a long time before the waiter came back to take our order and I had to ask him about the fish of the evening (everything on the menu was based on the market fish available, so each menu item was dependent on the fish they had that day). I ordered a marlin dish and it was okay. It probably would've been better had I not hated our waiter but oh well. I think Andy liked his pork and mashed potatoes..

It felt like we were there forever and then the waiter came back with a dessert menu. We had not requested the dessert menu, nor had he asked if we wanted it. He basically pressured us to order and then left before we could ask for our bill. A few minutes later he came back and we said no thanks to dessert. Later he brought a birthday ice cream treat for me. I figured since this was free it replaced the $9 water, so I gave Andy the okay to leave him a reasonable tip. I feel like even a bonehead could've sensed my fury that night, but this guy was so jolly I think he was oblivious. The experience was not worth the cost to me. I hope we do not give them our business when we go back in March.

After the ice cream, I was fine. By the time we got home it was time for bed. We were ready to rest up for our day horseback riding to follow.