We saved the Ritz Carlton thanks to Weber.

I'm not kidding. If we hadn't had the GC to Sansei that night, I swear, the entire Kapalua Ritz Carlton in Maui would have burned to the ground.

Sansei is a Sushi place that I have been dying to try since I saw it on the Food Channel's "$40 a day", the Rachel Ray traveling show. She went to their fab sushi happy hour and raved about it on their show. So thanks to a few people in the Web Relations group, Dan and I had a special evening there (even better with a GC!) with a few peeps from the Maui crew.

So, as we proceeded to get lost on the way to the restaurant which is the most impossible place to find at night, we made our way down a remote road which my sister so eloquently reminded me that a man with a hook for a hand would run out and attack us at that very moment if we were in a horror movie. Not to mention, the road we were traveling down had a plethora of those super shitty speed bumps - the little ones that even if you are moving slower than the speed of the sloth make you want to puke from motion sickness when you hit them - so we're going slow enough for a mass murderer to attack us with his hook, but as he was killing me, I would barf all over him from motion sickness. I quickly snapped out of it when we came upon a streetlight that seemed to be giving off an extra glow, one that emitted embers and was no longer utilizing electricity to light our way. I quickly whipped out the Maui Revealed book (our travel bible) to extrecate the # for the Ritz and placed a call to security that one of the lights on their hotel campus was on fire. After we found the restaurant, we watched as a fire truck sped by us and hopefully was on the way to put out the fire. I'd like to take credit for that moment. I was thinking I should call them back to remind them that my call could have prevented an otherwise major disaster for their resort. Think of all the rich snobs that would have been put out by a major fire on the property not to mention all of their worthless lawyers chasing after them with money bags under their eyes! I saved them millions, I swear.

They just don't know it.

I'm finally enjoying the Champagne for our 1 week anniversary!

Ladies - thank you so much for the beautiful and tasty basket you sent to us for our wedding day. It was so sweet and we loved every morsel of it. I felt like I was a celebrity or something to receive such a cool gift!

We were so awestruck that we locked ourselves out of our unit for the morning. Yep, just 6 hours before we were to walk down the isle, we had to rally to find an extra set of keys since our property manager wasn't to return to the area until that evening. Thank god they haven't changed the lock since the 60's. Apparently, the ORIGINAL keys were in the clubhouse and they opened the door for us right away. I was a little peeved at Dan for locking us out that morning to say the least. Of course, I'm the one who insisted we take the photo OUTSIDE because it had more greenery in the background...

Dan and I are finally getting around to drinking the champagne from the basket tonight. I had a bad tummy the day of the wedding and the night before (let's just say I owe my wedding day to Imodium AD), so the croissant was awesome the day of and then I carted the bottle to Oahu with us in anticipation of enjoying it another day. The chocolate covered strawberries were also delightful and easily gobbled up immediately. Unfortunately, only one of two champagne glasses made it to Oahu so I'm hoping the last one makes it to Minnesota!

I found the most perfect spot in Maui.

Puamana Estates is THE MOST unbelievable place to stay when you are in Maui. Ditch the high priced (over priced) hotels and stay at this unbelievable gated community! We were so fortunate to run across this place thanks to Dan's mom's friend's recommendation. It was easy to overlook in the books and online but once you are there, there are few words to describe how perfect it was. Not only that but it was minutes away down the coast from our wedding spot so everything felt very close and easy to get to. Besides the amazing array of plants around the place (unlimited Plumeria trees and Mango trees which btw dropped fresh fruit for our daily consumption), the constant boom of the ocean waves could make the most horrible day you have ever had displace in a moment - without the assistance of liquor. Many previous Wilson vacations in a tropical setting invovled loads of Rum drinks starting at around 10am which is most likely why I don't remember a lot of those previous vacations without the assistance of a photo album. Not so in Hawaii...ok and the fact that it is illegal to drink on the beach here. Stupid US rules!Although, a Heineken with the sunset didn't kill anyone either. I didn't know it, but the sound of the ocean and the breeze actually eradicated my hangover one morning in a few short minutes. Normally, I need 1/2 to 3/4 of a day. The sunsets were just as killer as we stared down the sun, overlooking a beautiful harbor and the other island on the horizon, Lanai. It was incredible. Another bonus was the fact that the Wilson/Hanson/Nelson/Woodbury crew was all staying there in our respective homes so we were all a stone's throw away for Pupus and drinks whenever we needed or wanted to gather.

Sorry, I have little regard for proper grammer on this blog.

A few celebs...and oh yeah, I got married!

Yesterday, I ran into Tara Reid. Ok, so unfortunately I didn't run directly into her but I stared at her so hard while walking past her trying to confirm if indeed it was her that I most likely burned a hole into her little head. Of course, it was her and of course I only snapped out of it too late to get out the camera which has a ridiculous delay when snapping photos so I would have missed my shot anyways. I can tell you that she was not wearing any pants and the top she had on pretty much required a set for any normal person on the street. Of course, celebrities never have to follow any fashion sense (commonly referred to as "high fashion" because most likely they were high when someone told them that outfit actually looked good and they believed them). Consequently, I do not have a little "cheeks hanging out of my dress" photo to sell to STAR and therefore have part of my wedding paid for. Dang it!

Also, Dan and I almost rear ended Beth Chapman (Dog's wife on "Dog the Bounty Hunter", aka my Halloween outfit) when we were driving to get our hot Malasadas from Leonard's Bakery...of course, I am not 100% sure if it was Beth but the lady was short, the car was kind of WT and the liscense plate said "Beth C" and I'm pretty sure there aren't too many Howlies on the island that would get a plate like that. We also drove past Da Kine Bail Bonds twice so far and no dog sighting but I haven't given up hope yet!

Oh yeah, and then a few days ago we got married and stuff. Here are a few pics from the BIG DAY. It was perfect. Everything was absolutely perfect. The weather was perfect, everything ran without a hitch (except for when I had a blowout after Dan forgot one of the groomsmen's ties back at the house with only 20 minutes before the ceremony began and the hike back to the house was 20 minutes or more)...but other than that - everything couldn't have been more perfect! Did I say it was perfect??? It was a memorable day and we had a really great time. You'll also see that we did in fact get the tie in time so all of the groomsmen looked great and we were all set.

Our Maui Wedding

Itinerary

Friday: Fly in. Start drinking.

Saturday: Haleakala Crater at 4am! You can join us if you want to (it will be 9pm on Saturday) by clicking here. Following the early rising, we'll hit the courts and secure our marraige certificate. Then it is off to the beach for a major snooze.

Sunday: Vacation! More Vacation!

Monday: POD (point of death) experience on a great catamaran to take us snorkeling at Molokini...http://www.sailmaui.com/psc_article01.pdf That's right, I'll hopefully be super(wo)man that day on the trampoline!

Tuesday: Here comes the bride! Check out our wedding spot by clicking here. We will be married around 5:30pm by a minister named Kimo (he's from Scotland!). No bagpipes. Following the ceremony, we'll be dining at our favorite restuarant, Roy's. Then relaxing at the condos afterwards with some stellar cake from COSTCO. Seriously. It's $14 - how can you go wrong?!?

....Moving on to Oahu, we have a reception dinner with family on Sunday at Happy Day's, a family favorite Chinese restaurant. The rest of the trip...well hopefully I'll blog about more details. If they have dial up only at Puamana Estate where we are staying, sorry kids - I'll only be hopping online sporatically since that would suck.

107 hours and counting...

It feels like yesterday we were just engaged in Oahu. Somehow 17 months have quickly come and gone and we are finally leaving once again for a bit of paradise in the middle of the ocean. There is no other place I would rather be, especially on our wedding day.

Dan and I will publish our pictures as we go in Hawaii and we hope that you enjoy our Wedding Blog.

Want to know a little more history of our adventures in Hawaii? We have photos from our 2005 trip:

Hawaii '05

No captions, so you'll have to use your imagination to guide you.