Happy Easter

Apart from some old tulips there is no sign of Easter in this house. All Easter chocolate was eaten days ago and apart from eggs, I have no idea what you eat at Easter. We had jacket potatoes yesterday and a yummy Italian pizza today:)

Yesterday we spent noon at the Swedish school Easter picknick and egg hunt. Emily got her second egg - I quickly swopped it to one with no candy inside. There were also semlor being offered, yum yum, I had two.

Great weather meant pool time so that is where we spent the afternoon,

Car Dealers

Took our Ford Edge to the Ford garage the other day for a service. We have a maintenance plan with them so every few months we get the oil changed and they check brakes etc. Whereas this garage was super friendly when we signed the two leases we have nearly two years ago, they are quite ignorant these days. I really dislike this about American customer service - it seems like it is becoming the standard. Once they have your money, they can´t care less about you. Don´t get me wrong, I find car dealers in all countries to be quite a pain, but at least they are nice before taking your money here. LOL

I booked the car in on Thursday and the guy on the phone said if I came in around 9am Friday morning they would have many technicians available and it wouldn´t take long, just over an hour. So at 8.55 I walked in and handed over my keys. The same lousy guy as last time asked me if I was going to come back later or if I was going to wait. Decided to wait since they seem to be a little quicker if you don´t bugger off. I also asked to speak to someone about buying the car. Lousy guy tells me he will let me know when Jim is free.
Hour later I walk up to lousy guy´s desk and he asks me if I have found Jim. Hrm."No, how can I do that if I don´t know who he is?" I realise I´ll probably wait forever for the car now, Americans don´t like sarcasm and if you are too direct. Hey ho. I get to sit down with Jim and tells him I want to buy the Edge when the lease runs out, $23K plus tax. Is it cheaper if I pay cash? What is the interest at the moment? Jim is not really interested. I get annoyed after 10 minutes and give him one of my best American smiles saying "I´ll think about it". Hell no. Had he been clever or a good sales man, he would have offered me a new lease, to buy a new car or had he just been friendly he would have looked he up in the system and taken out some paper work. Nada.  23k!!! Someone is making too much money!! I don´t ever, ever want to hear about the roaring car business again.

And the car? Well, After 2 hours I tell lousy guy I have to leave. He says they have very few technicians in that day, some other guy jumped the queue blah blah. The usual bullshit but so annoying. He reckons it is going to take another 2 hours at least. Yawn. Can't wait for the usual survey they send you after each visit.

Date Night

Another date night! Headed to Irvine Spectrum last night for some food and cinema. We went to another Italian restaurant and were initially going to see the Wizard of Oz, however, we were surprised by getting a table straight away without the normal one hour wait on a Friday night so we finished our meal a lot earlier than expected and couldn´t be bothered to wait until it started. Instead we picked Olympus has fallen, an action packed film with Morgan Freeman and Gerald Butler. I assume most of the audience thought the movie was real and it wouldn´t surprise me if one or two people cried during the last ten minutes (God bless America, we will always stick together, blah blah). A little too much for my likings. The White House gets hijacked and you know the rest, one hero, crying women and so on. Yikes.

The food? It was ok. Better than the last place but come one, hummus? Not so Italian. I don´t understand why so many restaurants feel the need to do too much with their menues. Normal pizza is fine. I don´t need fennel sausage and fancy ingredients in my salads. Nor hummus. Just plain, nice food. I rather have oilve oil with my bread than horseradish with my salami. We shared some cheese and salami for a starter which was fine, had two small pizzas and shared a salad. It passed but only just. Nice venue where you can enjoy some starters and a glass of wine with friends, but not expect too much of the food.

Yum. Starter was nice.

I did spot a new Japanese restaurant last night, where we definitely will be going very soon. The Japanese food around here is excellent, we are getting really spoiled.

Decisions Decisions

Blog is being a little quite at the moment. A lot of things are going on at the moment, we are not sure if we will be here in a few weeks time so a lot of things to organise just in case we are heading back to Germany a little earlier than originally planned. Not our call so you can imagine everything is a little durcheinander. Especially since we are expecting a fourth family member (June!).

St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday they played Irish music in the supermarket and there was green cabbage on display, never seen that before, haha.

Home Sweet Home..

After arriving  back home we have been super busy sorting the car out. There was hardly any damage to ours, but it had to be brought to the garage, we got a rental for 3 weeks covered by the insurance. Luckily! United managed to break the pram so we have finally ordered a new one. Since the car eat for E has been in an accident it needs to be replaced so that is something which needs to be taken care of too. It never stops...grr. Can we rewind this Monday and start all over? Only nice thing about it is that weather is SUPERB again. Blue sky and WARM, yaaay. Perhaps summer is within reach.

Maui, HI, Part III: Road to Hana

I wouldn't recommend driving this road if you get car sick easily. Unfortunately Emily got sick on the way back, even though max speed is between 10 and 25 mph. Not great. If you like nature, this road is a must, though I think arriving in Hana was a bit of an anticlimax. The journay was better than the destination so to say.

This is what the road looked like most of the time

Black Sand Beach 

 

Plenty of waterfalls which also offered Swimming opportunities

Plenty of fresh fruit on the way to Hana

Maui, HI, Part II: Mama's Fish House

One of the big tourist attractions on Maui is the road to Hana. We were on and off about doing the trip, but thought, hey, we have a rental car for two days so let's drive there and see what the fuss is about. The road to Hana is famous for its water falls, great nature and narrow roads and bridges. It took us about 4 hours to drive there, a little shorter on the way back. One of the gems we discovered on the way there was a restaurant Emily's pediatrician had recommended: Mama's fish house. A fish restaurant by the beach. Over priced but such a lovely view.

Suberb Fish Curry

 

Lunch with a View

 Mahi Mahi with Lobster Stuffed with Crab

Mama's Fish House

Their menu mainly consist of fish, some of which we had never heard of but it was one of the few places actually offering traditional Hawaiian dishes. Food was delicious even if proces were a little steep, $40 dollars plus per dish. Kids menu was $20!!! Still, it comes with one of the best views I have ever experienced and great service (generally, I thought the service was not so great on Maui).

Maui, HI: Part I

Not sure what I expected from Hawaii, perhaps hula girls everywhere, but I have come to realise, it is Mallorca (at least Maui is) for the Americans. I think just about everyone I know here in OC goes there on vacation. Such a melting pot, Germans, Swedes and of course, we met Americans from all over the US.  Weatherwise, it was just perfect, In the 80s, nice and warm, perfect water.

Most of the big hotels on Maui are located on the west coast, ours was at the end of Kaanapali, just 15 minutes north of a small little town Lahaina and its harbour, and about 15 minutes (on foot) south of Whalers village. It is actually not a real village, more a shopping complex with some restaurants.

    Sunset sitting at the Hula grill. Whalers Village

 

Hula girls, Whalers Village.

View from the hotel room

Down the beach, Hyatt

 

Hubby admiring the view

 

The biggest tourist trap ever but a must-do: Drums of the pacific Luau. A luau is

is a traditional Hawaiian party or feast that is usually accompanied by entertainment. We booked the one Hyatt offered and there was traditional dancing, buffet. Pricey and not so great. But tourist traps rarely are:)