8/1/12 - Hyatt Resort Day

Today we just spent the day enjoying the resort and pools. The kids (all 3 of them) participated in the water slide contest. Austin came in 2nd for his age group, Mike was 3rd for his, and Emma didn't place : ( Austin and Mike got to pick any prize from the recreation desk, so Austin got an inflatable ring, and Mike wisely chose 15 spf.

Salt water lagoon and beach

Dinner was at Bubba's Burger Joint in the Kukui'ula Shopping Village - Bubba's burgers are made from Kauai grass fed beef, "Always Juicy, Never Greasy" and a place where they 'relish' your buns (as the picture over Austin's right shoulder atests). I had a burger with pineapple on it - and it was yum! Austin had a corn dog...Mike had fried fish, and it was overfried, Em was healthy and had a Caesar salad with chicken.

Dessert was a shave ice at Uncle's Shave Ice and Smoothies.

Here is a little tuorial on shave ice, not to be confused with shaved ice, Italian ice, or sno cones (and superior to all three, imo!).

 

 

Shave ice or Hawaiian shave ice is an ice-based dessert made by shaving a block of ice. While the product can resemble a snow cone, snow cones are made with crushed, rather than shaved, ice. Shaving produces a very fine ice that appears snow-like. This extremely fine texture causes syrups added to it to be absorbed by the ice rather than simply surrounding.^[1][2] A properly made shave ice product rarely requires a straw, since the flavors are in the ice and not at the bottom of the cup. Although the traditional American flavors are common, shave ice in Hawai'i is often flavored with local ingredients such as guava, pineapple, coconut cream,passion fruit, li hing mui, lychee, kiwi fruit and mango. Hawaiian shave ice is traditionally served in a conical paper or plastic cup with multiple flavors and with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and/or azuki bean paste at the bottom of the cup. Sweetened condensed milk drizzled over the top is sometimes called a "snow cap." This style of shave ice is the signature dessert of Haleiwa on the north shore of the island of Oahu.

Both Em and I decided to indulge, and we had trouble finishing them because they were so HUGE! Mine was leche, a Mexican flavor which is cinnamon with condensed milk. Em got chocolate and birthday cake flavors, but wasn't all too happy with that choice. I decided to try the scoop of vanilla ice cream on the bottom and wasn't sure how that would work out, but it was actually a nice addition. Although I enjoyed the cinnamon flavor, the fruity flavors like lime, pineapple and guava are much better suited to the shave ice experience.