HAPPY BIRTHDAY DINNER AT UMALU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN THE WORLD

There is no bigger holiday to me than the birthdays of both Anabelle and Damien. Personally, their birthdays are more precious to me than my own. On September 15, it was the first day of the last year Anabelle will be in her twenties.

Since meeting Anabelle 9 ½ years ago, I always tried to make her birthday feel as special as possible. During the first few years, we always went big. As time went on, we always kept it special but realized that as long as we’re together as a family, it’s always a good birthday. Prior to us making any arrangements, we were invited to dinner by a great family friend, Barb and Dave Williams. They are among the kindest and warm hearted people we know and we absolutely love them. Dave, whose birthday is a day after Anabelle’s, wanted to eat at one of his favorite spots, Umalu, at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa.

As with all Hyatt properties, this one too was wonderful. We had celebrated a few of Anabelle and Damien’s birthdays there so we were pretty familiar with where we were going. Umalu is an open aired oceanside restaurant with an amazing view and equally good live music. Umalu has a great feel to it; enough action and commotion going on around you but not overwhelming at all. The bar that they have seems to be the must go to spot because the entire time we were there, all the chairs seemed to be taken.

As soon as we met up with everyone and got seated, Barb popped open a bottle of champagne and the fun began. Anabelle and I only see Barb and Dave no more than 3 times a year so we always have a lot to catch up on. After chatting up a storm for about 10-15 minutes, the server approached to take our order but no one other than Dave had bothered to look at the menu. Eventually we ordered, and shortly after our appetizers came. We had furikake french fries and shredded chicken nachos; both of which were super good. As we munched on the appetizers, a few of the dancers from the Drums of the Pacific Luau (also at the Hyatt) came through and gave us a brief performance. Our great conversations were carrying on as the champagne bottle was emptying and our entrees arrived. Anabelle chose to get the fish tacos which both Barb and Dave swore by; and she was on cloud 9 from the get go. I had heard that Umalu is known for their pizzas so I chose to go with their sausage and herbed pizza. Though I’m not that big a fan of thin crusts, this one was on point and it tasted great. Unfortunately, because Anabelle and I hogged the nachos and fries, we both didn’t get a chance to finish our meals and we had to take it home. Even with everything going on, I really enjoyed watching my dad eating something different from his norm. After we all finished our meals, Dave and Anabelle opened their gifts. Dave had gotten a few shirts and Anabelle had gotten a scented candle with some other trinkets; kind of like a make-your-own-ambience type of thing. They both loved it and Anabelle is already making use of it as we speak. After all the gifts were open, the server had brought a cake out and we all sang happy birthday.

EVERYONE

Without knowing it, we were at Umalu for almost 4 hours before we called it a night. Heck, at the rate we were going, we’d still be talking today, and this post is almost a month late. But we had an amazing time with even more amazing people. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to do this again sometime soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE & ANABELLE