Back to Maui!

I have been off of work for a couple of weeks, which was nice because I had the chance to enjoy the Laguna summer and actually get in the water to surf. It's great surfing down here compared to Northern Cali; there aren't as many sharks and the water is warm! Occasionally you see a little seal pop his head out of the water right next to you, but Eric says they are harmless. We also found a gormet food shop down the street with a cheesemonger so passionate about cheese that we've been sucked into visiting her about once a week to get our fix. It's been a dangerous habit so luckily we are going to work for a few weeks to get away from it!

On Saturday, the company rented out Wolfgang Puck's renowned restaurant Spago in Beverly Hills. The food was delicious! We had a five course meal with halibut and Kobe beef. The dessert was divine as well (per the photos)! After dinner, there was a little bit of dancing, a few drinks at the open bar and then back to our hotel, The Beverly Hilton. The hotel was beautiful and we even had a flat screen TV in the bathroom.

The next morning I woke up early to fly to Maui to pick up the same passengers I flew from Paris a few weeks prior. The trip left LA at Noon and it was a nice flight over since it was empty. I was able to relax in the back for the 4.5 hour flight. The flight into Maui was gorgeous. Mountains on either side made it look majestic as we came in to land. We ended up staying in Maui that night and were able to check out a little bit of the Island before our flight out the next day. It was a bit rainy so we headed over to an area of the island that was much more sunny. We ate at Mama's Fish House, a restaurant on the beach in a little town callied Pa'ia. We ate the absolute best seared ahi sashimi that I've ever tasted, shrimp wontons with macadamia nut dipping sauce. For an entree I got the grilled wild ahi and nueske's smoked bacon sandwich with Molokai sweet potato fries and for dessert, we shared a creme brulee and coconut cheesecake! Yikes!

We left Maui with our passengers around 4pm and headed back to LA. The trip was interesting and the lead passenger was very talkative the whole flight back. She told interesting stories that sounded like something out of a history book. She comes from a very well-connected family. Her grandfather used to dive with Jacque Cousteau, her brother discovered some words and a drawing under a painting of Leonardo Divinci using infrared technology in Italy and she and her husband own a famous Van Gough painting worth over $90 million! If that isn't enough, they even commissioned Andy Warhol to do personal paitings for them. She gave a lot of advice about how important it is to see the world, learn about different cultures, religions and languages (she speaks at least 5). I guess when you have your own jet and billions of dollars it's a lot easier to do all of that!

Needless to say it was an interesting trip. She told her bodyguard that she wants the same crew to take her back to Maui in a day or two so I have a feeling I'll be going back sooner than later. Not that I mind!