Birthday Buffet for Mom!

Mom's 80th birthday is actually next week but we celebrated it today because my brother's family was all available at this one place for this one day. It made it all that much more special for my mother.


We didn't realize there was parking across the street from the Makino Chaya at Aloha Tower so we had a bit of walking to do in the hot sun.

It was quite pleasant as we looked over the barrier and saw a whole school of beautiful fishes. I think we saw a puffer fish, yellow tang, some striped fish and maybe a humuhumunukunukuapua'a. (I totally forgot that humuhumu was our state fish. Sheesh! I saw a couple of fishes that looked just like it but didn't get a good photo of it.)

The cool courtyard of the Aloha Tower had several statues of hula dancers which I liked.

Mom enjoyed the cool, Hawaiian ambiance of the restaurant. We thought their buffet offerings were even better than their other restaurant in Aiea.

I now know where I got my sweet tooth from. Mom loves their chocolate fountain and fruit-ice cream crepes. It was great to be together. I specifically asked that we all sit together. I guess they thought splitting us into two groups so long as we were next to each other meant the same thing. Ah well...


Since this was one of those rare times that my brother's family could all get together, we took a lot of photos. We did the same thing when my kids were able to come to Hawaii this summer to celebrate my birthday.

Do we all look rather bloated from the buffet? Art did his best to make up the 1,500 calories he burned this morning when he did his 15 miles run.

Mom was very happy to have this wonderful day together... along with the chocolate fountain!