It's a clean restaurant (down at the end, near Sears, and has served up everything from Italian to Vietnamese since the Arby's shut down) with festive, if typical, Mexican restaurant decor.

After scanning the menu, which is more elaborate than the typical tacos and burritos menu, our excellent server, Tricia, recommended the Molcajete, which is kind of like fajitas, it comes out sizzling on a lava rock, and is served with two kinds of meat (your pick), grilled onions, and surprisingly yummy cactus.  Tricia also informed us that it's plenty for two, especially if you get two tortilla orders, and she was correct.

Tricia also talked us in to the fried ice cream, which was probably the best I've ever had.

And of course, we had beer.

But the best part of the story is that our two-year old daughter loved her quesadillas from the kids menu, and sat through an entire dinner.

So, there you have it- great food, cold beers, excellent service, and a happy child = return customers!

as delicious as it looks...

The shop was taken over by a new owner, Davida, late last year, and is now called Isle Empress.  While there are still a few consignment items available, Davida is hoping turn the shop into a storefront for local artists and designers, including clothing and swimsuit designers, jewelers and photographers.  In the mean time, Davida has stocked her store, located on Baldwin Avenue at the Paia Train Depot, near the old sugar mill, with beautiful finds from a recent shopping trip to Asia.

Davida is actively looking for designers to feature in her shop and invites anyone to stop by.  In addition to information for this blog posting, I walked out of the shop with an awesome new dress.  Now I just need someplace to where it!

And for all you fans of shopping out there on Maui- I've just created a Facebook page - to post tips or inquiries!  Click here to join!

Santa is scheduled to make an appearance at First Friday in Wailuku, spend Saturday morning making gingerbread cookies with the kids at the Queen Kaahumanu Mall, then he may even make it up to the Christmas event in Makawao on Saturday evening, although i haven't been able to confirm this yet with his elves.

There are several performances that shouldn't be missed, including Annie at the Iao Theatre, The Nutcracker at the MACC, and the Seabury Hall Christmas Show- call this morning if you want tickets!

There are also several craft fairs this Saturday- including the Haleakala Waldorf Faire!  What are you up to this weekend?

We rarely go out to eat anywhere that requires sit down service, with an almost two-year old, but we figured we'd give it a chance.  We quickly ordered the grilled chicken with a side of fruit for the little one, but deciding on a beer, with 13 to choose from, took a little more time.  Maui Brewing offers 3 in the stores, which we had tried before, so we decided to be adventurous (and fruity) with the Mana and Mango Wheats.

I had been under the impression, before seeing the menu, that this was a 'burger and pizza' joint, but it offers so much more.  I had the beer-battered brie (seriously, how could you resist?) with a carmelized pineapple dip, with the chili appetizer as the main course (definitely filling enough for an entree!) The brie was absolutely amazing and will keep me thinking of excuses to drive over an hour all the way back there.  Hubby had the Maui onion soup (also delicious) and the adult mac and cheese, with sausages and truffle oil, which was rich and yummy.

All in all, lunch at Maui Brewing way surpassed our expectations, with a waiter who truly understands customer service (regretfully, i forget his name, but he's the really tall bald guy), delicious beer, incredible, creative food- especially for the kids menu- and a fun, family-friendly atmosphere.

Paia's merchants have been getting into the Halloween spirit early, with a window decorating contest.  The winner was Milagro's Food Co, with a 'Day of the Dead' display.  Check out some of my favorites- especially my personal favorite, Tamara Catz, the photo doesn't do this display justice- it's absolutely beautiful in person!

There are two 'early birds' samplers available at Buzz's Wharf, for diners that can place an order by 6pm, for $25 or $30 for a 4-course meal, depending on the entree you choose.  I can't recall each item, but we had the shrimp cocktail, the shrimp bisque (delicious) and the Tahitian Prawns- which tasted like sweet lobster tails!  There are two choices for dessert, mac nut tart or ice cream sundae, so we each had one and combined for a pie a la mode, which was the perfect end to the meal.  The portions are not huge, although the soup was a decent sized cup and the entree was plenty of food, but we both left feeling stuffed, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole meal, and still had enough money left over to buy a few scrip at the concert.

When we got back to our meeting hall, we got to debate the pros and cons of each location, and as you might guess, with a consequence as serious as this, no clear decisions were made in the next two hours.

Equally as challenging will be deciding the locations of where this road will start and stop, and how it will do so (traffic light, over pass, tunnel, levitation...).

The whole gist of this project is that we, members of the general public, who have now been trained in general traffic verbage, will make official recommendations to the Department of Transportation, who will then have to get ENvironmental Impact Surveys done, then there would be the matter of land acquisition, and then actual construction, (at least, this is what i have been lead to believe... i could be just making this up...) so we are looking at least ten years before Haiku-dwellers have a way home that doesn't entail going through historic and charming Paia town...