Sushi and Rollercoasters

By reading that title, I bet you think i'm going to write about me booting up spicy tuna rolls on the Giant Dipper. Close.

The weekend started out with plans to cash in a $50 gift certificate to Roy's Hawaiian Fusion restaurant in the UTC. The gift card was from the owner of Pee Pants (see below) for letting her turn our apartment into a urine sponge over the Holidays. The reason it's taken us so long to cash it in is because;

A. The restaurant is about 30 minutes away. That doesn't seem far, but if we can't ride our bikes there, it's too far.

B. It's way more upscale than places we normally go (Snooty? Snotty). Its a safe bet that I was the only one in there wearing Spiderman underwear.

C. Still a little bitter about getting a $50 gift card for mopping up piss for 2 weeks.

The wait for a table was about 45 min. We asked about the Sushi Bar and the wait was reduced to about 25min. By the time we got or spots at the bar, we were famished. The kitchen was open in front of us and buzzing with activity. We're big fans of Top Chef, so we immediately began studying the hierarchy of the chefs. After a few minutes, one of the sushi chefs handed two bowls of edamame over the glass partition. We grabbed the bowls and devoured the little pea pods. I don't think i've ever actually finished a bowl of edamame, but this was no time to be wasting food.

At this point we'd been sitting there for at least 35 minutes with nary a greeting from a server. Aside from the edamame, the only person who seemed to notice we were there was the water girl. Clearly something was awry. Eventually, a frazzled looking waitress asked if we'd been helped. Our response elicited a mumbled, "yeah... there was a communication...um... break...what can I get for you?". Having both been servers, we could relate and all was forgiven. We ordered drinks and continued to wait. And wait. Annnd wait. The server came by about 20 min later to take our food order, assuring our drinks were on their way. And we wait. Eventually, the water girl paused and asked us if we wanted some dinner rolls. She was met with a resounding and harmonized, "YES!" She returned a few minutes later with one roll on a plate and four big balls of butter. She explained that was the last roll, but there's more in the oven. Normally, I would have let Jenny have it and just enjoyed my drink, but I was about to start eating the edamame skins and had no drink. The roll was snatched off the plate, ripped in half and inhaled. The fact that she brought more butter than roll was not called into question as we hoped the extra calories would keep us alive until more food arrived.

After what seemed like a full work week, our food, along with our first round of drinks showed up. The food was good, although it could have been pan-seared gopher nuts and we would have wolfed it down just the same. At some point during the feeding, the water girl returned with a second, solitary roll. I think we managed a laugh and thanked her for making good on her promise to eventually bring a second roll.

So that was sushi at Roys. Two hours and $70 on an appetizer and a couple drinks ...oh, and the two rolls.


The next day we rode our bikes to Mission Beach. After a of couple mimosas, Jenny agreed to ride the roller coaster, much to my delight. The video below depicts the ride, but it's important you know why she's laughing.

Moments before I began filming, we climbed into the coaster car and pulled the safety bar down. All of the sudden the bar plunges into my stomach and begins wrenching down harder and harder. I screamed at her, "Stop!! why are you doing this??". She looked at me confused and then at the seat behind me. She immediately burst into laughter. Apparently, the safety bars are connected and the kid behind me had his feet up against the back of my seat and was yanking as hard as he could to get the bar down to his waist. By the time he got the bar locked down as far as he could, i had no feeling in my legs and I couldn't breathe. One of the operators saw my distress and ran over. "Sir, are you ok??" At this point, Jenny's laughing too hard to explain what's happening, so I croaked out, "That depends... how long is this ride?". He said, "uh, bout a minute." I forced a smile on my beet red face and gave him the thumbs up.