Visiting the Maui Ocean Center

Maui Ocean Center is one of the highest rated attractions in Maui, and it's obvious why. From the moment you step in, the immaculate decor and the eye-catching exhibits speak volumes about its excellence. My family and I stopped at the Maui Ocean Center on our last day in Maui for a short, hour-long visit. We were greeted by Evan who gave us a brief tour of the center and his recommendations.

It was exciting to be at the Ocean Center and see colorful fish unique to Maui. We were able to find out the names of most of the fish we saw earlier that week while snorkeling in Molokini Bay! The exhibits were beautiful, full of interesting facts, and the naturalists were so knowledgeable and helpful. Visiting the Ocean Center would be a great way to reinforce some marine science in a fun and exciting way for young kids after a snorkeling adventure or even after watching the movie "Finding Dory".

My favorite experience at the Ocean Center was the underwater dive presentation in the Open Ocean Exhibit. At 11 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm everyday, a diver with a special mask that allows for  communication with the audience swims with the sharks, rays, and large fish in the exhibit. On the day we were visiting, the diver was in the tank with 19 sharks! I'll never forget the sight of blood swirling in the water as she fed the cutest, ginormous sting ray a fish (entertaining for adults and children, hahaha).

Though we didn't have a chance to try it, Shark Dive Maui is another unique and exciting experience that Maui Ocean Center offers. At 8:30 am everyday, the center offers a chance to dive into their open ocean exhibit with over 5 species of different sharks! What an incredible thing.

It would be tiring to spend more than an hour or two in these exhibits, but fear not, the aquarium is equipped with a restaurant and an amazing gift shop! We spent close to half an hour browsing the huge gift shop, a great stop to grab souvenirs from your trip. A side note - the Ocean Center gift shop is pretty expensive, as is everything else on Maui, but there is a small shopping plaza attached to the ocean center with a more affordable gift shop and some more restaurants.

Overall, we had a blast at the Maui Ocean Center and would recommend it to anyone. The picturesque little marina, the view, the food, and everything else that the center has to offer are definitely worth it. Thank you to the Maui Ocean Center and Evan for making our experience in Maui all the more exciting and enjoyable!

Be sure to see some footage of our entire trip, including our visit to the Ocean Center, below. :)

MAUI | Travel Diary

Join me as I travel through the Hawaiian Island, Maui. Maui is a beautiful and serene place, a fascinating island that is vibrant and beautiful in its sights and culture. Visiting Maui is a treat for the senses as you are welcomed with a flurry of sights, smells, sounds, and sensations. From wild chickens on main roads and waterfalls at every bend to waves crashing at shorelines and colorful reefs full of vibrant fish, the island is a little piece of heaven on Earth.

As you all know, my family and I practice "halal" eating. I won't go into too many details, but a vegan lifestyle falls perfectly into our dietary habits. When we're traveling to a city where we know we won't find many halal options, we turn to vegan food. And Maui's vegan scene was hopping! I reached out to the manager of Down to Earth Organic, a fully vegetarian store with a food bar and deli, about our travels and I was honored to receive a gift card to spend there during our trip! Read more about my wonderful experience here -

The Maui Ocean Center was one of the top attractions on our list of things to see and do. We were given complimentary admission to this gorgeous aquarium and it was well worth the visit. It was especially interesting to learn about Maui's sea life after we had been snorkeling and were able to see it firsthand. Read more about this adventure here -

We enjoyed many other activities while in Maui, including zip-lining, hiking, swimming, and I would love to share our experience with you.

Mahalo to Down to Earth Hawaii and Maui Ocean Center, The Hawaiian Aquarium for adding to our wonderful experience in Maui.

Bloggers Do Burgers at Famous Hamburger - Dearborn, MI

Last week, a group of Michigan bloggers and I had the wonderful opportunity to have dinner together at Famous Hamburger - a local, halal restaurant in Dearborn, MI. Though the restaurant was kind enough to host us that night, all opinions on the food and service are my own. Many of my readers and I follow a specific, religious dietary restriction of eating only "halal" food. Let's not go into all the details, but "halal" food pertains to meat and certain animal byproducts that Muslims cannot consume unless prepared a certain way. Believe me when I say that there is a severe lack of halal food in the food service industry! But then, once in a while, a gem of a restaurant pops up and all is right in the world (for the duration of your meal ;D ).

The owner of the restaurant, Moe, gave us a little history of the restaurant. It was established 35 years ago by his grandfather and is now 3 restaurants strong with more on the way. There was nice ambience and snazzy decor.

The restaurant has a fully halal menu with variety of items, including vegetarian and gluten-free options. We were seated by our very helpful and courteous waitress and didn't have to wait much for anything at all. Now I'm sure you're anxious to know more about the food!

We decided to order some appetizers as a group - ultimate beef nachos, veggie nachos, and "mac 'n' chzzz" bites. Despite the somewhat ridiculous name, the mac and cheese bites were definitely the crowd favorite - deep fried mac and cheese bites.

The nachos were topped with a delicious cheese sauce that was spot on!

A bunch of us ordered milkshakes to go with our dinner. Here is my Oreo chocolate milkshake next to vanilla bean milkshake with caramel. I ordered an additional Oreo topping which I thought would just be on the top, but was actually layered throughout the drink. I didn't really like the texture of the soggy cookies mixed into my shake so next time I'll get the shake without the cookies.

Our burgers arrived next and my oh my, the sight of us bloggers photographing each others food was probably the silliest thing any of the other diners had seen that day. But those burgers were glorious looking too. I can't really stomach too much red meat (or any meat for that matter) in one sitting so I opted to go for a vegetarian burger. I was hoping to try the falafel burger but they didn't have any so I ordered the black bean veggie burger. My burger was so delicious, the perfect blend of spices and veggies in a bean mixture. Even my meat loving husband approved of it!

Let's talk about these sweet potato waffle fries for a minute. Sweet and crispy with the perfect amount of spice. I ate mine with ranch - a match made in heaven.

Overall, I really had a great experience at Famous Hamburger. I was impressed by the cleanliness and open layout of the restaurant, the great, friendly service, and the wonderful menu and great tasting dishes. Thank you, Aly, for organizing such a wonderful event! I'm looking forward to our next meet up.

Now, excuse me while I go and plan next trip to Famous. Writing this post really has me drooling. (Hope I can try the falafel burger this time!)

A Surprise Arabian-Themed Grad Party & A Giveaway!

Hey everyone. I've been a little MIA these past few weeks because I was busy vacationing it up in sunny CA! Surprisingly (and depressingly) enough, it was a lot more sunny back here in MI than it was for the week I was in CA. In fact, it actually drizzled a few times which is unheard of right now for drought ridden SoCal. My older sister and I were both visiting from the Midwest so we believe we brought the cold with us. -_- Oh well, that's not to say that we didn't have an amazing time, because we did! Nothing can beat family and friends and partaaays. (Scroll to the bottom for giveaway deets)

My baby sis, HajBaj, is graduating from UCLA in just a few weeks with a double major and all sorts of honors and extra curriculars. It's pretty obvious that the entire family is insanely proud of her. To honor her major accomplishments, mommy, older sis, and I decided to throw her a surprise party. We did some stealthy detective work and invited all of her closest friends from school and some from outside of school as well. Then we got busy planning all the details of this surprise Arabian themed party.

My majorly talented sister Mehwish, who also has her own blog at My Slice of Pizza, was the biggest asset to this event. Together, my mom, sister, and I made almost every decoration, food item, and dessert you see in the pictures. Here's a little breakdown of everything that made this party a success.

For decor, I painted these beautiful henna lanterns/ mason jars that my sister turned into beautiful floral arrangements. Additionally, we decorated the table with confetti and fake diamonds we had from previous parties. 

We pinned up a plain colored cloth backdrop and taped matching colored streamers and balloons on top to create the dessert table set up. 

On the menu was baba ghanoush, hummus, pita bread, zatar and cheese naan, olives and pickles, tabbouli, spanakopita, cheese and crackers, falafel, arabian meat and rice dish, roasted chicken and veggies, and alfredo pasta. Yummm. My mom, the chef, made all the food herself with a little help from us girls and her closest friends! 

For desserts, we decided to make all the dessert we loved most instead of following a theme. I supplied baklava from the most famous Middle Eastern bakery here in MI. 

My sister made this amazing watermelon fruit basket and to-die for smores cupcakes with graham cracker crust and marshmallow frosting. We also bought a few more desserts - cheesecake bites and cream puffs. 

Now on to the giveaway! I will be giving away one of these hand painted, henna lantern mason jars to two lucky winners. The giveaway will remain open until Friday, June 12th and I will announce the winners soon after on Facebook. 

To enter the giveaway..

- like my Facebook page here

- follow my Instagram account here @ bestofwardah

- comment below saying what color you would like (out of pink, blue, and purple) and that you've liked my FB page and followed the Instagram account.
- (optional) for additional entries - share the giveaway on Facebook and Instagram and tag Best of Wardah in your posts. Write a new comment with each new entry.

Don't worry, if you don't win, you can also buy them for an inexpensive price at my Etsy shop, Eggs by Wardah. Good luck!

I hope you've enjoyed this post and can take inspiration from it! :) 

Top 5 Foods to Try in New York City! (and tips to travel with a baby)

New York City! The city that never sleeps... except when you have a baby. 
A couple months ago, S, Baby and I vacationed in NYC. I had been debating about whether or not to share pictures and finally decided, why the heck not! As you all know, I'm a major foodie. So more than half of our trip was planned around trying out places to eat. There are so many food trends in NYC that were calling my name - including cronuts, frozen hot chocolate, and street cart food! So today I'll be sharing my top 5 favorites from the foods I tried in NYC, as well as some tips I have learned for successful traveling with a baby. 

1. Cupcakes and Banana Pudding at Magnolia Bakery
Magnolia Bakery is a sweet little shop on the Avenue of the Americas that is famous for its banana pudding and other delicious treats. The banana pudding was fluffy with the right amount of sweetness and the banana flavor was not overwhelming - just perfect. The cupcakes are also to die for, moist and fluffy. Yum!

2. Yeast Donuts at Doughnut Plant
You have to try donuts from Doughnut Plant! They have an amazing selection of yeast and cake donuts, filled and plain. Their flavors are unique and the square filled yeast donuts have the right amount of jam for each bite - not too much and not too little. The creme brûlée donut (small one in the top left picture) is their most popular - sticky and sweet with a creme filling. My hot chocolate was served with a pattern on top, I almost didn't drink it because it looked so good! 

3. Frozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3
Serendipity 3 is a quirky little restaurant with wacky decor and long waits. Though this frozen hot chocolate (dessert/drink) is overpriced, it was definitely worth the hype and money... but just one time. Delicious for sure, I would recommend it for first timers and tourists that want a NY experience - like me! But in all honesty, the drink is a glorified chocolate milk shake that I would only pay $9.00 per person for once.

4. Chicken and Rice Combo at The Halal Guys
The Halal Guys food cart is insanely popular in NYC. They have 4 locations and from the moment they open, their lines - made up of a diverse crowd, I was pleased to notice - are incredibly long. My favorite item from the food cart has to be the chicken and rice combo. Topped with a sharp white sauce and spicy hot sauce, the dish is the perfect lunch on the go. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the dish to share, but you must try it next time you visit.

5. Kati Rolls at Biryani Cart
Kati rolls are a popular Indian street food consisting of kabob meat rolled in parathas with a variety of toppings. The chicken kati roll at the Biryani Cart really hits the spot. It's spicy, flavorful, and absolutely delicious. We ordered chicken biryani as well, since that is where the cart gets its name from. Both were delicious and we were once again, pleasantly surprised by the diverse crowd waiting to get "chicken tikka masala" or "kati rolls" or "biryani." 
I hope you guys can give these foods a try if you ever visit NYC. 

Now, as promised, I'll share some tips on how to travel with a baby. Because this was also our first time vacationing with Baby, S and I were pretty nervous on how it would go. Baby was 10 months old when we went to NYC. It was his third trip flying but his first time touring (in the past we flew to visit his grandparents). Thanks to a couple tips and tricks, we think it went pretty well! 
1) Plan your trip the way you want it, but center it around baby. You're taking baby out of his element, so try to keep at least a few things as regular as possible. Baby took 2 naps at the time, so we planned to come back to our hotel 2 times in the day so he could nap. During that time, we would plan our next routes, eat, or just spend quality time together as he snoozed. Continue the rest of the day by trying to accommodate as much of baby's routine as you can in it.
2) Pack light before your flight! You can always buy all of baby's necessities, such as food, diapers, and wipes from wherever you are headed. But always make sure you leave your hotel with one or two of everything baby could possibly need, especially if you're going to be traveling far from your hotel. This includes things like baby food, a change of clothes, diapers, toys, etc. One night, while we waited in a 2 hour line to get into the Empire State Building, Baby didn't like the food pouch we brought for him. It was his dinner time so he had to eat but he refused. We didn't have an extra one to try but thankfully, the hotel was nearby so hubby ran and got a different one while we waited. What a drama!
3) Keep a few new toys handy to distract baby with while you're flying or at any rough times.
4) Remember, it's okay to bend some rules when you're traveling. Usually, I make all of baby's food at home but for the trip, I had to buy everything. This was really hard for me but I realized that it was impossible for me to make his food or somehow store, warm up, and travel with all his precooked food. But in the end, it all worked out.

5) Try not to have a very strict schedule or really high expectations for the trip. Especially if this is your first time traveling with baby, you might run into some setbacks along the way. Don't be disappointed and be sure to have lots of fun!
Hope you enjoyed this post! Till next time.