"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T. S. Eliot
I don't think I expected in 2006 when I started this blog that one day I'd write entire posts full of videos of a chubby little man taking a bath but here we are. It is an amazing adventure of sorts, I suppose. Will he poop or pee in the water and then drink it? There's one adventurous way to find out!
Zeke from college was in town doing some banking classes for work, so we took him out to dinner. We've been to the Monsoon in Bellevue once or twice so I was happy to hit the mothership original Monsoon in Capitol Hill.
I was too tempted by the prospect of having a whole Dungeness crab so I just went for it.
"Saigon Dungeness Crab
Live Dungeness Crab cooked in the wok with peppercorn, garlic, shallots, and Chinese five spice. Served with garlic noodles."
Zeke has been a dad for like 52 years and so he was really good with Ernie. I was impressed actually at how much he seemed to care about Ernie's happiness.
Between traveling hard and having so much fun, jet lag, and teething, Ernie finally started fully recover and to reach maximum happiness at home.
Maximum happy Ernie is the best Ernie. He likes to kick on his changing table when he's having a good time, but man sometimes he kicks it so hard I wonder if he's hurting himself. I guess not because he does it repeatedly.
Big Ern was getting back into the swing of life in Washington. It's funny he was in Japan for about two weeks which is a decent chunk of time. When you are four months old it's like an eternity.
We came up with the innovation of hanging toys and contrast cards from the shelves in the living room.
Zoe was missing Ernie after his long trip so he went to visit her at her school.
It was time to leave Hawaii and go back to the boring version of America.
I knew I could meet the challenge of traveling with a baby one last time because I was probably about to become a Jedi on the Galactic Starcruiser.
At night I know when he’s awake because I can hear him slurpily sucking on his fingers like he just ate KFC. He’s started to kind of do 1/4 of a sit-up when you’re holding him. His abs must be developing and he wants to sit up. He’s much happier now when you hold him facing outward so he can check out what's going on around him.
Ernie and Lydia had a pass out contest on the plane. They are currently tied.
Ernie doesn't really like pacifiers but he does like chewing on human fingers.
Big Ern got pretty good at spinning his little toy on the flight.
Today in Honolulu we pretty much just walked around and ate things.
My friend Yukako gave Ernie this classic children's book as a gift. In English it's entitled "Where's the Fish?" Well then of course we saw some licensed children's clothing and had to buy that.
Ernie had a silly morning.
We had lunch at Heavenly which was kind of hippy dippy. I don't recall liking it very much.
Strangely there seemed to be Duty Free stores that weren't in an airport or anything that you could just walk up to. I don't think I've ever seen this before.
Partially because we were missing Japan's convenience stores and partially because we wanted to see Hawaii's spin, we hit a 7-Eleven.
There were a lot of interesting items in there. One was this classic Japanese sandwich but instead of egg salad which is my favorite it had strawberries and cream.
We stopped at Banan for some ice cream made out of bananas.
There was an attempt to get Ernie into the pool but it was super sunny and we were worried he would get burned. The hotel kind of sucked because during the day it was too bright but the pool closed super early so that they could set up tables and sell food and booze in the area. I was not impressed.
Ernie was having a fabulous hair day.
He looked kind of like a rooster.
I picked a nice restaurant for our final Hawaiian meal. Eater:
"Fete Hawaii
Chef Robynne Maii was recently awarded a James Beard award — Hawai‘i’s first in almost 20 years — for her restaurant that features great cocktails and a menu that combines French, Italian, Korean, and Hawai‘i influences. Open from lunch through dinner, Fête turns out hits like carbonara with Portuguese sausage and rose veal schnitzel sauced with liliko‘i. Definitely order off the specials menu, which usually showcases Hawai‘i’s seafood and the best produce in season, and don’t miss the house-made rocky road ice cream for dessert. There are a few outdoor tables, and takeout is also available."
They had really fun cocktails. I had a:
"Spicy Kitty
Tito's, yuzuri, Hawaiian chili infused Oleo Saccharum, shichimi togarashi, salt, lemon juice, muddle shiso & topp with club soda". I eat a lot of weird stuff and I don't know what half of these words mean.
