Voodoo and the Hands On Children's Museum

We had one last day of Portland and then we needed to head back to home base.

The Airbnb had some very cool artwork on the walls.

Voodoo Doughnut is usually on my Portland todo list.

We crossed over into Vancouver, WA and visited Vancouver Mall. Ernie is really fun to shop for because he's growing so fast that no item of clothing is ever that big of a commitment, so we can get silly stuff on occasion. It's also usually pretty cheap and has fun designs.. what more could you ask for? Also once you start licking the clothes I think you are obligated to buy them so that simplifies the decision making process.

There was a little mall playground we needed to scope out.

On the drive home we made a quick detour in Olympia, WA to the Hands On Children's Museum. We put our hands, feet, and probably tongues on all kinds of things there.

This was a pretty cool set of pipes with some air pressure in them. You could stick a scarf in one of the holes and watch it zip around the tubes and then get launched out somewhere.

There was a giant Lite-Brite.

There was a boat.

We figured out how to time the drives during nap time so that we had a very happy Ernie Babe.

Donuts and Exercise

Today was a pretty magnificent day. First I ate a bunch of donuts and then I went to the little Kirkland farmer's market by the lake.

Top Pot Doughnuts has a funny origin story:

"The name "Top Pot" came from a vintage neon sign that was above a boarded-up Chinese restaurant called "Topspot". The co-founders bought the sign and while transporting it, the "S" fell off. Co-owner Mark suggested that they replace it with a coffee pot."

Sometimes while Ernie is eating he'll stick his arm up, and there's no telling when it'll come back down. I like to think of it as a "compliments to the chef" signal.

I like crowds, markets, and events and so does Ernie so it's a good bonding experience for us. We have a lot of things in common and I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Ernie Swims Waikiki

We started our Hawaiian morning off right with some delicacies from Holey Grail Donuts.

We've had potato donuts before and these are sort of like the Aloha version of that because they are made with taro root.

I mentioned that our hotel is historical. While it was very fancy I think its location on the main drag of Waikiki was unfortunate. At night it was very loud, and we could hear the rabble outside arguing, douchebags in purposefully loud vehicles, and police sirens quite late into the night. Ernie was startled awake more than once and we all had some Japan jet lag, so this was a big bummer, especially considering this was supposed to be a fancy place.

Speaking of Japan jet lag, stopping halfway home in Hawaii to rest worked out really well because we only had half the time discombobulation.

We had some lunch at Liliha Bakery Waikiki. The chain has been around since 1950 and was a fun Hawaiian version of a greasy spoon diner.

I have a contractual obligation to eat loco moco at least once every time I come to Hawaii.

Lydia was excited to have some fancy dessert at the Island Vintage Shave Ice place we visited last time we were in town.

This was delicious and had a unique Hawaiian style to it, but it falls into the category of foods that aren't quite as exotic now that we live on the west coast. We've become real Asian shaved ice experts in the last couple of years.

We thought Ernie should get his first little dunk in the ocean while we were here.

I think Ernie and I are of the same opinion on the ocean thing. It's nice to look at but we'd both rather be on a Little Mermaid ride at Tokyo DisneySea.

We had a couple of little $18 cocktails at the hotel bar. We were definitely not in Japan anymore.

The Cheesecake Factory was so crowded there was a line outside. Lydia has always been more more enamored with the Hawaiian Islands than me. Personally if I'm taking a long flight to a faraway beach I'd rather just go to another country. So I must admit I was a tiny bit happy for Lydia to experience the trashy, no passport having American side of the state so she would cool her jets a little bit about the place.