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.

Reinforcements Have Arrived

Aunt Zoe and Grandma Linda came to visit baby Ernie.

But what they found instead was a one week old big boy.

Zoe made some cool greeting cards and stickers with Ern's chubby cheeks on them.

We decided Ernie needed some sea breeze so we took him out to West Seattle to visit Alki Beach Park. Wikipedia says that it "was the first public salt-water bathing beach on the west coast of the United States."

Ernie was only a week old and already was asking to go to his second bar. The guy is a machine.

The Good Society Brewery & Public House had some fun bottled beer that I needed to make my own.

Pizza boys! There was some sort of cool kid parent group there having a meeting and so there were kids everywhere. Maybe I can still be cool after all.

We stopped at Marination Ma Kai for some Hawaiian soul food. I went with the loco moco because I'm a real one.