Momma is such a tourist

One of the many things I love about Momma - she gets excited over the simplest things. She loves to take pictures of food and drinks before eating them (I guess so she can remember them later). Here is a smattering of Momma's food pictures - don't even think about digging in before a photo has been duly snapped either!



Momma's Blue Hawaiian foo foo drink. I have to admit, it wasn't half bad for a foo foo drink.



This little tasty creation is a "local breakfast platter" from good ole' Mickey D's. The platter came with both Portugese sausage and spam as well as scrambled eggs and two big scoops of rice. Can't get more Hawaiian than that. Super size me baby!



My bowl of ramen with a big glob of butter . . . . .



Momma's bowl with corn - sheesh, what was she thinking? Corn instead of butter? Come on!



Momma's loco moco. Rice with brown gravy, a hamburger patty and two eggs over easy. Tasty!



Teriyaki burger. Yep, that's a big slab of pineapple on that burger. The burger also had some great teriyaki sauce. The restaurant where we got this and the loco moco also brewed their own beer. I had a cream ale with this burger - not as good as a Genny screamer cream ale but it was good enough.
Of course the theme here is rice. You can even get rice at Mc Donald's for crying out loud.

Takin' a dip in the pool

Here's a couple of shots of our gal swimmin' in the pool. The hotel has a really nice pool that butts right up to the beach. Nice little tiki bar too - frozen foo-foo drinks for Momma - YATTA! Momoka likes the pool and is especially interested in the other kids swimming and splashing. She will kick her little legs and splash with her little arms - too cute!


Here she is right after the swim. She is really interested in walking and loves it when you hold her little arms so she can take some steps. She will take 4 or 5 good steps and then look up at you and wait for you to tell her how proud you are of her. After she feels like she's gotten her props she starts walking again. If there is someone else who makes a comment about her walking she lights up like the 4th of July. I am sure she will be quite the little ham in a year or so!



Our other big news is Momoka now has two upper teeth to go with those two lower ones. She has been really fussy in the afternoon with lots of slobber. She also woke up a couple of days ago with a serious case of sweaty head. Two days ago we were rasslin' around on the bed and I turned her upside down. Her mouth opened wide to let out a squeal and there they were - two butter bean sized teeth poking out of her upper gums. Such a big girl!

Pineapple soft cream

We took our gal to one of our favorite spots on the island - the Dole Pineapple Plantation. I don't think they grow too much up there anymore but they do have a nice garden, what is billed as the world's largest botanical maze and, of course, a gift shop to squeeze $$$ out of tourists. They also have a snack bar that serves tasty pineapple soft cream. I like the pineapple float. It tastes great and I wanted to share it with Momoka. A bite of the float was going to be her first departure from baby food and into the world of bad for you adult food. We try to be a little strict on diet issues because refined sugar is so bad for kids but we figured one little taste wasn't going to turn Momoka into a junk food junkie. Here's a picture of the float . . . . .


Looks good, huh?



Here's a picture of our gal's face after I put some of this delicious creation on her tongue . . . .

Guess she didn't dig the pineapple float as much as we do. We figured the pineapple juice in the float might have been a little sour and that's what caused the scrunched up yucky face reaction. Aloha Momochan!

Aloha girl

Here's a few shots of our gal enjoying Hawaii. We have been trying to eat some Japanese food the last couple of days since we have been away from it for a while. DC was not a great Japanese food town. Lots of Korean places but the Japanese restaurants (especially sushi) in DC were not that great and were very expensive. So far the food in Hawaii has been much better and cheaper (as you would expect). Last night we headed out for ramen. Momma and I had big bowls with extra chashu. Momma had corn added to her bowl - I went for a big glob of butter. Momma stole some of my butter to put in her ramen. Moral of the story - never get corn added to ramen (or any other vegetable for that matter) when you can have a big glob of butter. Our gal was quite the hit at the ramen shop. The waitstaff lugged her around the place. One nice Filipina lady kept fawning over the baby. Of course Momoka loved the extra attention. About 2/3 of the way through the meal a family of Japanese tourists came into the ramen shop. There were two little girls around 6 and 3 with the family. The three year old was interested in Momoka and came over to talk to her. Momoka hasn't seen a Japanese child yet and was very interested in this little girl. Momoka reached out and the little girl reached out and they both touched hands. Momoka was so excited. The little Japanese girl then sang Momoka the theme song from the Anpanman cartoon and performed a little dance while singing. Momoka was so excited she almost popped.



In the ramen shop . . . . .



Here's our gal hanging out at Genki sushi. It's like a 100 yen kaiten sushi place in Japan but when you've been away from decent sushi for a while it was pretty tasty. We ate sushi at a rather expensive place in Georgetown that had it's clock cleaned by the sushi at Genki - plus it was about 1/4 the cost.



Here's our gal with some lei's. She wasn't too happy that we wouldn't let her graze on the flowers. I guess they looked tasty. One things for sure they smelled great

Sunrise on the beach

She slept much better last night. We got her back into her routine a bit - a walk, then bath, then dinner, then milk and off to sleep. She went to bed around 2045 and awoke a little after 0500. Momma and I woke to the sounds of her happily babbling away in her crib - the best way in the world to wake up! She woke up really happy so we think she might have caught up on her rest a little. She is such a great sport and is a real joy to travel with. Nice shot of Diamonhead in the background - taken with Momma's cell phone. What a great photographer!

Tanjobi Omedito Momochan - you're 8 months old today!



View from the balcony of the hotel via cell camera. We'll get the real cameras into action soon!

Asleep in Paradise

Here's our gal taking a little nap in paradise . . . . .


Momma and I are hoping her little clock gets adjusted to Aloha time soon.

We made it to Hawaii

Well, we made it to Hawaii. We left DC on 29 August and went for a week to visit in Texas. Momma and I took Jiji and Baba to Galveston. They both love the beach so it was a nice little vacation enroute to three years of going to the beach.
The baby was great on the plane considering some issues we had with our flight. American had a broken plane that stranded us at DFW for 3 1/2 hours. The baby got really out of synch and her little clock got all whacked out. She couldn't sleep much on the plane (slept last 1 1/2 hours of an 8 hour flight). When we got to the hotel she went to sleep, slept for around 4 hours and then woke up. Momochan and I took a 4 hour walk around Waikiki so Momma could get some sleep. Baby slept the last 2 hours so that, coupled with Pappa's need for some serious exercise, necessitated the marathon walk.
She is playing with Momma now in our hotel room and is all smiles and giggles. We're going to the exchange over at Pearl Harbor later today to get some supplies and then over to L&L for a big ole' plate lunch - Yummy! Don't worry Baba we'll get double macaroni salad and think of you.


Here's our gal hanging out with her two favorite people in the lobby of the San Luis Hotel in Galveston. Jiji and Baba are tops - me and Momma are just OK.


Here's our gal in the pool at the San Luis. Swimming is great!


Hanging out on the beach with Jiji and Baba.