Honolulu for a second

So we went to Oahu for the weekend, so Matt could support the Kauai 4-h kids. Here, grandma Betty style, are the things that were great and that I will choose to remember, in no particular order:

1. Seeing the cute 4-h animals-- the big mellow piggies and the short-shorn lambs, and the big hefty steers, and the undersized and over-loud fancy show chickens, plus a couple of goats and a rabbit and a zillion teeny fuzzy baby chicks.

2. the bishop museum and its dusty and mildewy collection of polynesian miscellany, with lots of odd spelling and grammar errors in the information, and a Japanese language hula lesson, and the enormous Robo-Bugs exhibit. After just reading "Amusing Ourselves to Death" those bugs seemed like a perfect example of something that looks educational but just isn't. They were just big, gross, scary robot bugs. Rosie kept wanting to go in and see them, but as soon as we were there, she squealed and cried and wanted "UP!!!" So we'd escape outside and she'd immediately say, "more robot bugs?" Sheesh! Little thrill seeker...

3. Ala Moana! Yes, we're country mice. The fancy mall with all the fancy stores and kid-friendly play areas and Japanese department stores-- very fun. Plus eavesdropping on all the Japanese tourists-- we don't get any over here. And Ala Moana-- I mean, they accept Yen in the food court. It's basically Japan. A little kid saw what Rosie was playing with in one store, and asked, in Japanese-- Isn't there another one? He was totally unimpressed when we answered him-- well, let's look where it came from. Oh, I guess that's the only one. How about we share it? Fun.

4. Riding the bus! Actually this was the best and the worst part of the trip. Best because, public transport is cool, in a kind of grundgy budget urban way, and worst because this is Rosie on the bus: "MOMMY! STOP PUNCHING ME! STOOOOP HURTING ME! OW OW OW! DON'T STEAL MY CLOTHES! DON'T HIT ME!!!! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Yeah.


5. The children's discovery museum! We spent a whole day there-- taking brief goldfish-and-fig-newton breaks outside-- and it was AWESOME. Rosie's favorite was the giant mouth you can jump around in, and the Japan house, where she got to pick up little plastic sushis with chopsticks, and say, "Itadakimaaaasu!" and "Wa! Oishi! Ooooishiii!"

6. Going to Chinatown with a coworker of Matt's who took us out for an extravagant Dim Sum breakfast and then around the markets, with the fresh (still thrashing) fish and meat-- every part imaginable, pigs being slaughtered in full view of the street, effluent running under the vegetable stands-- an impossible variety of greens...

7. The Pagoda Hotel! Aw, it's such an institution. Kinda divey, but. And the funny Pagoda breakfast buffet in the "floating restaurant" with all the enormously overfed carp swimming around. We loved the bathtub in our room! I think Rosie took about 4 baths a day. And we got to watch Kiku Terebi. Look, simple pleasures.

8. The mercifully short trip home! You've gotta love getting to the airport, getting on the plane, drinking your guava juice, and then landing. And plus flying in and seeing some of those remote and beautiful parts of Kauai that are invisible any other way... So it was a fun short trip-- Matt worked hard with the 4-H club all weekend, and now we're all very glad to be home.

Here's Rosie dressed up as a Mama panda in the China house of the children's discovery museum...
Yaaay, Lambies!


Rosie got to pet this very nice and STRANGE chicken-- a silkie.

Actually, this isn't Oahu-- this is at the National Botanic Garden up the street-- Matt harvested some tart fallen lilikoi and showed Rosie how to suck all the sweet-sour black seeds out.
And Rosie gathered all the fallen plumeria...
"Just like Mei Chan!"
Our chickens! Note the egg-- they are all laying now-- we're inundated with eggs. It's nice to have something to contribute to our barter economy.
Rosie's pooltime hairstyle.