Solomon the Great

You probably know not to call me when you are on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and are stuck with a question from the Old Testament and you have one  lifeline left. Good. Because I'm talking about Solomon, my dad's caretaker while we were in Hawaii. Between him and the Shah's in general and Gunaraj in particular my dad made it through the week with just one minor mishap (a fall in the bathroom that could have been serious but wasn't). I cooked his favorite dinners and froze them before I left and the Shah's sent fresh lunches for him everyday. Here's what the kitchen looked like the night before we left town.

And when we returned my dad's first question was "How was Hawaii?" He remembered us and where we'd been!

Evan's Fourth Third Birthday Party

Evan's celebrated his third birthday for the fourth time the night before we left for Hawaii. The Shah's showered him with gifts including a signed copy of "Grandma and the Great Gourd" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. And the ladies of China Cafe (sounds racy) pampered him and fed him cheesecake.

Grace Garden has an option for a birthday student to donate a book to the school library on his or her birthday. As we had bought a copy of Chitra's book from Amazon, Evan gave that to the school. One of his teachers sent Jo a photo.

Big Jake's

Ask Vivian and Evan and Travis what they ate on the Big Island and they've probably forgotten all about the grilled butterfish but they'll tell you about the bowls of pulled pork and rice at Big Jake's Island bbq. We ate so much over there we were embarrassed. Even the geckos got to know us - one jumped on Jo's arm. And the roosters and the mother hens and the gaggle of little chicks. This ain't yelp but if you like bbq and you are in that part of the world we recommend it.

One culinary disappointment this time around was Kalama's. Not the snow cones themselves but the owners when they thoughtlessly closed the place down and went away on a vacation. Last year one of their snow cones was Evan's birthday cake and we were hoping to repeat that for Jo this time. When Vivian found out she said she was ready to call up the owners and tell them that they had disappointed her mother and that they should come back.

Road Trip

We'd driven all over the Big Island before. But in honor of Carol we did it again this time. Under Jo's watchful eye (so what if it's a vacation) we left Captain Cook at 8:30am and returned after 9pm. We started up the Kona coast to Waimea and the Waipio Valley. From there to Hilo and Rainbow Falls where Jo and Vivian scrambled around on the rocks above the falls followed by a stroll through the farmer's market and Evan bought a pineapple. Then to Volcanoes National Park where we took a short walk along the rim of the Kilauea Iki crater and then drove to the Jagger Museum after dark to witness the glow at Haleamuamu crater - the legendary home of Pele.

If you need a tour guide for the Big Island Vivian or I could do it.