Aloha from Fresno....

The story of our vacation of a lifetime, in three parts (or two or four... we won't know until we get there)

Part I: The Food of course.

Our trip to Hawaii was a series of very bad hair days, exception noted. .. See, this is me washing out the hairspray and styling from the wedding hair. Excuse me, but my wedding hair day was quite excellent. God smiled down on me and gave me a fantastic Puerto Rican hairdresser at the Ritz (let's give it up for God, really hairdos outside the circle of trust are very risky). David would have been so pleased. I had a lot of anxiety (natch) about the hair because it is windy and David was foretelling old lady hair.

As I was saying, Hawaii was a series of very bad hair days punctuated by a lot of food. Breakfast was the feast of plenty. Patrick indulged in miso soup, smoked salmon and capers rounded out by two bowls of cereal and guava juice every morning. Keith was putting away three waffles, eggs and bacon. Toward the end (much to his pineapple-hating brother’s chagrin) Keith started eating bowlfuls of pineapple. I will not get into Kevin and my breakfast eating habits except to say that we didn’t need lunch and Keith’s new word is “sticky bun.”

Top eating experiences:

1) The hamburger fit for my king. Some good burgers at Cool Cat Cafe. The menu said:

Remember watching the Cartwright's on Sunday night? If you have the appetite of Hoss and Ben, then try your chops on this. Three burger patties (yep, that's more than a pound of beef) all loaded up on a French roll with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, sweet Maui onions and thousand island dressing. Juice will be dripping down your arms.

I read: “Remember the Cartwright’s? Blah, blah, blah. Sweet Maui onions and thousand island dressing. Juice will be dripping down your arms.” SWEET, that sounds like my husband. At some point I realized that I had ordered Kevin a pound of hamburger with the fixings plus an order of onion rings. It was a beautiful thing and he ate it all. Patrick ate the onion rings. Can we get a crown over here?

2) KING CRAB LEGS: prix fixe no less, we’re all in, dutch. Patrick harassed our waitress until these wonderful shellfish found their way to our table. I did all the work, we shared in the bounty. Does he like crab legs or does he like the idea of crab legs? We’ll never know….

3) Sushi of course: The only problem with this sushi is we only had it once. See what mean parents we are? And yes, Keith loves sushi, his favorite are kappa rolls and tuna rolls. Patrick has a new (?) obsession with octopus. We had a really nice waiter who waxed on about having kids and the wonders of being a parent. Always a nice little reminder when you are stuck in a restaurant with a two-year old. He also had a funny little schtick when Patrick was pouting. “Call Nine-Whine-Whine for the WAH-bulance.” heh, cheese.

4) Dessert for dinner via room service

What can top off a vacation? Dessert delivered in bed for dinner. Mine would have been perfect if two boys didn’t agree on the level of its perfection. Chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and coffee... $11 We’ll order two next time.

5) The pig at the luau (or the Shirley temples if you are a Callahan boy)

We had a blast at the Drums of the Pacific Luau. The Callahan Boys had their first sips gulps of Shirley Temples (it’s vacation, what are you gonna do?). Keith mostly focused on his cherries, Patrick was in sugar heaven.

Our suitcases came back a full 8 pounds heavier… And so did we.