After dropping Kim off at the E Street Cafe in Encinitas, Skylar and I headed inland to see Eight Below, she for the second time and me for the first. As we turned onto D Street, though, we saw a Hawaiian restaurant. "I want to go there, dad," Skylar blurted out. I parked the car in order to run in for a menu, but she insisted on coming with me. Indeed, she had already undone her seatbelt and opened her door by the time I was standing on the street. The restaurant itself features "plate lunch" entrees of the sort that tpratt praises and a small gift shop on the side. I didn't see much on the menu that Skylar likes to eat, but she told me she wanted to come back.

The movie was a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of stories without villains and so is the Bean. And those dogs are cute as can be. It's long, however, and, together with many previews, I figured that it would have made returning to the Hawaiian restaurant impossible. But Skylar said she wanted to try. So I called the place and told them to wait for us, drove back to downtown Encinitas, and found parking a few blocks away. She ran, in her clogs, and I strugled to keep up.

Once we got in, I ordered the ground beef patties with eggs and gravy for myself and the chicken teriyaki for her. While we waited for the food, she scanned the gift shop for something to buy, eventually lighting on a wreath of artificial flowers and a macademia nut chocolate bar. I headed to the cash register, only to have Skylar tell me to wait. "How much is this book, dad?," she asked, holding up an introduction to the Hawaiian language. "The same as the wreath. You can only get one. Why don't I just get you the wreath?" She thought for a minute. "No, dad, I already have lots of things like the wreath. I want to learn how to speak Hawaiian." Surprised, I bought her the book and candy, then watched in astonishment as she spent the remainder of our wait for dinner reading about the pronounciation of Hawaiian vowels and consonants.

Now she wants to make Kim return on Saturday so that she can sample poi, which is a once-a-week preparation. Kim says it will have to wait until June, but Bean may yet have her way. And you want to know where her newfound fascination with things Hawaiian comes from? She watched Aloha, Scooby Doo a few times on the drive from Tucson to San Diego. I guess cartoons have educational value after all