How many scoops?

So I’m trying to get back to the real world after spending a week in Hawaii. It’s really easy to forget there IS a real world out there when you’re in Hawaii – no matter which way you go, you always end up with a view of the ends of the earth. If the world were indeed flat, it would drop off into infinity all around Hawaii…

I’ve also noticed that the service at this place I’m staying now is not nearly as good as the hotel where I was staying. For instance, apparently I’m expected to make my OWN bed and to cook my OWN meals and to clean my OWN bathroom. I woke up this morning and wandered around looking for the breakfast buffet, but all I could find was a package of instant oatmeal. Now, there IS a pool out back, although it’s not nearly as big as the hotel pool… but I can’t find the ocean ANYwhere. I’m calling the concierge…

One of the things we really liked about our hotel was the ice cream – they had the best ice cream at that place. This was something we discovered on our first night in Hawaii, when we were struggling to stay awake past 8 o’clock. We ate dinner in the dimly-lit, perfect-for-dozing-off restaurant, and then decided to order some dessert. Normally I would order something chocolate, but I couldn’t find anything that sounded very chocolatey on the menu. So I settled on plain old ice cream. It was three scoops, and you had a choice between vanilla, chocolate, Kona coffee and macadamia nut. I got one each of the vanilla, chocolate and Kona coffee, and shared it with Rick. Dad got a whole lotta vanilla (or maybe vanilla and one scoop of Kona coffee), and mom opted for no dessert.

But when our ice cream arrived, mom noticed that it wasn’t served in a regular bowl – it was in some kind of almond praline bowl. I’ve never been much of a praline person myself, but mom apparently thought the praline thing was the best thing EVER – she loved it so much that most nights we’d all meet up at the outdoor lobby terrace, where you could order drinks or appetizers or desserts. And Rick and I would share an order of the ice cream (the macadamia nut ice cream was really good, too), but mom and dad ordered their OWN ice cream – dad because he just loves vanilla ice cream, and mom because she loved that praline bowl thingy. There would be no sharing. And mom was very adamant about that ice cream bowl – one night we ordered the ice cream, and it showed up in a CERAMIC bowl. And mom demanded, “where’s my praline? WHERE?” and then she proceeded to throw the waitress over the terrace balcony into the fountain below. (Okay, that might be an exaggeration…) However it is NOT an exaggeration that as we were leaving the hotel on our last day in Hawaii, mom turned back and said, “good-bye almond praline ice cream bowl!” Most people, when they think of Hawaii, would probably think of sun and beaches and tropical flowers and snorkeling – but not mom. She’ll always remember the almond praline ice cream bowl…

We probably ate way too much ice cream last week, so now I’m attempting to eat a more balanced diet once again. Which should last for about two days. Until Thanksgiving. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, it seems like all bets are off. Cookies and cake and candy and pie are all over the place this time of year… that stuff just appears out of nowhere… like it’s all airdropped onto our front lawns when we’re asleep. And it doesn’t matter if you somehow manage to keep your OWN house free of sugar-dusted butter cookies and chocolate-covered peppermint-filled popcorn balls – eventually, with all the visits to family and friends, you’ll stumble upon a tin of homemade fudge or a gallon of hot chocolate…

Or maybe, if mom is really lucky, an almond praline ice cream bowl. :)