honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, January 1, 2010

Obama, daughters and friends go for shave ice in Kailua

Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

President Barack Obama has shave ice with his daughter Malia Obama, 11, second from right, and other family friends at Island Snow in Kailua, Hawaii Friday, Jan. 1, 2010. The Obamas are in Hawaii for the holidays.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

spacer spacer

President Obama, his daughters and family friends headed to Island Snow Shave Ice in Kailua this afternoon, according to media pool reports.

The president had a had a long list of orders on lined 8.5 x11 notebook paper folded in half and ordered 17 cones, 7 with ice cream.
Obama was wearing sunglasses, a plain white T-shirt, brown knee length linen-weave shorts, and black rubber open-toed sandals. His daughters, Malia and Sasha, were in shorts, sleeveless shirts and flip-flops.
The president was joking with children and friends, pool reports said.
He asked one of the small kids if he was paying.
Reuters' Jeff Mason asked the president whether he'd have azuki beans with his. "No beans," he said. "I'm a traditionalist." But then explained "it's part of a tradition if you're into beans." He also explained that the beans make a mess in the bottom of the paper cone when the shave ice melts.
He rattled off the orders as the kids and parents stepped forward to claim them and thrilled the young server, a guy with pierced lower lip and Island Snow T-shirt with a flourescent green banyan tree on it by saying "That's a nice looking shirt."
Everyone went to benches outside and proceeded to eat, spill and drip their way through the cones, a pool report said. Secret Service fanned out across the parking lot, which was ringed by several dozen cheering fans.
A pool reporter from the Wall Street Journal asked the president what he was having: "Lemon-lime, cherry, passion guava."
Since arriving on Christmas Eve, Obama has gone to the movies, to Hanauma Bay, to visit friends on the North Shore and played a couple rounds of golf, one yesterday at the Mid-Pacific Country Club in Lanikai.
The Obamas are scheduled to return to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.