Letters from Hawaii

Mom and Dad are in Hawaii with Aunt Terry and Uncle Bobby. I know they are having a great time, but Mom was complaining that the islands needed more development... only a two lane road around the whole island. (Gee, wouldn't paradise get ruined if a bunch of strip malls move in?)

Anyhow, I know they're having fun because my Mom has gotten herself tattooed. (Oy, vey!) I get this mental picture of my mom doing body shots off some Hawaiian guy in a grass skirt, or downing Jell-o shooters with Aunt Terry. (Meanwhile, Dad and Uncle Bobby are probably watching TV.) It is crazy scary when your mother and aunt are wilder and crazier than I was even when I was twenty.

My dad is notorious for taking his digital camera everywhere, and completely forgetting to ever use it. He never takes any pictures, and when he does, they're always posed shots, not candids. Anyhow, I was extremely excited when he sent me the following picture, as it was one of the first nature shots he ever took and it turned out incredibly well:


THEN, when I went to research the bird, the very first link I found on Google images was this:

Yes, my own father is trying to perpetrate a fraud upon me. For shame, dad, for shame!!!

Anyhow, it's a very nice photo, and the bird is a red crested cardinal (Paroaria coronata), a Brazilian import to Hawaii from about 1930.