Obamas go bowling and buy shave ice
President Barack Obama ordered shave ice yesterday at Island Snow at Kailua Beach Center, joined by family and friends. The president's island vacation continued yesterday with a visit to the bowling alley at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
President Barack Obama with daughter Malia, second from left, and family and friends at Island Snow.
President Barack Obama laughed with employee Renee Ebia yesterday while he enjoyed a treat at Island Snow in Kailua.
President Barack Obama went bowling, played hoops and topped off a cloudy, drizzly vacation day with a short trek for shave ice.
The president’s motorcade arrived at Island Snow in Kailua at about 4:15 p.m. Obama’s entourage included more than a dozen adults and young kids, among them first daughters Sasha and Malia.
"Once you’ve ordered, go back!" Obama told the giddy group at the counter.
He picked up the tab and left money in the tip jar.
"It’s really good," Obama said after tasting his Melona, cherry and lemon-lime icy treat.
He took group photos with the beaming young clerks. Obama told the employees he still had the Island Snow T-shirt he received as a gift last year and that he loves it, said Brockton Kodama, a spokesman for the family-owned business.
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"He brought a whole bunch of people. It was a great experience," Kodama said.
Kodama said other customers were not allowed in the store while Obama and his group were getting their shave ice.
Obama’s order last year—lemon-lime, cherry and guava orange—has been put on Island Snow’s flavor-combo list as the "Snowbama."
Earlier in the afternoon the president, 12-year-old Malia and 9-year-old Sasha went bowling at the alley at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe. The Obamas were joined later by family friends for some basketball, a sport the president prefers to bowling.
Obama’s stop at a Pennsylvania bowling alley during his campaign in 2008 proved an embarrassment; he bowled a 37.
The president’s party played basketball on a court at the Marine base that has become a sanctuary for the Obamas on their vacations here. The president golfs on the base course, the first couple uses its gym for morning workouts and the first family often visits a secluded beach there.
But the Obamas have not had much in the way of beach weather since the president arrived Thursday. Clouds hung over Oahu yesterday, and more rain is forecast throughout the week.
The weather has given the privacy-seeking president an excuse to avoid the spotlight during his vacation. Thus far the president has limited his movements to time with his family at their rented oceanfront home and trips to the base.
