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mystery destination

about two weeks ago we received a message from liz & lindsay to a "mystery destination". with all the craziness of moving, we needed to wait until the right time to fully appreciate our hawaiian scavenger hunt. the opportunity presented itself saturday afternoon, armed with directions and a well rested toddler, we were off: the address was 1383 queen emma street. all we were told was that it was open 24/7 and that it wasn't food (and i'd been wanting some dim sum- manapua, to be exact).

we got off H1 and turned onto queen emma st. all we saw was a church and a school. hmmm. it was late in minnesota, but i called our trip advisors anyway:

"you're the only person i would have answered the phone for," liz says as she picks up.
"i'm confused," i say, "it's just a middle school."
"it's there, just look next to the church."

so we circle the block and try again. there it is, 1383 queen emma st. the sign reads "da kine bail bonds". i call liz back.



"bail bonds? really? it just says da kine bail bonds" (pronouncing da kine like bikini)
hysterical laughter "don't you know about dog the bounty hunter? and by the way, it's da KINE!" (rhyming with "da mine")
"um, no. but this IS completley random!"
more laughter.

while being laughed at long-distance, we noticed that more and more rental cars are pulling up in front of mystery destination and tourists are taking photos at the storefront. we sat in the car for all of 3 minutes and in that time 4 cars drove up and people hopped out to take photos just like this.


it wasn't until tonight that i was fully able to appreciate this mystery destination. we did some research and saw for ourselves some footage of "dog the bounty hunter" along with cartman's impressions of dog. apparently the show dog is like cops, but without annoying things like rules or the law. at last random mystery destination makes sense.

also interesting: "da kine" is a hawaiian creole (pidgin) saying that can pretty much mean anything - noun, verb, adjective, adverb. it's like a substitute for the real thing, only you have to know the context to get it's usage. in the title of dog's bail bonds, apparently it is used to mean "the best".

Comments

Bonzer said…
Ummmm... manapua? UBE filled bao? I'm SO intrigued!!!!
If you look really closely into Dog's sunglasses in the photo on his webpage I think you can see a reflection children crying.
Karin said…
Hi Johnsons, I'm dying to hear/see more about your new house!

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