Mama Mia!

This week was big... epic...full of adventure (and a little bit of work)... this week my Mama came to visit!

As soon as I announced my move to Hawaii, my family started planning trips to visit. Since December is a busy time to travel to the island, Mom came by herself. The plan was to help me get settled, do some sightseeing and celebrate the holidays. I think we exceeded all of our goals!

Because I'm a new employee I haven't technically earned PTO. Luckily my new boss & co-workers are understanding and I worked several half days this week. This left a lot of quality time for me and mama together!

Mom and I spent our time shopping, watching sunsets and just sitting quietly on the lanai. We went out to eat to try some local food & spent a couple of meals at home so I could show off my cooking skills. We drank wine, beer, Mai tais and prosecco ... All in moderation of course!  Mama did her part to help around the house with laundry and dishes. And at the end of the week what did we have to show for it? Mom had a new lei, I had my belated Xmas presents and both us had about a hundred pictures. Here are a few:

First night on the town. 

Mama being adventurous and trying local sushi... Though I had to give her a chopstick lesson!

Dinner, drinks and a sunset on Waikiki. 

All my Christmas goodies finally arrived!!!

Dole plantation, where we ended up spending three hours instead of thirty minutes. 

Waimea valley and waterfall. 

Sunset on waimea bay (my favorite part of the week). The waves were huge, the surfers were daring and the sunset was truly peaceful. 

Punchbowl National Cemetary, Grandpa Drake would've loved this.  

Although mom couldn't stay until midnight we took several opportunities throughout the trip to celebrate the new year... Including counting down with the ball drop in Times Square and taking cheesy pictures at the mall like japanese tourists. 

As the rest of the city was celebrating NYE, I drove mom to the airport for her redeye flight. Afterwards I was standing on my lanai reflecting on 2013, my week with Mom and what 2014 will bring. I also was in awe at the amount of illegal fireworks being setoff around the city. Can you believe the whole city was smoky and smelled of explosives. The whole effect left me excited about what's to come. As they say in Hawaii-

                 (Happy New Year!)

And now for the pic of the week:

Mahalo!