I put my 81-year old uncle on a plane back to Oakland this morning and myt 84-year old mom and my sister on a plane to back to Honolulu this afternoon to end a really nice week long visit. During the week that they were here we:
- Ate at the world famous King's Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant in Torrance (at least it's famous if you're from Hawaii)
- Spent three hours at IKEA and Target
- Had dinner at Norms
- Went to Trader Joe's
- Did a tour of my school's new campus (and my boss and co-workers let me go home early with my mom!!!)
- Had Thai food at the Palms restaurant in Hollywood (famous for having a Thai Elvis impersonator, but we missed him)
- Went to see Wicked: The Musical (the highlight of the trip for my sister)
- Went for a great Italian lunch in Pasadena at Il Forniao
- Visited the Americana Mall in Glendale (in the rain)
- Had a Thanksgiving feast at home courtesy of Marie Calendars
- Visited the Getty Villa in Malibu
- Had Greek food at Ulysses Voyage at the Grove
- Went to the California Adventure Park at Disneyland
- Had chicken and ribs at Dinah's
- Had brunch at John O'Groat's
I suppose that it is probably pretty clear from the list above that I consumed a disgusting number of calories over Thanksgiving weekend.
On another note as I posted earlier, we had a few technical problems with our apartment during the big family visit:
- On the Thursday before their visit, the plaster above the shower in the master bedroom that was being used by my mom and sister cracked and caved in
- The plasterers from the building's management company came in and repaired it lickety split which was great
- On the morning that my mom and sister were set to arrive, the washing machine decided to break
- Our repair guy came by and fixed it in about 10 minutes on Wednesday night
- The topper on the cake, however, was that on the Friday after Thanksgiving, our refrigerator died so S/O and I had to run out to Sears at 7:00am on Saturday morning and buy a new refrigerator that got delivered this afternoon.
With all that went wrong, everything turned out great in the end. I think that S/O and I truly enjoyed having my family in for the week. At this point, though, I've finally come to the realization that my mom has become an elderly woman. She's always been the dynamo and the engine that ran our family, but each time it visit with her, I realize how much more she's slowed. Now, whenever I say goodbye to my mom at the end of a visit, part of me fears that it might be for the last time. I'm not ready for that. I often wonder if you can ever be really ready for that …
For now, I'm just going to enjoy the memories of a really great week …
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