Pennie Tapp is a Saint

This last week and a half we have had our first house guest come and stay with us. It is Tanya's mom Pennie! She knew she would miss her Tannie so much that she booked this trip before we even moved here. Tanya had a break between semesters without school the whole time too, so the timing was perfect!

After being reunited in tears at the airport . . .

They got excited and starting planning their vacation.

Here are some of the things we did with Pennie:

We went to a Japanese Buddhist Temple that is about a half an hour from our house. It is beautiful and peaceful and in the mountains. Some of you may recognize it from Lost (Jin and Sun's wedding and some other scenes were shot here).

Tannie and her mom were both reading The Hunger Games and even got me to read the whole thing in 3 days, which is unheard of because I DO NOT read. Pennie is now on the last book and Tanya is almost through the second.

We did a lot of beaching, including Pipeline, Bikini, Shark's Cove, and Pounders.

We also ate at Shark's Cove Grill where we had our wedding dinner a year and a half ago!

We got shave ice on more than one occasion.

And made home-made Acai Bowls. They are 'da best and a tradish in HI.

While I worked like a chump in the city they went to Pearl Harbor and shopped their brains out in Waikiki

And went to Duke's

We discovered a beach access steps away from our house that leads right down to Bikini Beach. We found lots of treasures and Pennie made us some cool decorations with driftwood and coral and stuff (pics to come).

This bottle had washed ashore and was covered in crustaceans. Collecting bottles that wash ashore is our new thang. We now have 6 really cool ones that we have found. We collect sand everywhere in the world we go and these bottles will be perfect for storing them.
We hit up all our favorite joints including Hukilau Cafe, Kahuku Grill, Surfin' Tacos, Grass Skirt Grill, etc.

We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

See the eel that looks like a poisonous snake?

And there were some stellar sunsets from our back porch.

And one day we went surfing with our friends Mark and Natalie, but it started raining which ruined the fun for everyone.

Tonight we were sad that our mini vacay was about to end . . . so we drowned our sorrows in macadamia nut banana splits - which helped.

Thanks for visiting Pennie and for spoiling the crap out of us! We love you!