Mom and Dad's Visit

Where have the last 10 days gone? Mom and Dad were here and we took the city by storm with all that we did and now our apartment is empty again. What a great week it has been! As soon as I said my goodbyes on the last day of school I was out of there; eager to see my parents. With a slight glitch in their travel itinerary, they arrived safely on Friday morning. A little weary looking but ready to go, we headed downtown in the afternoon sun to Pike's Place Market. It wasn't long before we had fresh pasta in our hands, saw the fish guys do their thing, and had already made another purchase or two. That was just the beginning of the ground we would cover on foot and in the car! We met Charlie that night for dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant and then it was an early night as Mom and Dad were exhausted and they had been up for 22 hours. Saturday was really a "welcome to the west coast" as the four of us drove to neighboring Fremont for the Summer Solstice Festival to kick off the first day of summer. It's a huge event with a parade that kicks it off. The novelty of this parade is that it is led by people riding naked on their bikes. Most of them were covered in body paint; some in design and some in character (one of my favorites was a man dressed as a stimulus package-how patriotic of him!) I have never seen anything like it in my life and we were definitely all in awe at first. More power to those that are comfortable being naked. The area was packed with thousands upon thousands of people of all ages. Joe and I found ourselves in conversation about our "hypothetical children" and whether we would take them to the naked bike parade. Joe said yes and so I told him that if they had any questions my response would be to go ask their father.
Father's Day found us at the aquarium and then on the Underground Tour where we got to learn a little history about the city. I learned of this great deal where selected cities in the country offer what's called the "City Pass" where you can get passes to a number of attractions for a discount price. It was so worth it and throughout the course of the week we did the Space Needle, Pacific Science Center with an IMAX movie 3D called "Under The Sea," a harbor cruise that went out on the Sound where we had great views of Mt. Rainier and the Olympic mountains, the Museum of Flight, and the zoo. I've been waiting for visitors to do more of the tourist attractions and now have checked everything off my list! On Monday we took a ferry across to San Juan Island where I attempted once again to see the Orca whales (with no luck!). It was a gorgeous sunny day and we walked around the town and the shops, had lunch at a little cafe, and took the car out to Limekiln Park where there is a lighthouse and where when the timing is right you can see the Orca whales. We were about 2 hours too early as they were spotted north on their way down. It became the running joke with mom that she was going to buy me a stuffed orca whale since I've missed seeing them twice now. Maybe three times is the charm!
An even further getaway for us came on Wednesday and Thursday where we drove 3 and a half hours through the Cascade Mountains to the center of Washington and an area known as Lake Chelan. In the middle of desert mountains sits this beautiful (and huge!) lake (the 3rd deepest lake in the country) surrounded by vineyards and a little downtown. We got there around lunchtime and got some munchies and took them to the picnic tables right by the lake. Lots of families and kids around enjoying the beautiful weather and a hotspot for groups of teenagers to hang out. After lunch we visited a few wineries and then hit the shops downtown. We got a hotel room for the night and had a BBQ dinner at one of the wineries with a glimpse of the lake. It triuly is a beautiful area.
Since we were so close, we made a stop at the Bavarian town of Leavenworth to show Mom and Dad how a little taste of Germany was just plopped in the mountains. Joe and Dad enjoyed their brautwursts and german beer and it was another nice day to walk around and enjoy the weather. We made it back into Seattle with perfect timing to try a new Italian restaurant in the city. A little hole in the wall that Grandpa would have approved of.
Friday early afternoon was spent at the Museum of Flight (dad was in his glory :-) before heading downtown to do one more walk through of the Market and for another taste of Pike's Place Chowder which we turned Mom and Dad onto. We had a beautiful day at the zoo yesterday and then met Charlie for dinner. We got a nice guided tour of the mansion houses on Capitol Hill thanks to Charlie before calling it a night.
Now Mom and Dad will be able to attest to the fact that we do have nice sunny weather out here as they got to see it everyday! It was fun to show Mom and Dad all there is to fall in love with in Seattle and why we like it so much. Now my belly must recuperate from all the yummy food we ate and it's time to get ready for our next adventure.....time on the Oregon Coast with Aunt JoAnn and Uncle Michael and then their visit to Seattle. Gotta love summer vacation! :-)