Mom and Mike hit Seattle

So Mom and Mike drove down to Seattle from Sault Ste. Marie... As you might imagine it's a long ride.

They showed up right after I came home from the company v-ball tourney on Sunday. That means they made it in 3 days. They were understandably tired, so we just went out for Pagliachi pizza and they went to bed early. I found sleeping bags for them, but I had originally assumed Mom would have brought the inflatable mattress she brought last time. We figured something out.

Monday as I was at work they bought and assembled dressers for my room. When I came home we went to Golden Gardens to check out the sunset and find some sealife. I think this was the first time Mike had seen salt water.

Tuesday Mike and Mom went to EMP to check out the memorabilia, and play some instruments. Mike had issues with the drum set, but had a pretty fun time overall. When I came home we went out for Thai food which was the first time my brother had ever tried it. We later played pool at the Garage which was interesting because it was the first game of pool my Mom had ever played even though we owned a pool table back home in Wawa for years.

Wednesday Mike and Mom went to the Boeing Factory Tour where they saw the new 7E7 being built. Good times. They came by the company where I gave them a tour which included a lot of the regular stuff (office, museum, courts, whatever else I could find). Then we had some Indian food which again was a first for Mike. He did like it, but not as much as the Thai food. We went to Champs Karting to do some indoor electric kart racing which was pretty fun. I was a couple of hundreds of a second off being able to use one of their high end karts.

Thursday we went to Mt. Rainier (the north side at Paradise). We didn't actually get to see more than a piece of Rainier because of the clouds and fog, but we did get some good waterfall pictures, so it was worth the ride regardless.

Friday we had a coffee taste test at Cafe Vivace which is right by my place. Neither of them had ever tried anything other than black coffee, so we all ordered something different (Late, Mocha, Cappuccino, Velvet) to get a reasonable sample. It was raining, but we still made it out to downtown Seattle to see the Seattle Library (and it's spiral staircase), checked out Pike's Place Market and the waterfront and walked a bit downtown for general site seeing. Although it was looking miserable I really wanted them to go out for a hike while they were in Washington, and we were scheduled to head to Vancouver later Friday night, so regardless of the looming clouds we headed out to Rattlesnake Ledge. At Rattlesnake Ledge it proceeded to rain on us with reckless abandon. We made it to the top in time for the rain to let up and give us a view of Rattlesnake Lake, but we were so wet it was ridiculous. I'm very proud of my Mom and brother for actually forcing through and finishing the hike under those crappy conditions. Good genes I guess. We then headed to Vancouver.

Saturday we rented rollerblades and bladed around Stanley Park which is about 10km, we hiked Lynn Canyon, where there were some pretty ballsy kids jumping from some pretty high places into some pretty tight pools. We went to the Deep Cove Bike Shop to check out the famous bike shop, and ate dinner in Deep Cove. Later in the night we went to the Symphony of Fire's Grand Finale. I forget how many people showed up, but it was on the order of half a million people on the beach. As far as I know that is the biggest crowd I have ever been a part of. Apparently we went to Milestones for a Bellini (3 parts champagne, 1 part peach schnapps, dash of grenadine - put some raspberry stoli in as well). Mom offered to pay, then realized she forgot her card :)

Sunday we all headed to Whistler. Mike and I rented big squishy bikes while Mom, Cheryl and Amanda rented XC bikes to do some tamer riding. We did hit a good amount of the park, and spent some time in the training areas where Mike hit some good air but. For whatever reason they weren't giving out free t-shirts so that was lame. Sunday night I headed back to Seattle, but Mom and Mike stayed in Vancouver to head home from there.

They stayed for 7 days, and I'm pretty sure they had a good time.