gary and mary come to town

my apologies in advance for the super long post, but this trip needs documentation. last weekend my parents paid me a visit. this is no small feat. they drove 1700 miles in a truck for three days with two dogs. they must love me.

weekend recap
friday
i got off work a bit early and drove straight to their motel room. hugs ensued and we spent most of the evening talking and cooking. is it normal for people to tailgate at motels? growing up this was quiet common, and it's almost hard to remember a time when we were at a motel and didn't tailgate. this night in particular was my dad's hot chicken, which i hadn't had for years. amazing.

saturday
we got up nice and early (for me) and decided to take a bus downtown. this plan was almost foiled, as we quickly learned that most buses downtown had been re-routed due to the rock n' roll marathon. fortunately, my parents were amazingly patient throughout the bus ordeal. our first stop was the space needle. i was surprised when my mom mentioned that she really wanted to go up in it because she is afraid of heights. i was equally surprised that my dad didn't want to go. he was a good sport and waited outside while my mom and i took in the views up top. our next stop was the world spice merchants, where my dad bought a few foreign spices and chatted up the clerk. we followed that up with a quick run through pike place market, where morel mushrooms and scallops were purchased. exhausted, we boarded a bus back to my house. there we met some "characters"- identical twins (men) with snakeskin jackets, pointy shoes, long blond curly hair, and both very talkative. my dad couldn't turn his gaze away, and joined their conversation. the evening ended with tailgating at the motel...this time steaks from america's best steak.

sunday
sunday was unoffically "beer day". we began the day with a delicious breakfast at the blue star cafe and then walked to bottleworks (an imported beer store). many questions were asked and, amazingly, no beer was bought. our next stop was bob's homebrew supply...where my dad was in homebrew heaven and my mom and i were in the yarn store across the street. the grand finale came with the tour of redhook. if you are a local to the area and haven't been there...shame on you! for only $1 you get your own 5 oz redhook glass and 4-5 refills. oh, and you get to learn about beer. neat. we rounded out the day with scallops with morel cream sauce and some feisty games of cribbage.

we were, of course, all sad to say good-bye but it won't be long until i see them again. my brother is getting married in early october...hello, bogue!