Visit from the Parents

In September my mom and dad came to visit.  I always try to plan enough to keep them busy, but not too much where they are exhausted when they head home.  Well, I started their trip with wearing them out on the first weekend and then I let them recuperate during the week.

I always have Mondays off and Doug was kind enough to take a three day leave pass so we had all weekend and Monday to spend with my parents.

We picked them up from the airport and headed down to Portland, Oregon.  Since this was probably going to be their last trip out to the Pacific Northwest I wanted to show them a little of Oregon.  We went to the Pittock Mansion to see inside and walk around the grounds outside.  The Pittock owned the Weekly Oregonian newspaper and their mansion sits on a hill looking out over Portland.  The mansion reminded me of the Biltmore Estates, but it was only about a tenth of the size.

The flowers were stunning!

We went to Hamburger Mary’s for dinner and no one was impressed with the food.  Bad pick on my part!

The next morning I made up for it by suggesting we go to the famous Voodoo Doughnuts.  I really wanted to try the maple bars with bacon that I heard about on TV, but the apple fritter looked amazing as well so I got one of each!  Doug got a red velvet doughnut and I decided that we needed a regular one too.  Don’t they look yummy?

We left Portland and headed to the coast.  We took a tour of the Tillamook Cheese factory.  I am always up for cheese and ice cream!  We got to see how the cheese is produced and packaged.  Pretty interesting!  Doug thought that he should be in charge of the workers and make them work harder.  There was too much standing around for him…haha!  I don’t want him to be my boss!

After pigging out on ice cream we headed north towards home.  We stayed by the coastline and saw some amazing views.

Another place that I wanted to take my parents to was Cannon Beach.  It was a gorgeous day, clear skies and the sun was shinning!  We walked the beach and enjoyed the scenery.  My dad wanted to put his feet in the water and wondered why there wasn’t anyone out swimming.  He found out why when he put his feet in.  It was freezing! 

Wrecks came with us too.  He loves playing on the beach.  We didn’t let him get in the water even though he made several attempts.

The movie The Goonies was filmed on this beach.  The big rock formation on the right is called Haystack rock and it is where they found the treasure in the movie.

After the beach we headed back home to DuPont.  It was a long and tiring trip but we needed to rest up for Monday!

Monday we went spent the morning at the dentist.  My mom and dad had some work that needed to get done so I wanted to make sure that that happened.  After the dentist we did the “Ride the Ducks” tour.  The tour gives a great overview of Seattle, but our guide was lacking in the entertaining section. 

The Seahawks were playing Monday night football and I was lucky enough to score us 4 tickets.  We all had a blast at the game and I am glad that my mom and dad got to experience Quest Field and Seahawks fans.

Doug and I had to go back to work on Tuesday.  My mom and dad pent the rest of their time going to Mt. Rainier, to Seattle to do the “Underground Tour”, and going back to the dentist.  On Saturday we had a yummy breakfast of biscuits and gravy and spent the day watching college football.

My parents left on Saturday night and I always hate saying goodbye when I don’t know when I will see them again.  Hopefully we will be moving back to the Southeast in July and I can see them a lot more often!!!