My dad and brother came for a visit back in mid-February and somehow when my dad bought their plane tickets he accidentally selected a return date of March 18th instead of February 18th. That meant that my dad still had a plane ticket on March 18th, so he decided to come out to see us again instead of letting his return ticket go to waste.
Hoping to ski, my dad arrived on Saturday afternoon, March 15th, ski gear and all. We knew that the weather was going to be iffy and that it might end up raining in the mountains. There had been some major avalanches at Crystal Mountain earlier in the week so we also knew that most of our favorite runs to ski had slid that week, leaving nothing but avalanche debris. Unfortunately for us, the rain did not hold off for us to ski on Sunday. But, no different than usual, my dad brought the snow with him, just on the wrong day. It ended up snowing over a foot on Monday but neither Alex or I could take the day off to enjoy it.
On Sunday instead of skiing we headed to the Hi Spot for brunch before perusing through the new Museum of History and Industry. I am not a big museum lover but did find it very interesting to learn a lot about Seattle and Washington history. After we had gone through the museum we braved the rain and camped out at Von Trapp’s, a newer German bierhaus in Capitol Hill, to grab some sausage, pretzels and a beer for the boys.
Both Alex and I had to work on Monday. I had an unusually busy day that brought me downtown to a board meeting. After doing a few things around the house Monday morning, my dad and I hopped in the car and headed to the Columbia Tower so he could work via the 40th floor Starbucks and check out the view while I attended my board meeting. Afterwards my dad accompanied me to tutoring where he got to see me in action at one of the schools I work at.
While we were en route back to my house from tutoring I got a phone call from my mom. When I answered I figured she was calling to tell me she made it home safely from her trip to Hawaii. Much to my surprise, she was stuck in Seattle again! Her flight from Hawaii was delayed so she missed her connection back to Minnesota and needed to stay the night. She quickly hopped in a cab and found her way to our house just in time to join us for dinner at Le Red Cow, a new restaurant in our neighborhood. Having my divorced parents sleeping under the same roof and eating at the same table was certainly not something I had expected to be doing that night but we all survived!
Earlier that day Alex called with some unexpected news. He was given a promotion! A celebration was in order. We toasted to Alex and his hard work while we dined at Red Cow. We all enjoyed our meal and I think it’s safe to say this restaurant will be a hit in our little neighborhood.
After a great weekend it was time to make another trip to the airport to see my parents off on Tuesday morning. I can’t think of any other time when I had the opportunity to see them both so much in such a short amount of time since I left for college in 2004. What a treat it was!