Chris and Megan's parents (my in-laws) flew down to Seattle for an extended weekend. We had such a nice time and hope they did too. Can't wait to see everyone in June when they'll be down here again for Megan's graduation.
Bob and Cherie are from Seattle originally (and visit fairly frequently) so we needed to look beyond the typical Seattle Tourist Activities. That meant that the Space Needle was out. And the Duck Tours [Although I've heard they're actually pretty fun]. Megan and I put on our thinking caps and came up with a few ideas. Here was our weekend:
First up, a Seattle Sounders soccer game.
Megan and Eric have been raving about the Sounders game they went to a while back. Chris and I went to a few Galaxy and Chivas games down in LA (here, here, and here) and couldn't wait to see how the Sounders compared. So far so good. Now we just needed to hope that Cherie and Bob liked soccer too.
Check out Megan's fancy team gear. So jealous.
It sprinkled a bit but nothing that a true Alaskan/Seattlite can't handle. 
Talk about hard core fans: they had drums, songs, chants, massive flags, synchronized arm pumps, and this green lycra-suited dude.
The Chivas USA fans were serious too, but they definitely needed a green man. Or red, in their case.
It was so much fun. It helped that they won. Can't wait to go back.
Saturday night we had a nice BBQ with Cherie's brother and then a Sunday morning brunch with my parents. I ate so much good food this weekend. Still stuffed.
After brunch we headed out to Issaquah for a hike. Had to work off some brunch calories, right?
Evidently, most of Seattle thought the same thing. The parking lot at Twin Falls was packed. And the trail was a zoo. I had to mow over a couple of tykes just to make it to the trailhead. But it was gorgeous weather and the forest is truly stunning. Lots of big trees, moss, and lichen.
See this Los Angeles? It's called 'greenery'. And no, it's not part of a lawn.
Bailey was thrilled to be included on this forest jaunt. Poor dog, we've neglected our hiking excursions this spring as we've been too caught up with house stuff. Afterwards, he snoozed in the car while we had dinner at Issaquah Brew House.
On Monday, the girls (Cherie, Megan, my mom, and Eric's mom Lisa) headed over to Fremont for a Theo Chocolate Factory Tour.
We ate chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.
And then, on Tuesday, it was off to the happiest place on earth. IKEA. Yes, IKEA. There is even a sign on the freeway that lists IKEA as a tourist destination. No joke.
Remember back in January of '08 when I decided that it would be really fun to have a giant map as wallpaper in an office? I posted about it here. We were going to stick push pins in as markers for the places that we'd visited. Well the nice folks at IKEA have made a slightly smaller but highly portable version.And no wallpaper hanging and gluing required. It was love at first sight.
This was not love at first sight. Jelly rats? Thank you, but no.
Let's just say that Bob was a very, very good sport. Especially when it came time to trying to fit Megan's (awesomely cool) new bookcase into the car boot. Thank you, twine.
A few activities that didn't make it into our weekend and will have to wait for June:
Seattle's Japanese Garden
And, OF COURSE, our swim across Lake Washington (which was scheduled for then anyway. There is no way that you could get me in the lake now. Except for in a dry suit, which makes for really clumsy swimming)
And that, dear readers, was our weekend. Time to return to normally scheduled activities.
