What to Do When Parents Visit...

How's it going y'all? Sorry I haven't posted lately! Aaron's parents visited us and we kept busy! I also had a bunch of training shifts at Starbucks to keep me busy during the week. But besides that, not too much is new.

Aaron's parents flew in Friday, May 29th and I picked Chuck and Roxanne up from the airport. I drove them to the car rental facility and then went home to apply for plant pathology jobs for a few hours as they got settled in. Late afternoon, they came over and I showed them the apartment, the stunning views, and sat down and chatted. We also went for a nice little walk around Eastlake and the lake-front near our apartment. Alright, so why wasn't Aaron there? He and his team from Amazon were hiking Mount Si! Everybody made it to the top and back down although it took them awhile. Anyways, once Aaron got home we went out for dinner at China Harbor in Westlake. After dinner, we went to Gas Works Park to watch the sunset and the city light up. It was an insanely gorgeous view as always.

I promise you that this picture doesn't do it justice. It's so freaking pretty.

 On Saturday, we hiked Rattlesnake Ledge (4 miles roundtrip, 1160 ft gain). It was super duper crowded but the view was totally worth it. Roxanne found a bunch of "natural springs." We had a nice hike up, ate Pringles at the top - Chuck is brilliant, - and then hiked on down. But you would not believe what happened to me on the way down!! I walked off the trail to go to the bathroom and I had to get past a bush. Well, a little wild cat jumped out of the bush and clawed my knee!! I even have the picture to prove it!! Thankfully Aaron's mom is a nurse so she cleaned and bandaged my knee up to prevent infection. We stopped by Rattlesnake Lake and the Waits taught me how to skip rocks. Let's just say I really need to practice. We had a late lunch at the Mexican place in North Bend and then headed downtown to see Mad Max in the AMC theater. It was a good movie, but personally I thought there were 3 places the movie could have ended (but didn't) and it would have been just fine. Still a great way to unwind after a lovely day.

I don't care what kind of hike I need to take to get beautiful views like this from Rattlesnake Ledge. "I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more..."

Sunday morning we took a bike ride around Lake Union. As we were on the north side of the lake, we had a great view of Rainier. We also saw the draw bridge/bascule bridge open to let a boat through. We ended up in a farmer's market in Fremont and were then on our way to Amazon. Aaron showed us his desk, the beautiful view he has, and then we finished our ride around the lake. We decided to do the Boeing tour so we had a quick lunch at Eastlake Grille. At the Boeing tour, we saw planes being assembled, being moved from the assembly building to the paint hangar, and learned cool facts about their planes. The most outstanding one I remember is that each wing of a Boeing 747 (their biggest one) holds 1900 gallons of fuel. I have no idea how much jet fuel costs but I have a feeling it's a lot. Oh, and the list price of a Boeing 747 (if you want your own private jumbo jet to fly around everybody you know) is something like 350 million dollars. PSST! That's without the engines. Those are an additional cost.

On Monday, Aaron's parents left for Olympic National Park and we went to work. I had training where I crammed information in my brain like I had a final exam. It was a lot of fun. Then on Friday, Aaron and I went to Pitch Perfect 2 with some of the girls I work with (Sydney and her bf Derek, Sam, and KC). I liked the movie and it was nice of them to invite us!

Saturday, Roxanne, Chuck, Aaron, and I hiked the 10 miles roundtrip, 2500ft gain trail to Melakwa Lake. It was a nice hike and Aaron and I scoped out a peak we want to do when my bro visits in a few days!! It was really hot during the hike so that made it a little miserable but we took it at a casual pace. Melakwa Lake is beautiful. Like seriously beautiful. Around sunset, we went to Kerry Park and had quite the view since it wasn't cloudy! We went to Molly Moon Ice Cream and then watched the sunset make the city glow pink and make Mount Rainier look even more stunning. I mean, check out the pictures.

On our way in to Melakwa Lake! Straight ahead is the Tooth!

Melakwa Lake

 Sunday, I had a practice opening shift at Starbucks where I got up bright and early. After work, we took Aaron's parents to the airport and said our goodbyes. We had a great time with them and it was wonderful getting to know them better (and them getting to know me as well). Then Aaron and I grabbed some Jimmy John's and drove out to Exit 32 to climb at Mount Si. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best time climbing due to me waking up early and being rather cranky but Aaron flew up Aborigine (11c) and then worked the extension Technorigine (12c).

View from Kerry Park.

Doesn't that peak just beg you to climb it?!

This week I've been working on my drink making skills and writing codes on cups. I am basically a pro (feel free to laugh all you want). Aaron is on call this week but thankfully nothing broke the website when he was home so he didn't have to hop on his laptop and fix anything. But yeah, we've just been hanging out, doing our thing, and enjoying the absolutely beautiful weather!! Now I'm just hanging out on my day off (naturally the weather is crap), writing my blog, cleaning the apartment, running errands, the usual. So on that note, I'm out. Enjoy the pictures!!