Family Fun

My parents came out to visit us this past weekend! We had a lot of fun showing them around the area and immersing them into the lives we've lived these past three months.

They came on Friday morning, so we got to spend the afternoon in Portland visiting the Rose Garden and the beautiful Japanese Garden in the center of town. That night, Kelly made a delicious stir-fry dinner - one of his specialties!






Of course we wanted to take them to the beach, so we drove our favorite beach drive, eating Tillamook ice cream cones along the way. We wanted to show them the haystacks at Cannon Beach, but it was so foggy we couldn't even make out their outline! As we made our way back along the shoreline toward Astoria, we stopped at Sunset Beach for a night-time fire. They loved it!

The next day, we browsed the farmer's market and went to the local play, Shanghaied in Astoria. The acting was horrendous, but the play was a cute vaudville-type complete with the audience throwing popcorn at the bad guys, booing and hissing at the villains and cheering for the heroes. Kelly attended a friend's wedding that day, so he missed out on the play, but the wedding was a great time as well.



Monday we went to the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which is a pretty interesting museum with lots of local history. It's in one of the most architecturally interesting buildings in the city. Afterward, we had to check out the local sea lion population, and they didn't disappoint! One of the males was fighting off competitors for his pier space, and giving us a really good show! We also drove up to the local iconic landmark, the Astoria Column, to get the gorgeous views of the river, the city, and the surrounding countryside. My dad and Kelly climbed the 164 stairs to the top!






My sister was supposed to come out with them, but she unfortunately got sick and wasn't able to make it. We were really bummed and missed her this weekend, but we still had a great time with my parents! We were really pumped that they got to see where we've been living and spend some time falling in love with this area of the country, just like we have.