Jay and I do a lot of travelling. And we love it. But it sure is pricy, especially when much of it involves flying across the country now. Back in the fall, we purchased season tickets for the Seattle Sounders FC (pro soccer team). The price was shockingly reasonable, and we're both soccer fans, so we figured this would be a great incentive to spend our summer mostly in town, since we'll have a home game to attend a couple weekends each month. This tactic seems to be working. I will travel to Portland for a girls' weekend in July, and we've discussed maybe spending a weekend in Vancouver, BC, but otherwise we are here through the end of October, when we will have our big Hawaiian vacation (more details on that soon).
As it turns out, saying you're going to stay put for the summer can actually work in your favor when you live somewhere as gorgeous as Seattle. This summer's gonna be epic. We have already had three visitors since April, and will have (counting frantically on fingers) no fewer than NINE more rounds of visitors (solo guests and couples) between now and October 1. How awesome is that?! And one of the best things about all these guests? It's a great incentive for us to do things we've been meaning to, right here in our 'hood, but hadn't gotten around to yet.
In April, I spent a whirlwind couple of days with my wonderful friend Nicole, who flew here to go to a concert (Cut Copy) and hang out with me and our mutual friend Annie. We had a blast, touring the Pacific Science Center and Experience Music Project, two things right in my neighborhood that I hadn't seen yet.
In May, my sister came out for a few days. She'd been here before, so she had a bit of the lay of the land. But we took her to a Sounders game, to our new fave hole-in-the-wall Tibetan restaurant, and we caught the Broadway tour of Mary Poppins! Update: I forgot to mention our streaker-visitors, Joan and John, who were here and gone on the fringes of their fabulous Vancouver vacay! We were glad to share a Yankees loss at Safeco Field with them. :)
This past weekend, for the June installment of the Parade of Visitors, our friends Cheryl and Josh came up from Athens, GA for a few days. We were hit with a brilliantly warm, sunny weekend - the first four-day stretch of warm weather we've had this season - so we took them all over the place: across the Cascades to the high desert, along the Columbia River Gorge and into Portland, and then on a boat trip to the northern part of the Olympic Peninsula and Port Angeles. Awesome! We saw all the big mountains - Baker, Glacier, Rainier, Adams, St. Helens, and Hood - in all their splendor. We also explored the International District and found great dim sum and other delights.
In a few weeks, my work contract will end - just in time for the next round of visitors, friends from North Carolina who we plan to entertain with soccer, locally brewed beer and the great outdoors. Other summer visitor entertainment plans include trips to Rainier & St. Helens' National Parks, and hopefully some hiking in the Hoh Rainforest out on the Peninsula. Both our parents will come out for their first visits, as well as friends from San Francisco, Madison, Boston, Dallas, and even Melbourne, Australia!
Loving summer in the Pacific Northwest! Feeling so lucky to have friends and family willing to travel so far to see us and help us explore.
...and John and I were like the streaker at the Mariners-Yankees game who raced much too quickly through your parade of visitors.
Posted by: Joan | June 09, 2011 at 03:59 PM
Visitors are great for getting you out to those local places you never quite seem to find the time to visit. We have an area of Native American ruins literally 4 minutes from our house that you can hike and look at artifacts and petroglyphs all out in the open, but had we been? Nope, not until last fall!
Enjoy your summer visitors!!
Posted by: Anne | June 10, 2011 at 05:19 AM
Summer in the PacNW is the best - they joke in Vancouver is that the city had "nine months of rain and three months of visitors". I am definitely missing Vancouver this summer.
Posted by: Martha | June 12, 2011 at 02:15 PM
You should look up my parents when your parents are in town. They would love to catch up and they are just a hop, skip, and jump over the Narrows in Gig Harbor. Also, a cool place to visit--they saw dolphins yesterday!
Posted by: mstroh | June 22, 2011 at 01:36 PM
I also like to travel！
Posted by: Thomas Sabo Charms | June 29, 2011 at 11:11 PM
touring the Pacific Science Center and Experience Music Project, two things right in my neighborhood that I hadn't seen yet.
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