Greg and Megan's Visit - August 2009

Greg, Cheryl’s son, his wife Megan and their three children - Makenah, Ella and Josiah - (representing 27% of our grandkids!) flew in to Seattle the evening of Thursday, August 13th.

In preparation for the visit we realized our Mazda wouldn’t be sufficient for transporting seven people. It was either go everywhere using both the Mazda and the Gold Wing (my choice – haha) or rent a van/SUV (Cheryl’s choice). We decided to rent and found an incredible deal through Budget for a 7-passenger SUV.

Cheryl shows up Thursday afternoon to pick up the car and they have a small 5-passenger rig ready for her. She calmly explains we reserved a 7-passenger rig and shows them our reservation confirmation. They respond with, “Well we told corporate to take that special off of the web site. Why that vehicle rents for $108 a day, not $144 total.” Cheryl responded with, “That’s not our problem. We asked for and need a 7-passenger van.” They said they might have something… Oh yeah, we have a van that just came in but will need to clean it. A minute later they pull in with a new GMC Yukon (4500 miles on it) saying they just “found this one”. It was a nice ride – leather, power everything, xm satellite radio and plenty of room for seven people. Not bad for about $40 a day. :)

We all enjoyed a quiet evening Thursday just catching up on life.

While Doug worked Friday, Cheryl took the gang to the Seattle Aquarium. One of the highlights for the grandkids was the Life on the Edge display. This tidepool allowed the kids to actually touch the sea life, or more appropriately gave them permission to play in the water! Haha After visiting the Aquarium, they toured the Seattle waterfront for a bit before coming up to Doug’s office.

Doug works on the 49th floor of the Two Union Square building where he is the office manager for the law firm of Ellis Li & McKinstry. The highlight of the visit for the grandkids? Feeding paper in to the paper shredder! haha After enjoying the incredible views of Seattle from the 49th floor, we headed off to the Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner. Doug’s fav – the Brown Bear Brown.

Saturday found us headed to the Tukwila station of Seattle’s new LINK Light Rail system. The grandkids all got window seats for the 36 minute ride to Seattle. We passed through a number of Seattle neighborhoods – Rainier Beach, Columbia City, SODO. There was even a long tunnel along the way, somewhere near the Mount Baker station, where the kid's eyes lit up as they realized we were in a dark tunnel. We arrived in Seattle inside the Seattle Bus Tunnel, the only joint bus-rail tunnel in the United States. Well, that is except for the one in Pittsburgh ... but it doesn’t have stations. Read more here.

From the tunnel we went up to ground level and caught a Metro bus to Ballard, where we visited a Cupcake Royale location. Amazingly, there is frequently a line all the way out the door – for cupcakes. Greg and Megan bought “cute” little travel coffee mugs. We visited here with Greg & Megan’s friends from Germany Michael and Marit in January. They bought similar cups and it was fun for Greg and Megan to now visit this store and buy the same cups! After our cupcakes and some coffee (it is Seattle afterall…) we were back on the bus to the Ballard Locks.

The Ballard Locks, officially the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks were a fun time. We watched boats enter and leave the locks, even a boat where a group was gathered on the deck and singing as an accordion player played to the delight of the crowd along the lock. Watching the boats rise from below us to over us as the lock filled up was amazing. The Fish Ladder was a real hit with the kids! HERE are someone else’s pictures of the locks.

When we were done watching boats, salmon and a few seals…we headed for the Lockspot Cafe for dinner. This appears to be a famous diner… After the Catch and After the Catch (episode 2 season 1). They had great clam AND salmon chowder, seafood platters and beer! There was a carved seaman in the restaurant and Josiah would go NOWHERE near him! We tried showing him it was just wood but for some reason it was really scary to him…

After dinner we caught a couple of buses that were to get us back to the bus tunnel, but… There was a festival in town, the Seattle Hempfest where thousands and thousands had gathered and the crowd over-loaded the buses and jammed the downtown Seattle streets. We finally got off the bus and walked to the tunnel!

After getting home, Greg and Doug headed for the RAM Restaurant and Brewery. They have a Saturday special where you can fill your growler (a 64-ounce bottle) for half price - $4.99 rather than $9.99. We refilled the one I had with Buttface Amber Ale and purchased a second one filled with Barefoot Wit White Belgian. Yummers.

Sunday found us on I-5 headed North for the Puget Park Drive-In Swap Meet. For $1 per adult, you can roam the Drive-in lot exploring the wonders people brought to sell. As soon as we parked and got out of the car, Ella sat down to play in the dirt. You know, the dusty, stick to everything kind of dirt. And she was wearing black pants… Oh yeah. Haha We wandered around for awhile and came away with some great deals – a pair of work gloves for $2, 6 CDs for $5, 2# of Malaysian dark roasted coffee beans for $4 and finally a folding cribbage board that holds the cards and pegs inside - $5. Score.

Afterwards we headed for the Taste of Edmonds, but decided we needed a snack on the way. The snack turned in to a full-fledged meal at La Palmera Family Mexican Restaurant in south Everett. Their food is delicious! But then we thought…eating before going to a Taste?!?!?!?!? LOL But really, eating at the restaurant saved us big bucks over eating at this booth and that booth at the Taste…

The Taste of Edmonds featured crafts for kids, rides, craft booths, retailers, roaming artists, wine and beer gardens, live music (at least three stages) and of course booths featuring food from local restaurants. We started at the port-a-pots… LOL Then moved on to bracelet making and crown making. From there we went to the pony rides followed by time on the inflatable toys – the kids (and Megan ;)) really liked these! Then Greg tried the rock wall climb. There was $100 cash waiting to be plucked at the top. But alas, it was rigged… Or at least seemed that way. A little over half way up, the wall juts out a bit. I think that, along with the position of the auto-repeller and limited foot/hand holds, made it nearly impossible. But Greg made it higher than anyone else we saw try! Now on to the desserts… HUGE vanilla, soft-serve ice cream cones for the grandkids and strawberry shortcake for Grandma and Grandpa.
We found a vendor we plan on going back to that manufactures firepits - Outdoor Living Concepts. Very attractive and beats burning wood on the deck in a metal firepit!

As we headed home, all of the kids fell asleep and were put in bed as soon as we got home. Us adults bought Papa Murphy’s pizza which Megan, Greg and Doug enjoyed with some of their RAM brewed beer.

Morning came early as the trip to the airport was at 6:00 AM. Greg and Megan made it back to Boise in time to get to work… Cheryl and Doug went to work, exhausted from a busy weekend, but with a smile on their face.

It’s always strange though to come home in to a quiet and empty house after a visit from family… Seems sad…but quickly we turn our thoughts to the next visit, hanging on to memories of the fun we had during this last visit.


~~~ More pictures here. ~~~