In previous years Matt & his brother Andy have always made the trek down to Bend, OR in the winter to spend a weekend with brother Greg. Logistics prevented that this year, so Greg made the trip up for a psuedo-boys weekend. That same week, our friend Bernie who we met in Chile in 2009 and visited in Germany last fall (where he's from) sent me a message saying he was going to be flying through LAX and could he come visit for a few days. We suddenly had a house-full of boys and a bedroom where we had just barely hung sheetrock (lets not talk about carpet or anything fancy like that). Just kidding, both were great sports about it and totally easy going.
We got incredibly lucky with the weather and had four days of sunny, clear blue skies. It might possibly have given Bernie false impressions about Seattle but I'll take it.
We took Bernie to most of the classic Seattle sightseeing places, plus a few different ones. I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures when wandering around my own city and I haven't gotten ahold of any of Bernie's yet but classic Seattle included his first ever clam chowder, lots of coffee stops, Pike Place, Alki, Lincoln park, a stroll along the downtown waterfront, breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe, REI. Bernie is a pilot and wanted to see the Flight Museum so we headed down to Boeing field. I hadn't been since I was about 3ft tall and thought it was still pretty neat. Though this car that turns into an airplane wasn't nearly as cool as I remember it being.
Lance & Val were in CO for most of the weekend but we met up with them for an almost-complete Chile '09 reunion on Tursday night.
Saturday the brothers + cousin were snowshoeing/boarding up at Keechlus Ridge and had perfect weather for it.
Oh, and some quality time with my favorite lil nephew!
We had a great time having Bernie & Greg around for the weekend and enjoyed some nice February Seattle weather.
And just for cultural insight since we haven't been doing much traveling lately to provide you with any: A Random Selection of Insights from Germany :)
1. Seattle got a thumbs up. Los Angeles got a thumbs down. I think it was disillusionment - not quite like the movies, ya know?
2. Clam chowder got two thumbs up.
3. Our roads got a definite thumbs down
4. Matt and his brothers are all. very. different.
5. An SUV was actually kind of fun to drive, but what is the point of one again? (don't really exist in Europe)
6. Not all American pizza is greasy. (At trip to Zeeks remedied that impression)
7. What's so exciting about Mt. Rainier (I think it's having the Alps on the horizon that will do that to you)
8. Not all American beer is bad...NW micro brews are actually pretty good.
9. It was neat to get a peek at the 787 because it will probably be a while before he sees it around Europe. haha
We got incredibly lucky with the weather and had four days of sunny, clear blue skies. It might possibly have given Bernie false impressions about Seattle but I'll take it.
We took Bernie to most of the classic Seattle sightseeing places, plus a few different ones. I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures when wandering around my own city and I haven't gotten ahold of any of Bernie's yet but classic Seattle included his first ever clam chowder, lots of coffee stops, Pike Place, Alki, Lincoln park, a stroll along the downtown waterfront, breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe, REI. Bernie is a pilot and wanted to see the Flight Museum so we headed down to Boeing field. I hadn't been since I was about 3ft tall and thought it was still pretty neat. Though this car that turns into an airplane wasn't nearly as cool as I remember it being.
Lance & Val were in CO for most of the weekend but we met up with them for an almost-complete Chile '09 reunion on Tursday night.
multi-lingual banagrams
Showing off our pretty city at Bhy Kracke Park
Brrr it's colllddd
Saturday the brothers + cousin were snowshoeing/boarding up at Keechlus Ridge and had perfect weather for it.
Matt & Andy
Ryan & Greg
Rainier!
Oh, and some quality time with my favorite lil nephew!
We had a great time having Bernie & Greg around for the weekend and enjoyed some nice February Seattle weather.
And just for cultural insight since we haven't been doing much traveling lately to provide you with any: A Random Selection of Insights from Germany :)
1. Seattle got a thumbs up. Los Angeles got a thumbs down. I think it was disillusionment - not quite like the movies, ya know?
2. Clam chowder got two thumbs up.
3. Our roads got a definite thumbs down
4. Matt and his brothers are all. very. different.
5. An SUV was actually kind of fun to drive, but what is the point of one again? (don't really exist in Europe)
6. Not all American pizza is greasy. (At trip to Zeeks remedied that impression)
7. What's so exciting about Mt. Rainier (I think it's having the Alps on the horizon that will do that to you)
8. Not all American beer is bad...NW micro brews are actually pretty good.
9. It was neat to get a peek at the 787 because it will probably be a while before he sees it around Europe. haha
