eric and maria's visit

A few weeks ago Eric and Maria came up to the PNW for a visit. It has been awhile-this time my excuse is more valid than work. i was waiting for him to email me some photos.

Tony and I had to work a few days that they were here, so they had to entertain themselves for those days, but i am sure that it was not hard to do here. There is so much to do.

I know for sure that they took the underground tour that i mentioned when scott and bridgette came to visit. i also think that they had a day at the space needle and hit up a few bars for some music.

The things that we all got to do together were really fun. I took them to a few bars that we like to go to. Shorty's is one of them, it serves the 'seattle dog" which i didn't even know existed until a month ago. It is a hotdog ( or veggie dog) with fresh tomatoes and cream cheese on it. It sounds a little weird, but it is sooo good. So one day after work I took the kids to get one. I think Eric was a fan. I also took them to Bruce and Brandon Lee's gravesite, the Fremont troll and for delicous Vegan Garden pho!

During the week that they were in town was also Tony's birthday. Usually we go away for his birthday, but there is so much to do here we decided to stick around. Sorta. We drove 2 hours southeast and went to the Northwest trek. It is like a zoo, but the animals are free to roam and the people are in the cages. Well, kinda like cages, the animals have over 400 acres to roam and there is a tram that drives through for viewing. So the animals, all native to the pacific northwest get to live like they would in the wild. It was fascinating. There were a lot of animals that I have seen driving across the country, but it was cool to see them with new babies and some that were about to delivery any minute. we watched an adorable little mountain goat race up the side of a cliff. Turns out those little folks can run after only being alive for 3 days!

After we finished the tram ride, there were also other animals who were still allowed to roam, but they had to stay in their "cages" for obvious reasons. the grizzly bears, wolverines, owls, wolves and coyotes were all in separate areas of the trek. The spaces that they lived was much closer to the wild than any zoo i have ever been to. i guess it was the first zoo to ever keep the animals in their real natural habitat.

Although it was a little freaky to learn that there are grizzlies in washington. I think because they are no longer native to california, i thought that was the same for up here too. guess not. and now i know for sure that Tony and I will go with other people when we hike around here.

On our way out of the trek we saw two baby squirrels!!! They were so loud, it is weird that you don't often see baby squirrels, but you sure can hear them. and they are wicked fast!

Once we left the trek, we drove another 45 minutes up to Mt. Rainer. We didn't get to do too much hiking because, once again there was still alot of snow there.

Much less than when Sarah and Mark were in town. Once we got to paradise lodge around 7000 feet up the mountain, there was still 14 feet of snow on it!

We hung out there a bit, while Eric climbed the top of the snow bank ala King of the mountain style from grade school. Once he realized that he was the only one competing for king, he came down and we headed out of the park before dark.

We stopped and had a little dinner before the long drive home. We got home around 12:30 and had to get right to bed. Eric and Maria had a very early flight (6:45) and I had to work in the afternoon. I think that they had a good time here. It was nice to see Eric get excited about something. he really liked going to Mt. Rainer.. and it takes a lot for him to be, or at least to show that he is amazed!