Sorry about the hiatus from the blog for the past several weeks. I've been traveling quite a bit and Lisa has been too busy watching Fozzie--and, I suspect, trying to turn him against me--to post. Over the past three weeks, I've only spent about four or five days at home, with trips to Mexico and China for work and few days in Oregon to celebrate Thanksgiving with a good chunk of Lisa's family--more on this later.
So I guess first of all, I still owe you a few paragraphs on my parents' visit to Seattle. After all, it's been almost two months since they were here. The first thing of note about my parents' visit was the weather. It was the worst stretch we've had since we arrived here and we saw nothing but rain for the four days that my parents were here. This led to a never ending stream of sarcasm from my dad about the loose definition of "70s and Sunny" in Seattle.
The
parents spent four days here and we kept them busy for most of that time. We took them on the 10-cent tour of the city on the first day where they got to see Pike Place market, the waterfront, and the downtown area. We went up in the space needle (my first time as well), but a storm passed through while we were up there, resulting in less-than-spectacular views. Luckily, they have a full panoramic photo so that you can see what is actually out there when the weather is clear.
parents spent four days here and we kept them busy for most of that time. We took them on the 10-cent tour of the city on the first day where they got to see Pike Place market, the waterfront, and the downtown area. We went up in the space needle (my first time as well), but a storm passed through while we were up there, resulting in less-than-spectacular views. Luckily, they have a full panoramic photo so that you can see what is actually out there when the weather is clear.Sat
urday was the highlight of the weekend as we headed east over the Cascade mountains to a small mountain town called Leavenworth. They have an Oktoberfest celebration every year here for each of the first three weekends of October. It took a bit longer to drive up than I anticipated and thus we missed the ceremonial keg tapping which is conducted at 1PM each Saturday during Oktoberfest by the Mayor of Leavenworth. The town was hopping with tons of folks enjoying the local shops, restaurants, and yes, beer gardens. We're already planning for next year and looking to get a room so that we can celebrate and not have to worry about the two hour drive home after hoisting a few steins.
urday was the highlight of the weekend as we headed east over the Cascade mountains to a small mountain town called Leavenworth. They have an Oktoberfest celebration every year here for each of the first three weekends of October. It took a bit longer to drive up than I anticipated and thus we missed the ceremonial keg tapping which is conducted at 1PM each Saturday during Oktoberfest by the Mayor of Leavenworth. The town was hopping with tons of folks enjoying the local shops, restaurants, and yes, beer gardens. We're already planning for next year and looking to get a room so that we can celebrate and not have to worry about the two hour drive home after hoisting a few steins.Sunday we saw the Gold Rush Museum, which was quite interesting and told the history of the gold rush in Alaska and the role that Seattle played as an outpost for the throngs of speculators that headed North in search of riches. One point of note is that one of the few people to actually make a small fortune and hold onto it during the Yukon gold rush was John Nordstrom. He used his claim money to start a shoe store in Seattle. I think by the last name you can tell what happened next. Lisa and I then put my parents on the Underground Tour, which we had already done (see this post to read about our tour of the underground) and decided to have a drink while we waited.
Monday 
we decided to drive up to Everett and take the tour of the Boeing jumbo jet plant up there. The assembly plant is 472 MM cubic feet, making it the biggest building in terms of volume. Each door to the plant, there are six, is the size of a football field...that's pretty big. They assemble only wide bodies there so there were several 747s (still the largest passenger plane from Boeing) on the plant floor in various stages of completion. Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures inside the plant, so I lifted one from the website. If you get out this way, I would recommend a trip up there. It's quite impressive.
we decided to drive up to Everett and take the tour of the Boeing jumbo jet plant up there. The assembly plant is 472 MM cubic feet, making it the biggest building in terms of volume. Each door to the plant, there are six, is the size of a football field...that's pretty big. They assemble only wide bodies there so there were several 747s (still the largest passenger plane from Boeing) on the plant floor in various stages of completion. Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures inside the plant, so I lifted one from the website. If you get out this way, I would recommend a trip up there. It's quite impressive.I think we tired my folks out, keeping them on the run for most of the weekend. I just hope that they were tired enough that they fell asleep on the plane just before their departure and thus could not see the glorious weather that came in just as they were leaving and which stayed the rest of that week.
