Mom and Dad Harp came to visit us after their long winter's nap in Yuma, AZ! Actually, they had been back in Idaho for a couple of weeks and then came over for five days to visit with us.
Jared was off Thursday and Friday to take them around to see a few sights. The weather forecast stated that it wasn't really going to be too nice; rainy and cool, even for April. However, Thursday we got a bit of a surprise!
We made our way up north to La Conner which lies on the Swinomish Channel which separates the main land (near Mt. Vernon) with Fidalgo Island (which has Anacortes on its tip). It's a quaint little town with lots of neat, unique, shops. We ate lunch at the Nell Thorn Restaurant & Pub (as seen above) and it was DELICIOUS. As you can see, we had some great sun, and not just for this shot, but pretty much all day long. Apparently it was cloudy and a bit drizzly all day in the Seattle area though!
After doing some browsing around, we jumped in the car and headed across the channel to Fidalgo Island and then out to Deception Pass State Park. We parked near an ocean bay (Bowman Bay) and hiked out to Rosario Head. Rosario Head is a "head-shaped" peninsula that houses some fairly famous tide-pooling when there are really low tides. Well, today, no low tides, but we still got some great scenery, sun, and wildlife viewing!
Mom was pretty excited about spotting some Harlequin Ducks which apparently are a bit rare to spot. (picture below was not taken by us, but gives a good idea of what they look like)
After that, we headed down across the famous Deception Pass Bridge and stopped just briefly to go take a look off the Bridge. Mom and Dad had crossed this bridge a few times in the past but had always been in too big of a hurry to stop and really enjoy this beautiful area.
Then, we were off, back to Woodinville. It was a glorious day!
Friday was a bit more like the forecast had stated. So, we kept it a bit more close to home. We just ventured over to Carnation and in particular, Tolt-MacDonald Park. The park is at the confluence of the Tolt and Snoqualmie rivers. There are a lot of really nice trails and great swimming holes for the dogs! We also ventured out across the suspension bridge and over to the hilly side where we did some nice hiking up the hill.
This too turned out to be a pretty nice day overall!
Saturday we decided to head over to Seattle to enjoy some big city livin! Kristina could join us this time since the weekend was here! We showed them around Westlake, which is central downtown Seattle. We rode the monorail to the Seattle Center (Space Needle) since they had never done that before. The highlight, of course, was eating at Serious Pie. Serious Pie is a "Seattle-style" pizza place with some odd-sounding pizzas on the menu, but don't let them scare you... they are GOOD! As is their unique salads. And, of course, there is the coconut cream pie. Serious Pie is a "Tom Douglas Restaurant". He's a very famous chef that owns several restaurants in Seattle, and one thing he is most famous for is the Coconut Cream Pie. Yeah, its that good.
After wandering a bit, we headed to North Seattle (Ballard to be specific). We had dinner reservations at Ray's Boathouse, which is right on the ocean's edge. You get great views of the sun setting as you eat your dinner. We all had a great meal!
Sunday we just relaxed and decompressed, getting ready for the upcoming week. Mom and Dad were able to stay through Monday, so they got to do a bit more relaxing on Monday while Kristina and I were at work. They were off on Tuesday morning and headed back to Idaho. It was great to see them!
