Our parents finally visit Seattle

It's hard to believe that just a few hours ago I put my parents on a return flight to Ithaca! These five days passed by so quickly but as they say time flies when you're having fun. It was good to see them after such a long time. Apart from a short one-day visit while I was in Montreal on business in July, it has been just over a year since we had all last seen each other. Hoon's mom is also visiting us now and they had not seen each other in a few years. This was a first visit to Seattle for all three of them so we spent most of the time visiting Seattle's landmarks, such as Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, Seattle Asian Art Museum, and of course strolling around the city. We also went for two excursions outside of the city: a four hour adventure to the Tillicum Village which included a cruise on Elliott Bay, traditional Indian-style salmon buffet meal and Northwest Coast Native American dance performance, and a visit to Leavenworth Bavarian Village for the annual Autumn Leaf Festival, complete with a parade, traditional Bavarian costumes, dancing and a delicious lunch of Bratwurst and Sauerkraut. It made the Slovenian side of the family remember the countless "veselice" (literally "festive celebrations" in Slovenian) we had been to as children.

Hoon and I are adventurous in a culinary sense as well so we shared with our parents some of our Seattle favorites... Dahlia Bakery for bread and pies, Caffe Ladro for coffee, Etta's for seafood, Shiro's for sushi, Spice Route for Indian. I'm still very excited that my dad, who is still to a large extent a "meat and potatoes" kinda guy tried sushi and enjoyed it!

See more photos here.