More visitors!

J.'s parents came to visit on September 16th and I have been going non-stop ever since!  We had a great time showing them around our new home state.  They'd never been to the Pacific Northwest so we tried to give them a little taste of all the different areas around us.

They got in around dinner on Thursday night.  J. made bacon wrapped scallops and asparagus and then we played Scattergories.  It is such a fun game!  I'm glad we had a few games around the house, because we ended up having game night every night!

Friday, J. only had one event so his parents and I drove up to base and met him afterwards.  We got a tour of the squadron and his new jet, the Growler.  We've lived here since the end of May and I hadn't been to the base yet ... whoops!

J. and his parents in front of the Growler

Me and J.

After we saw the Growler, we headed to Deception Pass State Park.  We walked across the bridge and walked under the bridge to see the view.  

The coastline from the bridge ...

Deception Pass

Underneath the bridge

J., his parents and the bridge

We left Deception Pass and headed to Sharpe Park in Anacortes.  We hiked out to Sares Head and had an amazing view.  We got very lucky with the weather that afternoon ... it wasn't great but it was clear enough that the view was still good.  

The sign for Sharpe Park ... I love the dragonfly on the side! 

Looking towards the San Juan Islands ...

The sun setting ... it was beautiful! 

From there, we headed to Capsante Point in Anacortes, which overlooks the marina and downtown.  I'd never been there before ... it's not quite the same as Sares Head, but it was a great view nonetheless.  

J. and his dad, looking towards the San Juan Islands

The marina and downtown Anacortes

The Shell Oil Refinery ... while I am in no way advocating for refineries, it looks kind of cool at night when it's all lit up.

Once we were done admiring the landscape, we headed to downtown Anacortes and had dinner at Village Pizza.  I must say, I was not really in the pizza mood, but I ended up being so glad we went to Village Pizza.  The pizza was fantastic, happy hour was still going on so our drinks were cheaper, and the inside was decorated in old Anacortes pictures.  It was a great little dinner spot.  

After Village Pizza, we headed home and had a good round of Scrabble :)  

Saturday, we headed back up to Anacortes and took the ferry to Orcas Island.  We had gotten Groupons for whale watching earlier in the summer and it was finally our weekend!  The weather was looking a little rough on our ferry ride over to Orcas ... as in, we could barely see the water on either side of the boat because it was so foggy.  But, the weather cleared and it turned out to be a beautiful day.  There are three different pods of whales that live in the waters off the San Juan Islands.  Researchers have been studying them for over 20 years and they've named most of them.  Apparently, we were out on a great day, because we saw whales from all 3 pods ... J, K, and L.  We also saw the oldest whales in the group ... two from the J pod.  A female named Granny who is 99 years old and her son, Ruffles, who is in his 60's.  

In Orcas Village before whale watching

J. and the whale fins

Our boat!

Whales!  I think these first couple whales are from the K or L pod.  

These two are a mom and her baby.

A pectoral slap and a fin starting to rise out of the water right behind the first whale ...

Fins and a sailboat!

J. and I (and his dad)

I think this is Ruffles

Tail slapping

More tail slapping

All in all, it was a really cool day ... I was so surprised by the amount of whales that we saw and also how close they came to our boat.  I was also very happy that the weather cleared up for us!  

Sunday, we slept in and then headed to downtown Seattle to do some sight-seeing.  We started in historic Pioneer Square were we saw Smith Tower, which was one of the tallest buildings in the world when it was built in the early 1900's.

Stopped for some clam chowder at Ivar's Acres of Clams on the waterfront.  

J. and our gigantic bowl of clam chowder.

Ivar's Fish Bar!

And then we headed over to Pike Place Market ...

And the first Starbucks ... 

And then I headed off to Portland to meet up with some family friends and J. and his parents went back to our house and watched football all night.  We had such a great time with his parents and are so glad they traveled so far to see us!