My Mother came to visit a couple of weeks ago for the Christmas season, and of course we bundled her into the car right away and carted her all over Washington. There's just so much to see and do, and we've been saving things up to show her - "Ooh, she has to see this" and "Oh, she has to see that!". We love it when my Mom or Marjorie's Mom come to visit, but I suspect they go home and sleep for a week when they leave!

 

We started with Seattle - since my Mother likes coffee almost as much as I do, I had to introduce her to Seattle Coffee Works. They only use local roasters, and they have an espresso shot in dark coffee that will keep you up for a week. I figured with the jet-lag she could use a pick-me-up, and this place does the trick. They make a mocha as well that Christina loves.

  

After a visit to the city, we took her to the Boeing Flight Museum. She was especially impressed with the World War Two exhibits, which are very solemn.

Christmas was predicted to have rain - but instead, it snowed! That was especially awesome for us since Mom is up from Florida. It was fantastic to have her stand out in the snow!

  

 

We then headed off to Tacoma, where we did the city itself, and then on to the Natural History Museum. They had the 12th annual model railroad exhibits going on, which was especially interesting since my Mother's father was a railroad engineer, and her brother worked on the railroads as well. She grew up listening to the sounds of the trains there in South Carolina.

  

 

  

 

  

 

From there it was a trip to the Glass Museum walkway and then on to the old Union Railroad station, which is now a government building, complete with more glass art.

  

But we weren't done. We took her to the State Capitol in Olympia, and visited the Capitol buildings and walked the grounds. Then it was off to the craft shops for the ladies, and off to the guitar store for me.

  

 

Yesterday we bundled up, and took off to the mountains just about a half-hour from here. It has been snowing there for two straight weeks, so Mom got to see more snow than I think she may have wanted. After playing in the snow for a few hours, I hustled everyone into the car and we got down from the mountain just an hour before they closed the roads.

 

Now it's off to Church today, and then we send Granny home with a few more memories, and a lot less sleep.

Yes, reindeer are real - at least the non-flying kind! Each year the Cougar Mountain Zoo (which is on the Northeast side of Cougar Mountain, one of the three mountains we live in betwen) hosts a reindeer exhibit. They have Rudolph (no relation), Blitzen, Donner, Snowflake and others that they show off. Their eyes get wide when they are interested in something (mostly the snacks they get tossed) that they look surprised.

 

   

 

   

 

  

 

The zoo also has cougars and tigers, as well as other animals. It's a small zoo, but you can really get close to the animals and that's pretty neat.

 

   

 

After the zoo we went and heard a concert by James Janis (a keyboardist) who was accompanied by a flutist and a violinist. We then checked out all the strorefronts that are decorated for Christmas and then Christina went ice-skating at the outdoor rink they set up in the city park in Bellevue, Washington.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!