We had visitors for this past week, as our friends that we had visited in Austin came up to stay with us for a week. David and Karen had never been to Seattle, so Lesley and I showed them around and we all had a very good time.

Shortly after they arrived Saturday, we headed out for lunch. We went to Djan's Thai Restaurant, one of our favorite places to eat. Traffic was a bit heavy and parking was difficult, but the food was very good. We started by sharing the tom kha, a Thai soup that David and Karen had introduced us to in Austin. Our meals were filling and we had some leftovers for later.

We then headed to West Seattle to walk at Schmitz Preserve Park. It has possibly the best forest in the city. We walked through the park down to Alki Beach, where there were lots of people of all ages walking, jogging, and biking. We got some ice cream to eat as we walked along the water all the way around to the other side where we could see the city skyline and Mount Rainier.

After that, we headed to Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill, one of the oldest parks in the city. The largest tree in the park is always a point of interest to our visitors from Texas who aren't used to such big trees. We then climbed the stairs to the top of the water tower for a view in all directions. We walked through the residential streets of Capitol Hill and our friends were impressed by the unique old houses and flowery landscaping. We then looked for food on the main drag of Capitol Hill. While dinner was unremarkable, we enjoyed sitting in the sun and people watching on Broadway. After dinner, we went back to our car at Volunteer Park. There was a wedding going on near where we parked and there was also Shakespeare in the Park performance of Romeo and Juliet. We decided to go check out the play, but couldn't really see or hear much, so we left.

We were all tired from the walking we did that day and a little sunburned, too. We headed back to our apartment and I went out to get some aloe vera gel for our sunburns. When I got back, we all shared some of the tasty apple pie that Lesley had made the night before. David and Karen were interested in seeing the extended edition that we owned of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, so we watched it to end the night (well, I went to bed halfway through).

Anyway, it was a pretty good start to their visit and it just got better from there.