Uncle Charles Comes to visit

We have been so fortunate to have so many people come visit us since we've been back in the US and this past week Steve's brother, Charles, made the trek.  He picked an absolutely gorgeous week to come - we've had an unusual spell of warm, sunny weather - so the flowers were blooming and the scenery was dazzling.

He flew in Saturday night so Sunday we took him to one of our favorite places for a hike, Pen Rose Park. 

We had an amazing hike and after we got home the kids convinced us to put the sprinkler on (yes, it was that warm!)

Emmy took her stuffed animals in the sprinkler.

Uncle Charles getting traced with chalk.

The beautiful day was topped off by dinner on the deck.

Monday I took Charles on a tour of Tacoma and surrounding areas.  We stopped at Happy Donuts (yum!) in Puyallup, then went to downtown Tacoma to see the Chihuly Glass Bridge.

Then we stopped in north Tacoma for a walk along the water.

Charles borrowed Steve's car on Tuesday and drove himself around to explore.  On Wednesday I took him up to Bremerton to see the Turner Joy.  It's a retired Vietnam-era battleship in the harbor there.  They have it set up so that you can visit almost the entire ship.  The funniest/most interesting part was that there were some people showing a video they had made about some of the "paranormal" activity on the ship.  I guess there are even special ghost tours you can take a couple of times a year...  Well, we didn't hear or see any suspicious activity while we were there!

After touring the ship we found this cool little cafe to have lunch.  Outside of the restaurant there was a VW bus that we discovered had a table in it - next time Charles comes I promised him lunch in the bus!

Thursday Stevie was off so he played tour guide.  The boys headed up to Seattle for a while and then to a car museum in Tacoma.  Off course I have no pictures from that day...

Finally on Friday, we had a special adventure, but I think I'll make that a separate post!