Summer Tales II – The arrival

4 years ago (*gasp*), when my parents and cousin came to visit, I recapped our travel adventures under the category “summer tales”.

I am planning to do the same with the recent visit of my parents and sister + family in the next few weeks. I am mainly doing this for myself, so skip these posts, if you’re not interested in a detailed account (or, if you choose, just skim over the pictures! They might at least be worth it!), but I am hoping to include some travel tips in these posts as well that might be useful to some of you. Either way, I am just giving you a heads up on what’s to come! 

My parents and my nephew Tom (5) arrived on Tuesday (6/23). My parents are retired and my nephew is still in Kindergarten, so they were able to travel a few days before the official start of the summer break in Germany to take advantage of more reasonable flight prices* (while my sister, BIL and Greta had to wait for the last day of school).

I was still working during that week, but luckily they arrived in the evening and I was able to pick them up after work.

I was beyond excited  since I hadn’t seen them in almost a year and I literally could not wait for them show up at the top of the escalator. J can probably attest to the fact that I was an emotional wreck! And then they were finally here!!

We went home, had a bite to eat and then went to bed. They had been up for over 24 hours!

I still had two more days of work ahead of me, so my family took it slow the first couple of days to adjust to the time difference. They explored Downtown and Midtown Sacramento, went to Sutter’s Fort and McKinley Park and took Tom to the California Train Museum in Oldtown.

My first day off was on Friday and I took my Dad to one of the many golf courses in the city. That was the only opportunity for him to play golf  that he was going to get during their visit. He seemed happy!

My Mom, Tom and I did some shopping and Tom had his first all-American donut.

It was nice to spend some exclusive time with Tom before the rest of  his family arrived on Saturday (6/27), although I couldn’t wait for everybody to get here!

We didn’t take many pictures in these first few days, as you can tell, but this will change in the following recap posts. Be prepared.

*A lot of people expressed surprise and/or disbelief that my nephew would travel so far and all by himself with my parents, but I can only say that he’s been used to being around his grandparents (both sets!) since he was little and that it was no problem at all. He was an absolute trooper! I think he only asked once when his Mom was going to arrive. Aside from that he was too busy exploring his new surroundings!