Look at these two – aren’t my selfie-taking, very excited parents just the cutest? I loved getting that picture right before their take-off.
Multiple hours later on September, 29, they arrived at SFO. I had to leave work a bit early and make my way over to the Bay Area. Not the easiest feat on a Thursday afternoon. It took us a while (2,5 hours) and my poor parents had to wait for us at the airport for a couple of hours (and of course, they were tired and I was just so happy to finally hug them that nobody thought of taking a picture at their arrival. Gah.)
Since traffic was still pretty bad, we decided to grab some dinner at a nearby BJ’s Brewhouse and wait until the rush hour traffic died down.
We got back to Sacramento around 10 p.m. and after a short home tour (well short, because, a) our home is not that big and b) my parents were pretty tired), we called it a night, but let me just say, I was just so excited to finally have them here with us!!
The weekend was pretty laid back. We wanted to give them time to adjust to the time difference and so we stayed local. We had a late breakfast on Friday, did some grocery shopping in the afternoon and walked around the nearby park.
On Saturday, we went downtown and walked along the Sacramento River.
It was a beautiful, sunny day and we got some nice views of Oldtown and the Tower Bridge. Then we walked through Oldtown and took a quick look at the new Golden 1 Center (which we were going to get to see from the inside a little later – pssst!) that was just built in Downtown Sacramento.
On our way back home, we stopped at the local “Biergarten”, a location that pretty much looks like any German Biergarten and where they serve a gazillion different beers. I think I’ve told you about the Biergarten before. It was kinda fun to visit an American ‘German Biergarten’ with my German parents. A bit surreal. I had a Früh Kölsch Radler (hooray!) and my Dad tried Weihenstephaner Korbinian, a Bavarian dark beer. We also shared a Pretzel with Obatzda cheese and mustard.
On Sunday, we went to the Outlets in Vacaville. What is it with the visitors always wanting to go to the Outlets? Ha. (No, seriously. Certain clothes and shoes are so much cheaper here than in Europe and pretty much everybody likes to take advantage and do some shopping here.) And hey, the customer visitor is king (or how does that saying go), so of course we go to the outlets! I also treated my parents to their first obligatory Starbucks Frappuccino while we were at it. Look, somebody is all smiles :)
In the evening, my Dad cooked us a delicious dinner: tuna steak with grape tomatoes, mashed ginger-carrots and asparagus. Yum. If you never had tuna steak (cooked like a regular beef steak, medium-rare), you should give it a try. It was delicious.
And just like that, our first weekend was already over. My parents had only been here for three days and it already felt like we would hang out for Sunday night dinners every other weekend. So much fun!
Stay tuned for more…
In the meantime, tell me:
Do you hang out with your parents on the weekends? Does your Dad cook, too?
Tanja
November 2, 2016 at 9:49 amAwe, I love reading about your time with your parents !
san
November 3, 2016 at 5:31 pmThanks. We really had the best time.
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
November 3, 2016 at 9:32 amPhil just told me what a radler was – I hadn’t heard of it. It came up on our Bend trip when he was talking to the Brewmaster at Deschuttes. The brewmaster was saying radlers are a huge hit with Europeans in the summer, especially bikers, which I thought was interesting!
I love that your parents sent you a selfie – that is so cute! Sounds like you had a wonderful first weekend with them!
The only times I hang out with my parents over the weekend is when I am at the lake cabin, but there are usually soooo many other family members there so it’s not really a relaxing experience with all the kids running around (I’m not complaining, I love seeing my nieces and nephews!). My dad does NOT cook. When I was a kid, if my mom was gone we’d either get hotdogs & mac and cheese or scrambled eggs with some cut up veggies in it. My dad went from living at home to going to college to marrying my mom so he’s never had to cook for himself! He does handle the grilling but that’s about it! Luckily he has many other talents. ;) Phil is like my dad and doesn’t cook either. Before I came along, he lived on scrambled eggs, cereals, things he could warm up in the toaster over (like breaded chicken strips or fish), and easy meals like spaghetti. He will help me with meal prep if I get him specific directions/tell him what to do, but I do 99% of the meal prep/cooking in our house.
san
November 3, 2016 at 5:32 pmSo cool that Phil knew about Radler… it’s super-refreshing in the summer and really the only way I will drink beer at all.
I understand that you don’t get a lot of one-on-one time with you parents, but I love the idea of weekends with the whole family at the lake house. So much fun!