Parental week o' fun

Hey y'all! I know I haven't posted in a while; My parents were here for a little over a week, and we kept pretty busy. They arrived on a Saturday, and the following morning we drove down to Norfolk. Their friend from high school is the manager of the Norfolk Tides, the AAA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles (boo!). They play their home games at beautiful Harbor Park, right on the water.

I have to admit, I was pretty excited. I was hoping to get some kind of behind-the-scenes tour and maybe meet a few baseball players. But it didn't exactly happen that way. We arrived early and talked to the manager for a few minutes at the dugout, and we did meet one of the players (a native of Clovis, CA). Then we watched the first game of a double-header. But it wasn't good baseball weather; It was cold and rainy the whole time. So we went back to the hotel to warm up. And guess what? The visiting team was staying in our hotel! That definitely provided for some excitement.

I made my parents stop at the Mariners Museum on our way out of town...because I'm a total nerd.

They have a brand new Monitor Center, which was pretty darn fascinating. Basically, they dug up the gun turret of the USS Monitor from the ocean floor and built an exhibit around it, focusing on the role of naval technology in the Civil War.

The whole thing is actually upside-down, because that's they way they pulled it out of the ocean.

See, the gun is upside-down. Pretty neat.

Ok, enough of the nerdiness. Our next family activity was a night out at Nationals Park! My dear father splurged for the expensive seats down on the field. And they. Were. Awesome.

Yes, that's my boyfriend Ryan Zimmerman warming up before the game. He couldn't really talk to me at the time. Had to stay focused.

There was a beautiful sunset that evening.

Me and the parents.

The following weekend we drove out to Shenandoah to do some "light" hiking. The mountain region hasn't really experienced spring yet, so the trees were bare and there weren't any flowers blooming. Boo!

Like I said, we stayed pretty busy the whole week. So ever since they left I've been trying to take it easy and get some rest!