A few days ago, Pete found out Sister #4 was going to be staying at the in-laws’, and invited her to visit us while she was there. So today she came over, with the parental units in tow.

Usually, Pete’s dad arrives eager to leave, but we managed to keep them around until after 3 p.m. First, we had a job to do. A thunderstorm the other night resulted in one of our trees nearly losing a branch. Pete needed help getting it down, and Dad had the tools. Then we went to lunch… at a brew pub. (The Angelic.) We walked around downtown, did a small bit of shopping, and went up to the observation deck at the capitol. Dad started up a conversation with the guide stationed at the fifth floor landing. So there were a number of things to capture his attention.

In typical August 2004 fashion, the weather was very fall-like. We wore sweatshirts and dodged raindrops. Right after Dad insisted it was time to go home, the rain came down in earnest. So his timing was perfect.