Raindrops keep fallin on my head

But they definitely did not keep us from having fun in Seattle this last weekend. I went up to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday, and she had no idea that I was going to be there. I sent out invitations to invite about 30 of her friends to dinner and made reservations at her favorite Tacoma waterfront restaurant called CI Shenanigan's, with her only thinking that my brother and her husband were taking her out to dinner with just a few friends. When she arrived, I waited until the perfect moment to catch her off guard, and I sure did by asking her if she wanting a drink while I pretended to be a waitress. It took her about 5 seconds to realize it was me, and she proceeded to to attack me with a big bear hug and streaming tears of joy. It was a great night, an awesome weekend, and even though it poured as usual, we even had a little fun outside. Here are some highlights of the weekend....

First of all, I have to show you the view I had outside my airplane window flying into Sea\Tac airport. It was phenomenal. You could see 3 of the mountains along the fault line, and then Mount Rainier up close and personal. I think it is the best shot of it I have ever gotten.

Here is Mt. Hood, Adams, and St. Helens. Spectacular view if I might say so.

And a fantastic view of the glaciers on Mount Rainier.

I laid low at my best friend Amy's house the day and morning before my mom's birthday surprise. I was praying I wouldn't run into my mom on accident, they only live about 10 blocks away from each other. But all went well. Here we are in the car heading out to Tacoma to get ready for the big surprise.

My mom and me just after I surprised her. She was still a little teary, so happy that I was able to make it. She deemed it "the best birthday ever".

We spent the next couple of days hanging out with my mom, Amy and John, my brother, and friends. There is a delicious sushi place near my mom's house called Sushi Town, so we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading out to the show my brother got set up for Chas and me while we were there. It was at a small little Irish Pub in Tacoma called Doyle's.

Chas and me performing at Doyl'es. It was a pretty small place, but my brother is awesome and had it packed full with friends, and even my mom and her husband Jeff got to come join us. It was a great little reunion of old friends from high school days.

Notice the change in guitars. About half way through our set, Chas broke a string, and just happened to not bring any extras with him. Lucky for us, Miong (the guy who played after us) let Chas borrow what he called his "hippie" guitar. Chas did a few instrumentals and jammed out, the crowed really liked this. They kept asking him to play more, but he only has made two instrumentals so far. Nice to know they enjoyed his playing though.

Sunday we spend the afternoon in Seattle, it was Chas' first time, so of course I had to take him to all the tourist spots. We played around with music, checked out a Sci-Fi museum, and got to see a lot of really cool old guitars at the Experience Music Project. Too bad for us though, we couldn't take pictures while inside.

Chas and his picture of proof that he has now seen the Seattle Space Needle. It was a little gloomy on Sunday so the lighting wasn't that great, but you get the idea.


Downtown Seattle just about to finish off the afternoon tour with a tasty bite at the traditional PF Chang's downtown. I go here with my dad at least once while I am in Seattle every time I go for a visit up there. Surprisingly enough, it was Chas' first time ever eating at the PF lovehouse, so of course it was the perfect ending to an already adventurous day.

So that was pretty much our trip, we got home at about 12:05am on Monday morning, thus the delay in posting with trying to catch up and get some decent sleep the last couple of nights. But, we had a fabulous time, and hopefully Chas will be taking more trips up to visit the fam with me in the future :)