Visitors!

Last weekend, we had a lovely visit from my Mom and Dad. This was only their second time in BG (the first was when they helped us move here in 2010). So this time, we did a lot less working and a lot more playing and eating!

They arrived on Friday afternoon, and our first adventure was sampling the tasty treats at the Shatila Bakery in Dearborn, MI. It's a Middle-Eastern bakery that also serves French-style pastries, and from the first time I went, I've always thought Mom would like it. Since it's only about 15 minutes from the airport, it was fairly easy to stop there before heading home. That evening, we continued our international theme with dinner from South Side 6, some of the best food in BG. Since it had been a long travel day for my parents, we wrapped things up pretty early.

On Saturday, we continued our tour of I-75 by heading down to Findlay for proper tea at the Swan House. Dad and Mark were good sports and joined us so we could spend the time all together. Again, this is something I've been looking forward to doing with Mom since I first discovered it. We enjoyed sampling many different teas, and Mom and Dad bought me a bag of my favorite flavor as well as a beautiful necklace/earring set (on sale!). That afternoon, Mark had a recital to attend, so Mom, Dad, and I spent a couple of hours touring the historic area around downtown, then checking out the shops on Main Street. I think Mom's favorite shop was For Keeps, a gift store with a rather large home furnishings area upstairs (I'd never even seen the upstairs before!). They also enjoyed seeing the different style of architecture in the old buildings (like the courthouse) and homes (along Wooster). When we finished exploring downtown, we met up with Mark on campus and took a brief walk around campus. That night, we had a quiet dinner at The China, then played some James Bond Scene It before calling it a night.

On Sunday, Mark got to spend some time sharing what he's been working on at this stage in his degree. He played a few pieces from the recital he's planning for January, and showed some clips from his last recital in March. We had lunch at Reverend's, then walked around the Simpson Garden Park. We also had some tea and caramel apples at home in the afternoon. For dinner, we went to the Stone's Throw.

On Monday, Mom and Dad came to one of my classes, then we had lunch together (with Mark) at the pub on campus. After that, it was time to head back to the airport. It was really fun for us to have Mom and Dad here--we're so glad they came.

*I did take a couple of pictures during the weekend, but Mom did most of the photo-taking, and I didn't get copies of her pics before they left. If she's able to email some to me, I'll add a few photo highlights later!