Visitors

What did you do Labor Day weekend? We had company. My brother, John and his wife Johanna came to visit.
For most of our adult lives, my brother and I have lived in different states. While we would see each other sporadically at joint family gatherings, but it never seemed that we had the time off or extra money to visit each other.

I don't remember John coming to Ames on his own to visit me while I was in college at Iowa State. He didn't make it to St. Louis or Chicago to see the cities we called home. He and Jo have been in Los Angeles going on five years and I still have not made it out to see them there.

Finally, my brother made it happen. Sibling bonding time.

We were thrilled to have guests. It gave us the extra motivation needed to get stuff up on the walls and tuck the last of the boxes away. They got an early start and arrived before 2pm on Saturday. Everyone was ready for lunch so Cam took our requests and ran to the local In and Out Burger and picked up some grub.

We ate outside on the patio then spent some time talking about recreational options/preferences. We did research online and looked at books we have on the area. There was a duel (see the Uncle John blog); finally, we decided that a hike to the top of our tallest neighbor, Mt. Tam was in order.

Sam ran ahead, Cam went with him. When we got to the top, we found Sam perched on a rock waiting for us.




























He is getting quite comfortable up there.















I heard this piercing chirping sound and kept asking Cam where the bird that was making that noise was hiding. Finally, we figured out it was this chipmunk. Cam thought he was asking for food. John thought he was talking to a friend.





I snuck shots of John and Jo resting on the top of the mountain and the entire group before we headed back down.

We had fun listening to music, talking about movies, comics and life on the winding drives up and down the mountain. After our hike, we tried out an Italian restaurant at the foot of our hill. We all enjoyed the meal and Cam and I plan to go back. Speaking of planning. Guess it is our turn to plan a visit to Southern California next.