Last month Jules’ parents came to stay with us for a few weeks. It was an absolutely lovely time and it gave us a really great opportunity to get to know each other better. The downside to having a husband from a far away land is that we don’t get many chances to spend time with his family and friends. We definitely made the most of it, and I now feel even luckier to be part of this family!

While they were here Jules and I were both working full-time so they spent most of the weekdays out exploring Seattle. In no time they had figured out how to get around so they did a lot of touristy things while we were chugging away at work. Being academics they came across a bookshop a few blocks away from our place and spent a great deal of time in there as well.

The highlight of their visit was our trip to San Juan Island. On the advice of many locals, we chose this location both because of its proximity to Seattle and the fact that is also charming and remote. During the summer it is a popular tourist destination as it is the prime location for whale-watching in Washington state, but as this was the off-season there were no whales to spot and therefore few tourists. We drove up to Anacortes and took a ferry over to Friday Harbor, which was an incredible experience. Lakedale Resort, the place we stayed at, was phenomenally gorgeous and ended up being almost half-price since no one was around. The local dining was spectacular, and the scenery was just gorgeous. We drove around the island a couple times, stopping in Roche Harbor (the other small town on the island) and Limekiln Point (the whalewatching park.) We even went to the whale museum, which is like a dream for me since childhood. It was a fantastic mini-vacation!

The rest of the time we went out to movies together, went out walking, went out to eat together, cooked together, shared moments together before dinner sipping red wine and chatting. They ended up taking a fancy to Rock Bottom Brewery, which is one of our favorite places. Dad didn’t have any trouble finding things he could eat here (he can’t have gluten), which he was concerned about, but he still ate well. We convinced Mum (who is terrified of heights) to go up the Space Needle with us, which is a phenomenal feat! I hugged her to my chest while we rode the elevator up and let her know it would all be okay! The first weekend we took them to Snoqualmie Falls and North Bend so they could eat at the Twin Peaks diner (Twede’s Cafe.)

It was quite sad for us when they had to go. We had enough time together that we didn’t feel cheated but we enjoyed it so much that we wished they could have stayed longer. They both made me feel like I was truly a part of the Lancaster family, and that’s an invaluable feeling. I remember being so nervous and intimidated by their academic stature before I met them, but knowing now that they achieved that level of success because they truly love the pursuit of knowledge and do this for their souls’ satisfaction rather than anything more selfish makes me realize how silly that was. (Dad’s book has just been published and Mum’s is soon to follow!)

Jules and I just bought our first new car together! He’s a 2008 Volkswagen Golf GTI. Mitchell, our 2002 Grand Am was starting to give us a little trouble so we figured it was a good time to trade him in before he became too expensive to maintain. We got a fair price for him, and it was enough to forgo a down payment on the new car. It was a little sad saying goodbye to him, but he has had a good life with us, and hopefully whoever gets him next will appreciate him. Bye bye Mitchell. :(

We picked it up from the dealer last night and took it for a spin. It is an absolutely incredible machine! I have never driven (nor ridden in) anything that smooth or powerful before. It has a turbocharger so it has some major oomph and just wants to go as soon as you touch the gas. With Jules lightly tapping the accelerator we were up to 40mph in less than 3 seconds…it was incredible. It’s a zippy little thing! For those of you interested, here are the detailed specs on that model.

The best part is the vehicle has a very unassuming presence. It looks nice, but isn’t flashy. It is hiding the beast within itself only to be unleashed when the ignition is switched on. It’s essentially a performance vehicle wearing the costume of a family car.

In terms of extras, we ended up getting the “Autobahn” package, which adds a leather trimmed interior, premium audio system, heated seats, 18″ wheels with all-season performance tires, and sunroof. We intended on getting the cloth seats because that knocked $3000 off the price, but when we actually saw them we were so underwhelmed that we decided that we might as well go for something we would really enjoy being inside. The leather interior is very, very nice, and it’s pretty obvious VW wants to push this over the cloth since the disparity between qualities is so high. Additionally, we had an iPod interface installed and are awaiting a cargo rack installation.

We took out a 60-month loan with VW to finance the car, so now we have to decide whether we want to work hard at paying it off early (which I’m sure we will anyway…we took the 60 month over the 48 month because the rates were identical and there is no penalty for paying it off early) or dropping that extra cash in savings and waiting it out.

So the next item on the agenda is a name for this beast. We have toyed around with various German names but nothing is sticking yet. Jules is quite fond of “Werner” and “Ludwig” but I’m still not sure. Any suggestions?