Two weeks ago, before heading off to Vermont, Erin’s parents came into town for a visit. I didn’t have time to blog about their trip, so now I am playing catch-up!

Erin’s dad, Jeff, was in town for lobbying trip for the postal worker’s union, and her mom decided to come along too!They arrived a day earlier than planned to surprise Erin for her birthday. As we were sitting at the table in the restaurant, Erin “thought” she saw her parents walking by the window and leaped up, nearly knocking over the table. So, surprise well played off 🙂

The rest of the week Erin was off as her job had ended and she was waiting for her new program to begin. She spent the days hanging out with her mom while her dad was off at work and we would all meet up in the evenings for dinner or some other activity. Erin’s mom also helped a lot in the garden.

I don’t have a before picture of this walkway, but here is how the front walk way looks now:

Believe me when I say this is a massive improvement. Also, it appears it used to be a rock bed as we unearthed what seems like 50 tons of rocks. They’ve been relocated to a yet unfinished part of the garden:

Some of the highlights of the visit was our first Nationals game, a dinner party, and a day trip to Baltimore:

The Nationals lost after what seemed like a possible comeback in the 8th inning. But, it was still fun times.

On Friday we had some local friends over and made sangria, and Erin made carnitas – her signature dish.

Erin and ten pounds of pork!

Of course I forgot to get pics of the rest of the evening. But, oh well.

Saturday we headed to Baltimore. We hit up the aquarium and other spots around the inner harbor. Despite Baltimore’s less than glowing reputation, we have loved our visits there, and had another beautiful sunny day.

We toured some naval ships that have been turned into museums. I learned a lot of Naval history, and Erin and Jeff were in maritime heaven! One of the ships we visited had been used in the anti slavery movement, and also had a full staff of period actors who could answer questions and carried out various demonstrations.

After a walk on Sunday morning, Erin’s parents headed to the airport, and Erin and I spent the rest of the day relaxing, shopping, and getting ready for the week ahead.

Finally, on our walk Sunday morning we came across this:

Anyone know what it is?