enjoying some family time

Hey All! Brenda's opera, Semele, opened on Saturday and was a huge success. In case you're interested, Seattle Opera has made several videos about the production including a short clip with excerpts from one of Brenda's arias. Also, as I mentioned last week, the performance on the 28th will be broadcast on the radio and online.

 The promotional poster. And no, that's not Brenda.

Now that Brenda's show is up and running, she's getting to enjoy a little time off between performances. We've been wanting to explore at least a little of the nature around Seattle, so on Sunday we took my parents, who are in town for Brenda's opera, on a hiking trail that's about a 30 minute drive east of Seattle. We heard that the hike was two miles round trip and featured a beautiful waterfall. The waterfall was there, as promised, but the hike ended up being four miles round trip and the first half was almost entirely downhill (which made the return trip rather more challenging). Even though it was harder than expected, we all had a good time.

Brenda and my folks smiling (before we realized how hard the hike was going to be).

 One of the waterfalls along the path.

While our parents are in town we've been trying a few new restaurants and taking in some of the sights. One of the highlights was seeing Seattle from Kerry Park yesterday.

My parents have been in Seattle since last Friday, and Brenda's parents and twin arrived today. We love spending time with our families and really appreciate their willingness to travel to come see us. I think they appreciated not having to spend seventeen hours in transit for this trip like they do when they come visit us in Germany.

The twins enjoying the view at Kerry Park.

Now that Brenda's show is up we don't actually have that much more time in Seattle. We'll be hopping on a train to Munich from Frankfurt for Brenda's next gig in two weeks. We plan on seeing a little bit more of Seattle and catching up with some old friends before we leave.

I'm hearing a lot of laughing from the other room, so I'd better go see what Brenda and Drew are up to. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!