I've never spent much time thinking about what my parents do on their own time when I'm not in Walla Walla. Turns out that my parents go out to dinner with friend pretty regularly. It's kind of their thing. They eat bar food, drink beer and have a grand old time.

Who knew?! **
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858397730/" title="Me at Laht Neppur by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8297/7858397730_637425e857_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Me at Laht Neppur"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858374134/" title="Me at Laht Neppur by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8305/7858374134_14771d3a9d_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Me at Laht Neppur"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858391210/" title="At Laht Neppur by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8299/7858391210_d8e3edb890_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="At Laht Neppur"></a>
Well I've tagged along with them recently. These things happen when all of your high school friends move away, your brother is on his honeymoon and your little sister has to go back to work because she's actually a grown up.

Anyhow, at least I am in the lucky position to have parents who like to have fun (and who seem to be able to have fun just about anywhere). Here's what I mean. One day we can be fooling around at our family cabin making ridiculous pancakes and the next day we can be in town grilling burgers. Likewise, my parents seem to be totally happy and comfortable drinking a beer, snacking on peanuts and throwing peanut shells on the floor while waiting to eat a pizza or scooting next door to a hip-local tasting room and splitting a bottle (or two) of wine with friends.

I find this 1.) really cool and 2.) a little enviable as not everyone can move seamlessly between these different environments.

So on Thursday afternoon, I found out that there were plans in the works to go out for a beer after work. Well, after my dAd is done working--you know, because I am on summer vacation and I haven't had to work at all in two months. We settled on the bar and my dAd picked my MoM and me up when he was done at the antique store.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858461364/" title="At Laht Neppur by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8300/7858461364_bb0790c64b_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="At Laht Neppur"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858449516/" title="Me at Laht Neppur with the owner by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7251/7858449516_e8a26b6b67_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Me at Laht Neppur with the owner"></a>We meet our friends D. &amp; L. as well as their daughter T., at Laht Neppur. This bar makes excellent micro-brew beer and the atmosphere is backyard-bbq-party-cool. To be more specific, the kind of party that you want to go to rather than host. In theory it's the kind of party that you want to host as well but in practice it's really not the kind of party that you want to clean up after. Then again, I guess that if I could make beer as good as the beer at Laht Neppur I'd want to host the party too.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858416792/" title="At Laht Neppur pizza by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8442/7858416792_cf280f7403_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="At Laht Neppur pizza"></a>
We drank pitchers of the oatmeal porter. It's creamy and rich. Some people might try to tell you that it's a winter beer but I'd tell those people, no way. It would be a shame to wait until fall to enjoy a beer like this.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858416792/" title="At Laht Neppur pizza by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8442/7858416792_cf280f7403_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="At Laht Neppur pizza"></a>
We washed our beer down with two different pizzas. The vegetarian with sausage and ham. Yes, I realize that means it's no longer vegetarian. In practice what it means is that you get a lot of veggies on your meat pizza. It's just a better deal to order the veggie pizza and add the meat than to order the meat pizza and add the veggies. My parents are so clever.

We also got the bbq pulled pork pizza with Walla Walla sweet onions and fresh tomatoes. This pizza was a-mazing but it's a limited time only pizza (I think this is driven by the growing season of the sweet onions) and the only way you know it's on sale is a small-ish yellow sign posted on the wall of the bar.  You've either got to be a good reader or in the know to order this pizza.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858355842/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8429/7858355842_656e1f60ff_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a>
After dinner we paid the bill and left the bar. We were all headed home until D. &amp; L. stopped to listen to the live music pouring out of Charles Smith's tasting room and said: how about a glass of wine? There were nodding heads all around so we walked down the street to the tasting room.

There was an after-hours event happening with live blues-jazz music and a southern style bbq wagon (imagine a taco truck selling bbq).  We went to the bar and decided that buying a bottle of wine was going to be a better deal than buying individual glasses of wine. We found a large table to share with another couple.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858326066/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8307/7858326066_398042cffb_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858282600/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7116/7858282600_0bf604a8a2_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a>
I'd never been to the Charles Smith tasting room. I've wanted to go but there are so many other wineries in town it's hard enough to re-visit the tasting rooms you know and love let alone try new ones. I was impressed. The tasting room is functional and cool but without trying too hard. I enjoyed the wine, the music and the conversation.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858247812/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8285/7858247812_bd9e7333c9_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a>
The Boom Boom Syrah hit the spot on a fairly hot evening Walla Walla but the  Charles Smith cabernet sauvignon wasn't bad either.<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858160886/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8436/7858160886_a6660e1896_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858154768/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7250/7858154768_481d341a98_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858148340/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8427/7858148340_591a5492fe_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a>

The one funny thing about hanging out with parents is that by 9pm I was at home, by 9:30 I was curled up in bed with my book and by 10pm I was fast asleep. In comparison, if was out in Sofia with friends more likely not I wouldn't have even left my apartment by 9pm and I wouldn't be home until much, much later. Maybe, just maybe, my parents are on to something. <em>Go figure</em>.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/7858116172/" title="Charles Smith Wines by karolinka.sofia, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8440/7858116172_f617961ec1_z.jpg" width="640" height="427" alt="Charles Smith Wines"></a>
**Footnote: I read the introduction to my parents as a little blog sneak preview and they told me that they don't go out "pretty regularly." That maybe they go out twice a month with friends. Okay, but I think that they forget that they also have people over to the house pretty regularly as well.