Then we helped him recover from all the cars, people and steep streets by heading back up to Bellingham to show him just why we live here. Since both Nick and I worked during the daytime, we encouraged Matt to hop on one of our bikes and explore the city Bellingham-style. In between his explorations we enjoyed fabulous lunches together and had some good laughs. One afternoon even got to take him raspberry picking with me...something new for him. He was quite the helper.
The evenings were much more packed. Nick and I, of course, had to show him our favorite thing about Bellingham: Galbrieth Mountain. We hit up both sides (Ridge and Galbrieth Lane) on two different occasions. Though the uphill was a bit challenging for him (remember - San Antonio is FLAT), he tore it up on the downhill...Bob's was nothin'!
We also had a chance to hit up Mt. Baker on his last full day here. Late in the day, we headed up to Yellow Aster Butte (same place Nick and I got engaged) for a hike. 
With night and heavy cloud cover creeping in fast, we weren't able to make it to the top....but close enough to once again show Matt the majesty of this land. He was astounded to see so much green, steep hills: "when does it end???", and snow in July! Matt hadn't been in snow since 1997.
And once again, in true Matt fashion, he did a fantastic job keeping up with his crazy hosts, who crammed as much activity into one day as humanly possible.
I am sure that Matt is enjoying his relaxing plane ride home, but we hope that he had a great time and now he has a better perspective of how the Vann's roll in Washington!
Just a little side note...one of my favorite moments of his visit was him texting his friend a picture of our thermometer. San Antonio ranges from 95 to 100 degrees everyday, by 10am. It was 60 degrees here, all day... funny how we can take what we have for granted.
