When people talk about traveling they only tell the good parts. Its so exciting to see new places but you miss out on a lot of things also. We are missing our friends and family's great and simple moments this year including bachelorette parties, baby showers, birthday dinners, backyard BBQs, and weekend get togethers. Also we are thousands of miles away and unable to offer comforting hugs when pets pass away, friends or family members have hospital stays, or visiting new born babies. We did make it back for a wedding recently which was amazing to have some familiarity even for a short time but also brought back the reality of how far from home we are. It took us an entire day just to fly back. A couple of times I have hit the 'go home' button on the GPS and after several minutes of calculating it brings up the map of the United States and estimates it will take 53 hours to arrive. The other difficult aspect of traveling is the stress of finding a new place to live. Since we are only in a place for 3 months we look for furnished all included housing which is sometimes difficult to find. We also try to find jobs for both of us in the same area which can be trying as well. This time Jonathan had a job lined up but it took several weeks to line one up for me. There is nothing like being stranded from home without a place to live and a job. After a week of searching for jobs and furnished housing we did find both. Our new place is facing Puget sound where we get to view amazing sunsets every night.
Our back yard has a inviting swing hanging from a peaceful tree where I can imagine myself spending lazy afternoons reading books and sipping lemonade but in reality I will probably not do either since we spend every weekend exploring the new part of the country we are in.
We did sit down and make a list of what we wanted to explore while we are here top spots include: Seattle, Vancouver BC, Saun Jaun Islands, Mt Rainier, and Mt St Helens.
For our last adventure in Oregon we went back up to the coast to Pacific City where the Pelican Pub Brewery sits right one the beach.
On the way back we stopped at the Rogue Farms where we got to see rows and rows of hop vines.
We very much enjoyed our time in Oregon especially western Oregon. The people of Corvallis where incredibly friendly making us feel welcome and at home. The country side of Oregon was amazingly beautiful with rocky coasts, mountain peaks, and clear rivers Washington has a lot to live up to. So far I feel like all we have seen is highways full of traffic. The commute around Seattle is similar to sitting in a packed parking lot. We did take a short drive down to Mukilteo to see the worlds smallest light house and drift wood beaches.
We are hoping for new adventures but for now we are relearning how to
pump our own gas again and to not be surprised each time we go into the
grocery stores and see shelves full of liquor.
