A Bite of Seattle

First off, good news! I got a job...at Safeway...but a job! Actually, I will be a barista at the Starbucks inside Safeway. I spent two hours with the hiring manager interviewing and filling out paperwork. I have new employee orientation tomorrow.

We ventured to Seattle Center for Bite of Seattle, a festival show casing mostly food, as the name implies, but also exhibiting local bands and vendors. We had already eaten dinner (which was not the smartest plan), but the food smelled wonderful. There were many different types of food mirroring the many different people of Seattle. We may go back for dinner tomorrow or Sunday night.

The Scenic Route

We have begun to plan extra time for trips considering we never fail to get a little turned around. However, I am proud of my ability to get us home even if it takes a little longer. These situations have taken us to knew parts of the city, and by doing so are helping us learn the area. Another challenge is the one way streets (or streets that randomly turn into one way streets) and streets that suddenly end or turn into other streets.

After turning around only once, we made it to Discovery Park which should be a short 15 minute drive from home. I was amazed by the little patch of nature tucked into the big city. I expected a short, leisurely walk to views of the mountains and Puget Sound, but it turned into a 4 mile semi-strenuous hike. However, it was well worth it.

According to a sign there were four distinct habitats: meadow, forest, bluff, and beach. We hiked through all except the bluff because it was more like a sandy cliff. The ocean was in low tide, so there was a great deal of beach filled with tide pools. While we were there, the tide started to come back in. It was interesting to see life come back to the drying tide pools.

Finally here...

Well, we are here despite the snags along the way. Dropping off the truck was the final straw in a list of trials. However, we are here no worse for the wear.

Now the hard part is unpacking. I think I dislike unpacking almost as much as I dislike packing. It is so difficult to find a home for everything. Like I've said before, it will all be fine eventually.

We are starting to get our home set up and get used to the area. We will get internet in our apartment on Friday. For now, we are frequenting the library and Seattle Center to use internet. Having internet will make the job hunt much easier.

We have gone to Fred Meyer, which is amazing. It is like a giant Super Target. They have everything you could ever need, pretty sure. I have also applied for a job there.

Seattle is a funny place weather wise. It has been rather cold and a little misty the last two days. Today was incredibly nice and sunny all day! However, I noticed that Seattle has a weather watch for high temperatures. Those high temperatures happen to be in the 80s. That's a nice day for Colorado or Iowa summer. Gotta love the cool Pacific weather.

Even the mechanics were puzzled...

We spent 3 hours in the lovely town of Baker City, while the many different mechanics worked on the truck. We had a tire blow out while driving on the highway. Luckily we were only a short distance from Baker City so U-haul sent us to a tire shop to get a new tire. Easy fix, right? However, when the tread stripped off the tire, it caught on the exhaust pipe bending it completely backward on top of the tire. So, we called U-haul again and set off to another mechanic. Three hours later we were on the road again.

It wasn't all bad, though. It could have been way worse! We even managed to miss driving in the storm because we were waiting for the truck.

I'm loving driving across the country and seeing new places. It is so pretty! I was surprised by the mountains in Oregon. They are not the mountains that I have seen in pictures. There were very few trees and they had dry grass. Near the Washington border the mountains became more familiar.

Even with the delay, we made it to Yakima, which is well into Washington. Only about 3 hours to go tomorrow!

After quite a day, all is well and we will finally be in our new apartment tomorrow!

High Winds and Semis

This statement about sums up our day of driving, especially through Utah. The wind was ridiculously strong and kept catching the giant U-haul and trailer. Forty-five minutes and very sore arms later, the wind subsided a little.

By far the most exciting event of the day was when a semi passed me on the right, cut me off in the right lane and then proceeded to cut off another van in the left lane. I understand that the U-haul doesn't go much faster than 65, especially up hills...but still.

We stayed in Burley, Idaho, which was two hours and over 100 miles after we began looking for a hotel. Who knew that northern Utah and southern Idaho had so few towns!!?? Seriously, we saw one town in two hours and it only had a gas station! Hopefully our drive today will have more towns, although the area is beautiful.

This picture is taken in the northern-ish part of Utah at a rest stop.