Ferries, flying fish, and fall colors

The countdown is on... tomorrow is October 1st and my contract is up at the end of the month. How is time flying by so fast?! We could easily stay here for longer (I'm sure we could say that about every location). There is just SO much to do! We want to hike all the hikes! All of them!  We've been blessed to make new friends through Will's work (hey Cameron and Ashley!) and let me tell you, it makes such a big difference! Yes, we have each other, and we get along so well and spend endless amounts of time together quite effortlessly. But to have friends, a community, a familiar face, is just so nice. My dear friend from Nashville, Whitney, has been such a joy and so have our family friends, Ben and Anne. It's nice knowing even just a handful of people in this great big city. It gives it more of a feeling of home, and if we can find little bits and pieces of that wherever we go, I"d be pretty happy. We've been trying to fit as many things in as we can (how have we not been to the Space Needle yet?!) especially since we're down to our last month. Here are a few of our more recent explorations: Bainbridge Island Naturally, we HAD to take a ferry while living here. So what better place to go than a lovely little island? 

Leaving Seattle!

Exploring all the marinas. So many amazing sailboats!

Such a gorgeous view...

Pike Place Market (again) We knew we needed to come back at least once or twice. And I'm so glad we did! This place gets better every time! We finally found the right fish market where they throw the fish (classic). It was just so fun exploring, listening to the street musicians, and enjoying the sunny day (it actually does NOT rain every day here, believe it or not). 

Look closely and you'll see the flying fish :)

The famous Gum Wall. Cool/eww. Ha!

But seriously, that's just impressive!

Mount Catherine This was what we like to call our "surprise hike." We set out to do a different hike, but could not find the trailhead for the life of us. We finally found what sort of looked like one, so we parked on the side of the dirt road and just started hiking. We figured we could always turn around. But we're so glad we didn't! A small part of the draw for us to come to the PNW in the fall was for the gorgeous fall colors. This trail definitely delivered! It was a pretty foggy day but that made it all the more beautiful and mysterious.

What is normally vast space filled with great mountain views... better or worse because of the fog? I'm not sure.

Using a rope to climb up the last stretch. 

We also accidentally found our first ever Geocache! Yay! 

Hubby leaving a note in the Geocache notepad. Also, what's that metal door doing there? We weren't sure, but it looks pretty cool.

I loved this moss!

Our trusty VW. She's the best...

Seattle so far

We are half way (!) HALF WAY through our Seattle assignment. Where does the time go?! There are more hikes to do, more sea creatures to consume (Kelsey), more cool spots to photograph (Will)! I felt this way in San Diego, too, I'm now remembering. And I think that the second half is maybe the more fun half. The first few weeks are full of figuring out our go-to grocery store, finding the nearest Costco (because, duh!), getting the hang of commuting to work (including occasionally taking the bus because I'm such a city girl), and figuring out what Will will do for a job (a necessary, no-fun evil). The second half? That's where we get into the good stuff. We try to do more local things and finish up any of the touristy things we still haven't done. And we generally just feel more comfortable and (dare I say) "at home." I think that sometimes I treat these travel nurse assignments as vacations. I want to JAM PACK them with so many fun things and somewhere along the way,  I forget that I'm also working full time. My cool-as-a-cat hubby often reminds me and says, "Think of what we did when we lived back at home in Michigan." And he's so right. We didn't do big, fun, crazy things every single day.  Just whenever we possibly could around our work schedules. Having anywhere from 2-4 days a week free to explore is plenty, especially over the course of 13 weeks (actually 15 weeks here in Seattle... yeah, not sure how I signed a 15-week contract. Silly recruiter... oh well, it's for the better since we'll be gone for 2 weeks of the assignment for weddings [shout of to Marcy/Ryne and Justin/Jessika!]).  It's also been a rough transition for me here in Seattle because I really loved San Diego and was just starting to feel so comfortable (and let's be honest, I miss my newfound soulmate/travel nurse bestie Megan). But as the weeks have passed, I'm starting to enjoy our time here in Seattle more and more. I told Will today that I finally had that, "Wow... we LIVE here!" moment (this is good; this is a big deal).  So here we go: a small sample of what we've experienced in Seattle so far...

Obviously we had to start off with a visit to Pike Place Market.

SEAFOOD! I bought jumbo scallops to cook up at home and they. were. amazing.

Never enough seafood! -Kelsey. Not Will. Definitely not Will.

Gorgeous veggies!

Flowers everywhere!

BAM! More seafood. For good measure.

Just outside Pike's Place Market.

And at night. *emoji with the hearts in its eyes*

One of our favorite things about living in the Pacific North West (PNW for short/if you're cool) so far has been the plethora of gorgeous hikes. Wow! We are loving the terrain and geography around here. We aim to go on 1-2 hikes a week, depending on our schedules. We've done only 5 so far... meh. We had BIG plans for an amazing hike today, but then we got rained out.*

*It actually doesn't rain here as much as people think. In fact, Seattle ranks 44th among major U.S. cities in average rainfall. Cities that typically get MORE rain annually than Seattle: Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Boston... I could continue. And my sources are reputable. Don't ask. 

On to the hikes:

Twin Falls (when our bro/bro-in-law Kevin and good friend Brian visited!)

Twin Falls

My absolute favorite so far: Bridal Veil Falls (en route to Lake Serene). 

Hammocking at Lake Serene. It was so... peaceful (and you thought I was going to say "serene")

Wallace Falls was amazing! SO many waterfalls!

Wallace Falls 

Wallace Falls

Wallace Falls

Wallace Falls. This picture does not do it justice... the height was incredible. 

Wallace Falls

My dear friend Whitney taught me that blackberries grow like weeds around here, and she was right! Our goal is to eat fresh blackberries on every hike we go on. So far, so good.

Rattlesnake Lake: during the big meteor shower a couple weeks ago. Will and I decided to have a little date night at 1:00am. We brought blankets, wine, and store-bought chocolate chip cookies and had SUCH a fun time. God bless that man and how gracious he is to me...

Some more amazing views of Seattle (a.k.a. my husband is such a bomb-A photographer).

'Til next time!  Also, if you're ready this, chances are we love and miss you SO much, whoever/wherever you are! XOXO

San Diego to Seattle

Being that we've lived in Seattle for over a month now, I figured it was time for a little update. Basically... We've. Been. Busy. Our transition from San Diego to Seattle was a very challenging one, to say the least. We ended up leaving San Diego jobless and homeless. Pretty scary... I knew we could trust the Lord that He would take care of us (He always has in the past), but it was definitely still worrisome knowing that the bills would still be coming in. We left San Diego and drove up to Los Angeles to stay with Will's brother and girlfriend until we heard anything. We figured we'd be there for at least the weekend and would just hang out with them and wait. No more than one minute after we arrived at their apartment and I got a call from the nurse manager in Seattle. She interviewed me over the phone and offered me the job on the spot! We were insanely shocked and thrilled! I was seconds away from accepting a "backup" position in Santa Barbara (which wouldn't have been half bad...), but Seattle was definitely our top choice. And here we are! We're just praying each transition isn't that insane. Yikes! I didn't know if Seattle was going to be a sure thing, but I hoped it would be so I planned accordingly.  Turns out the road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway is a pretty popular one, so I found a ton of resources to help me plan our trip! Once we knew Seattle was going to work out, we could just relax and enjoy a beautiful little road trip together. It was SO much fun and filled with more beauty than you could ever imagine. Everyone needs to go on this trip at some point in their lives!
Our first stop was the beautiful Santa Barbara!

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse

Old Mission Santa Barbara

Our camping site #1. Naturally we had to have a hammock-hanging, beers-cheering celebration that we made it through the first day! 

Good morning! Jack was such a stud and did amazingly well camping in a tent for over a week! He's now officially our "camping cat."

A quick oceanside stop at Moonstone Beach.

Our faithful Passat wagon was SUCH a roadtrip champ! We were super proud (especially Will) that we were able to downsize from 3 to 1 tote on the back. Maybe we will be able to downsize even more for out next trip! Getting rid of stuff is so freeing...

Hearst Castle!

Every room was so detailed and so luxurious.

Even an indoor pool!

Now, on to Big Sur... aka Heaven.

Just phenomenal.

The place I was most looking forward to stopping at: Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park! Featuring McWay Falls. Dear goodness, the beauty...

Bixby Bridge.

More of our Camping Cat! This was at the glorious KOA Campground where we FINALLY had running water and hot showers! Praise the Lord!

Wine tasting in Napa Valley for the day. Vino love. 

They said it wouldn't fit in our car  :(

My crazy and cool hubby longboarding through some Redwoods.

Glass Beach. They used to dump garbage (including glass bottles) here near the ocean for years, sadly. But now, after decades of waves, these glass pieces and shards have turning into gorgeous rocks and pebbles.

Glass Beach (MacKerricher State Park).

The winding roads along the Redwoods.

The photos don't even do these massive trees justice. So huge!

My sweet little family.

Jedidiah State Park: definitely our favorite place to explore the Redwoods.

We finally made it to Oregon! And holy cow, what a beautiful greeting.

Windy beach life.

Coquille River Lighthouse.

Oregon coast.

Heceta Lighthouse.

Touring the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Yumm...

This may have been our second time through the cheese sampling line... 

Will particularly liked the ice cream.

Oswald West State Park.

Apparently a popular surfing spot in Oregon!

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach.

We finally made it to Washington!

This trip was so wonderful... Will and I got to dream and explore and talk about the future. It's an exciting life, this travel nursing stuff. Ever-changing, ever-surprising, ever-challenging. And we are already forever grateful.