It is hard to believe, but the anniversary of the day we moved into our Issaquah apartment has already come and gone. It is always so interesting to me to think back a year and observe how different life can look within that time. Last July, I was spending my last few days working as an editorial assistant for UNM Press. I was living alone in the apartment Ryan and I moved into the week we got married, as he’d already jetted off to start his new engineering job in Seattle. I was packing up all of the things we’d accumulated over the past two years of our marriage, shoving them in a yellow Penske truck, and driving my little red bug behind that truck through six states in the west. Last August right around this time, I was unpacking everything and settling into our new home. I spent all my time putting everything in its place and filling our walls with wedding photos and posters to make this new space feel like home.
It was very hard back then to think that I might actually feel settled again. For a long time it felt like we were on an extended vacation, or just “pretending” to be living somewhere else. But something funny happened. With each day we treated like borrowed time, we explored new corners of our region, and became more and more intimately familiar with this part of the country.
In the last year, we have spent a weekend among the San Juans, we have driven the back roads from Issaquah through Fall City up to Duvall and Monroe, we have hiked to Rattlesnake Ledge and spent several afternoons at Rattlesnake Lake and Lake Sammamish, and we have wandered through the mountains to Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee. We have taken all of our guests around Pike Place and the Space Needle. We have fallen for Bellevue. We have driven along the Columbia River Gorge, past Multnomah Falls, to pick up our puppy and take him home. We have walked along the boardwalk in West Seattle, and hiked to the beach at Discovery Park. We have driven up to Vancouver and contemplated moving up there instead, we loved it so much. With each new photography client, I have encountered new and beautiful parks and lakes and city gems. And the list of places to go is still growing.
I can see why people never want to leave. There is just so much to do, so many things to see, and seemingly never enough time to do it all. I still miss all of the people we’ve left back home in Albuquerque. I still miss the green chile and the Sandia Mountains. But I’m also happy with this adventure we’re having living in the Pacific Northwest, and I don’t ever want to take this unique place in the world for granted as our current home.
Catch up on all of our PNW Adventures here.
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It is hard to believe, but the anniversary of the day we moved into our Issaquah apartment has already come and gone. It is always so interesting to me to think back a year and observe how different life can look within that time. Last July, I was spending my last few days working as an editorial assistant for UNM Press. I was living alone in the apartment Ryan and I moved into the week we got married, as he’d already jetted off to start his new engineering job in Seattle. I was packing up all of the things we’d accumulated over the past two years of our marriage, shoving them in a yellow Penske truck, and driving my little red bug behind that truck through six states in the west. Last August right around this time, I was unpacking everything and settling into our new home. I spent all my time putting everything in its place and filling our walls with wedding photos and posters to make this new space feel like home.
It was very hard back then to think that I might actually feel settled again. For a long time it felt like we were on an extended vacation, or just “pretending” to be living somewhere else. But something funny happened. With each day we treated like borrowed time, we explored new corners of our region, and became more and more intimately familiar with this part of the country.
In the last year, we have spent a weekend among the San Juans, we have driven the back roads from Issaquah through Fall City up to Duvall and Monroe, we have hiked to Rattlesnake Ledge and spent several afternoons at Rattlesnake Lake and Lake Sammamish, and we have wandered through the mountains to Leavenworth and Lake Wenatchee. We have taken all of our guests around Pike Place and the Space Needle. We have fallen for Bellevue. We have driven along the Columbia River Gorge, past Multnomah Falls, to pick up our puppy and take him home. We have walked along the boardwalk in West Seattle, and hiked to the beach at Discovery Park. We have driven up to Vancouver and contemplated moving up there instead, we loved it so much. With each new photography client, I have encountered new and beautiful parks and lakes and city gems. And the list of places to go is still growing.
I can see why people never want to leave. There is just so much to do, so many things to see, and seemingly never enough time to do it all. I still miss all of the people we’ve left back home in Albuquerque. I still miss the green chile and the Sandia Mountains. But I’m also happy with this adventure we’re having living in the Pacific Northwest, and I don’t ever want to take this unique place in the world for granted as our current home.
Catch up on all of our PNW Adventures here.