Tag Archives: Seattle

On the Road Again…

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Hi there. I know. I KNOW. It’s been a while.

We made it safely back to Seattle (via a week in NYC), and so did all of our crap (not that we wanted to ever see it again after all that time).

We’ve been decompressing and adjusting to our new home city. It’s even new to me since so much has changed since the last time I lived here, but it’s nice to have so much to explore and re-discover about my hometown. It’s a bit of an odd time, because we’re so in transition. We’re living with Jared’s very accommodating and generous parents while we sort ourselves out, and a lot of our stuff is still in boxes in their garage and spare bedroom. That’s partly why I haven’t written here in a while – just not a lot to say. Things are good, and we’ve had a lot of great quality time with our families and friends, but it’s not exactly exciting to chronicle my trips to Target or Jared’s daily commute.

Oh, but we do have some bits of exciting news. We bought a car!

I’m pretty sure the internet demanded this picture.

it has a roomy trunk!

oh dear, this has gone pear-shaped…

And even more exciting: I finally got my driver’s license! Yes, I am 29 years old. I don’t want to talk about it. Turns out, I love driving! I still beat my grandmother by 11 years (she was 40 when she got hers, and my grandfather owned a car dealership), so I’m doing a-OK.

We’ve also been treated to some really spectacular weather lately, and have been on quite a few hikes. When we first talked about moving out here, hiking was one of the things we were most looking forward to, and it’s been a great way to show Jared around the area.

There are days where I am still surprised by how beautiful it is here in the Pacific Northwest. We’re both really psyched to be here. That being said, we’re leaving for a month! Today, our bedroom looked like this:

We leave tomorrow at the crack of dawn for a mini-tour of the Southwest. Jared has a conference in Colorado, and then a family reunion a few weeks later back in Colorado, so we’re driving out and taking the two weeks in between to hit up Santa Fe, the Grand Canyon (I’ve never been), and a few other fun stops. We’ve been wanting to do a trip like this ever since we got married…as you can imagine we are really excited about it.

So this is my welcome back to blogging, because you know I’m going to take a crapload of pictures and share all of our stops. And you’d better believe there will be some old-timey hijinks.

ROAD TRIP!!!

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A Little Off the Sides

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

When we were still in Seattle preparing for this trip, Jared needed a haircut. Rather than searching for a new barber (and Seattle has many excellent ones), I convinced him to let me try cutting his hair. My reasoning was that we didn’t know what we’d be able to find while abroad, it would save money and I would do my best to give him exactly the cut he wanted. Back in New York, it seemed like barbers were always cutting his hair way too short and with his light skin and hair, it’s a pretty severe look. We were so wary that he got a cut weeks before our wedding to give it time to grow out for pictures. By the time he figured out exactly what to ask for to avoid getting totally sheared, we moved out of the city. So for practicality and budget, I took over as barber. I wear many hats these days.

The first haircut wasn’t bad, but we agree that I’m getting better. I’ve cut Jared’s hair 3 times now and each time my technique is improving and I’m having more fun (and am less afraid that I’ll ruin Jared’s hair). We went for fancy tea and cakes again yesterday and I gave him a trim beforehand. When his hair grows long on the sides it starts to look a little “mushroom-y” (our term) so we thought we’d spiff up a bit (which is also why I am wearing a dress in the picture below).

before...don't worry, he's wearing pants.

during

he jokingly asked what magazines I offered, so I gave him this

the result!

Tea and cake was great, again, and we specifically went on a night that they had a piano player (M, W, F) and we were not sorry. The guy was really talented and super nice – eventually we were the only ones there so he came by and asked what we wanted to hear.

We were kind of pumped from being out so after dinner we went back out for some drinks. We’ve been giving this Irish bar a few blocks down another shot and are liking it more and more for nights when we want a little more liveliness. The bartenders are really sweet and the main guy immediately gives us a rundown of the cider inventory as soon as we walk in, since that’s what we always order. One of them just got a job working for Royal Caribbean and the other is obsessed with Chicago so we’ve given them our card in case they ever need contacts.  When we told them how long we were here, they looked at us like we were crazy – ha!  Maybe we are…

From East to West

Posted by whitneyandjared in Travel, Whitney and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Well, we made it!  Sorry it’s taken so long to get this posted – the prep to leave for Croatia has consumed all of our time.

We left New York on September 17th, thanks to the sexiest moving crew East of the Mississippi:

HOTNESS(not pictured, Jared’s brother and brother-in-law)

It was really sad for me to leave the apartment I’ve called home for so many years:

:(

but we set out and made it all the way to Ohio the first night.  After a super cla$$y stay at a Motel 6 we set out for Greencastle, Indiana to visit Jared’s college.  Oh yeah, and it was our first anniversary!

at our hotel, which was generously paid for by my parents

We spent it touring Jared’s frat house (it’s called ROMANCE, people!):

…and drinking ridiculously cheap beverages – thanks Indiana!

We continued the next day  on the Jared Howe Memorial Tour by checking out Jared’s childhood home in Rock Island, Illinois:

We spent a lovely evening with our friends Greg and Dani and headed out for a long 16-hour drive to Boulder, Colorado.  We did find time to make a quick stop at Jared’s childhood horse camp in Iowa:

(Jared found a truck that summed up his life philosophy)

There aren’t many good things to say about the rest of this grueling day other than to show you the gorgeous sunset that we enjoyed as we drove across NEVERENDING NEBRASKA:

note the bug smudges on the windshield – more on that later

We gave ourselves a day off in Boulder with Jared’s cousin Avi and his wife Puni.  Let me tell you, after that long drive staying with Puni and Avi was like a glorious oasis.  It kept comparing it to arriving at a rest stop on the Oregon Trail.  We left with our bodies and minds refreshed!

Unfortunately, we had another 17-hour day ahead of us to get to Missoula, Montana (whamp whamp).  This was a much better drive though, as it took us through beautiful Wyoming:

another bug-riddled sunset

We made it safely to another welcome oasis in Missoula, where we spent another day off from driving.  We stayed with Jared’s college friend Jason and his lovely family:

After several days of sitting in the truck we were dying for some fresh air and exercise.  Jason took us on a bike ride up to a nearby trailhead and on the way two small bears ran across the road in front of us!  BEARS!  Luckily they were a safe distance away.

we stopped to dip our feet in a stream

We went out that evening to a local brewery (where they had delicious gluten-free beer for Jared!) and were able to meet up with my friend Kate who also happens to live in Missoula:

Kate makes me look like a midget.

The next day we set off for the final leg of our trip – a meager 8 hours in comparison to the previous two legs.  Jared made sure I snapped a picture as we crossed the state line into Washington:

After 7 days and 3,400 miles, we made it!  Our stuff is all safely stored and we’re getting ready to head out for the next phase.  What really sticks with us from the cross-country trip is the time spent with good friends and family – our visits turned what could have been a really tiresome trip into a series of very special memories.  What also stuck with us were millions of bugs (RIP)!

We leave on Monday and will update as soon as we get settled into Dubrovnik.  Until then!