So the next day we left for Seattle. Our plan was to take our time getting up the Oregon coast since its supposed to be beautiful. Northern Cali and the wine country was amazing, but the further north we got, the worse the weather became. Once we hit the last town in Northern Cali it began pouring down rain and it wasn't letting up. We drove on through Oregon, and could barely make out the awesome view of the coast. We had to find a campsite though, and we did, luckly right when the rain stopped. However...it started raining again, so we got into our tent early. But that rain turned into a huge storm that shook our tent the entire night. It was pretty scary, especially since there was a sign in the bathroom warning campers of the dangers of earthquakes in the area, followed by tsunamis. It had instructions to wait until the earthquake was over, then make your way to the highest peak of land by foot since tsunami waves would be coming in minutes after the earthquake! Scary!
So no earthquakes, but we did wake up with all of our camping gear soaked to the core. We decided to just drive straight to Seattle since the weather was so bad. But we didn't make it very far before we got a rear flat tire (in the rain of course). Ryan put on the spare, but we found out in the next town that it was unrepariable, and since our tires were so old we had to end up getting two new rear tires. Not a huge deal, we were just ready to be in our destination. So about 10 hours of delirious driving later, we made it and were welcomed into the city by our lovely friends Kate and Ellen and some more delicious Sushi! Haha...and woke up the next morning to a front flat tire! Haven't gotten that fixed yet. Argh....
Our first day here Ryan and I and the dogs all went for a bike ride all over the city (the dogs were in the trailer behind Ryans bike and did great!). We hit most of the main pockets, loving how condensed this city is. Its so different from Atlanta or LA. The different parts of town are between 2 and 3 miles apart from eachother, and its INCREDIBLY beautiful here. It really is the most beautiful city I have seen on this trip! The next day we got to spend with our friends Sarah and Jared who gave us an awesome tour of the city to see places we didn't know of and they even took us on a ferry ride. It was the clearest day and you could see the Cascade mountains, Olympic mountains, Mt. Baker, and the gigantic, epic Mt. Rainier. It was all so incredibly breathtaking. Aside from the notrorious rainy weather, I can't imagine a more beautiful city with the huge moutains, water, and vibrantly green foliage everywhere.
I will end this blog post with a pretty cool story from our first day, which I want to remember and share with everyone, because who knows what it means. So we were in the Capital Hill area, and rode past what looked like a beautiful park. We decided to turn around and let the dogs go run around. While we were standing there in the green, green grass amongst the tall evergreens and flowers, two classic blue and red swallows began to fly around us. Their flying was so beautiful neither of us could take our eyes off of them. This continued for about five minutes straight. They just kept circling us, just us, round and round, and it felt like a fairy tale. It really was a very surreal experience. We began to wonder if this was a sign for something, as swallows have a traditional meaning of completing your journey. So when they flew away, we walked over to our bikes and sat down on the benches. Right at our feet was something we had not seen. It was a compass designed into the concrete. It was beautiful and decorative, with some writing on a plaque in the middle. The first sentence of the plaque said that we were in the approximate center of the city of Seattle, listed the latitude and longitude as well as the direction of all the beautiful landmarks around the city (Mt. Rainer, Cascade mtns., etc.)
So here's the kicker: This entire trip is about us trying to find the place we want to live. We are open to whatever God and the universe has in store for us. So when we were in California, Ryan got a tatto he's been wanting to get for a long time. Its a blue and red swallow that is carrying a rope in its mouth, and the rope is attatched to a compass. On the compass it says "get lost," in memory of something meaningful that Becky gave Ryan at a trivial point in his life. So what in the world does this mean??????? We have no idea, but we thought it was really cool, and pretty ironic that we happened to end up in the very center of the city of Seattle and were gretted with swallows. That may have been a sign for us to live here. I am not sure. But nonetheless, its a cool story. And maybe it just mean that we are where we are supposed to be today, at this point. But I want to remember that forever. Until next time, I hope everyone reading this will go "Get Lost."
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