Beautiful New Home!

Wow! I can honestly say I am blessed to be able to call Washington state my new home. Everything is so green and lush, and we moved up here right at the last bit of the dry season, so it's been around 80º and sunny for the most part! I live in a big house with 8 other roommates off a small country road about 7 miles from the city of Monroe.

Here's my house!

We're completely surrounded by forest, except next to us where there's a beautiful pasture! All of my roommates are really cool, two of them are from Canada! We've all gotten really close and enjoy hanging out in the kitchen together and just talking about our days and lives before we all met. 

The pasture west of my house

Our driveway!

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Last weekend, a few of my new friends and Stephanie and I took a small backpacking trip out to a beautiful place in the Cascade Mountains called Eagle Lake. I heard there was a cabin there but I wasn't really sure what to expect. When we walked up to the site, I couldn't believe my eyes.

A somewhat shaky picture of our hike, mostly through mud!

Eagle Lake!! I still can't believe it.

The cabin was almost just as cool as the lake itself. It was built in the 1930s by miners, and has been maintained ever since by "the good will of hikers." It was so cool to be in this  small building that was so old, and sharing with all the people who have stayed there in the past. People leave food in the pantry for future hikers to enjoy (canned and sealed of course), and there were even notebooks filled with people's experiences at the cabin, dating back all the way to when it was first built!!

Here's the cabin, it was honestly sort of spooky (but in a cool way)!

Since it was sort of small (there were two cots and a loft to sleep in) and I was with 9 people, Steph and I decided to pitch our tent in the back. We spent all night singing and talking and looking at the amazing view of the stars we had! It was definitely the right way to ring in a new school year, and it was cool to get closer to some of my classmates!

Our campsite behind the cabin

Early morning chillin' before the hike out

Steph and I in the Cascades

I know some of you were having trouble posting comments on my last post, but I changed the settings so now anyone can post one! I'm eager to hear what y'all think! This journey has had many ups and downs, but I appreciate each and every one of you for the support :)

Travelin' Ain't Easy!!

The journey out here was nothing short of dramatic, but it was equally, if not more, enchanting and amazing. My best friend Stephanie and I began our trip in Austin, with a sad farewell to all of our friends. It was certainly bittersweet to leave the home I've known for 19 years, but I was so excited to leave! 

Our route from Austin to our final destination in Monroe, WA

On our first day, we stopped in San Angelo, TX where my dad lives so I could say goodbye to him and my little brother. He also got to double check our 16' moving truck that we towed my car behind and made sure everything was hooked up properly. After staying the night, our real journey began! 

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From San Angelo we drove about 9 hours to Albuquerque, NM. On the way we stopped in Roswell for some delicious New Mexican food and walked around for a bit. Too bad we didn't see any aliens!

Stephanie at the restaurant we ate at, I had green chile chimichangas!

I have an old family friend going to college in Albuquerque, and we got to stay with a friend of his and hang out for the night! It was a great first night to be out of Texas. Albuquerque sure is a cool city with some cool people living in it!!!

Here's Steph and my good friend Sam in Albuquerque

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Day two was probably the most challenging part of our trip. Our final destination was Salt Lake City, UT. We stopped in Colorado for lunch, and it seemed as soon as we crossed the border into Utah, everything around us changed. It went from green pastures, trees and blue skies to desert and storm clouds. Even the roads changed! After almost running out of gas and having to drive 25 miles off our route to find gas in a teeny tiny little town called Emery (look it up!), we drove into Salt Lake with marble sized hail crashing down on us! It was stressful but exhilarating at the same time. 

Here's a video of most of our drive through Utah.

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Day three was also equally stressful on our way to Pendleton, OR. The entirety of our trip into Oregon went by without a hitch, right until we got into Pendleton. Neither Steph nor I had any experience driving a moving truck or pulling a trailer, so we didn't really know what to do in certain situations. When we pulled into our hotel parking lot, only to see that there was no where we could turn the truck around (we had no idea how to reverse this thing), it seemed like there was absolutely no way to get the truck out of this driveway. After many tears and many failed ideas, we got a guy from roadside assistance to come out and reverse our truck for us. I can't say if I've ever been happier to see a hotel bed.

Crossing from Idaho into Oregon!

Unfortunately at this point we were so focused on getting to our new home that I didn't take many pictures worth posting in Oregon or Washington. I hope y'all enjoyed my first blog post, and be expecting more posts in the very near future! I love you all :)