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 :)