We are semi-retired and have lived in Ecuador for the past year. This past summer, we flew back to Florida for our daughter's college graduation. We brought two weeks worth of clothing with us. This was in early May 2015. It's currently late September (Oh, how I want to channel some Rod Stewart right now!) and we still haven't gone back to our clothing. It's been a challenge!
When our daughter decided to take a job in Prescott, Arizona, we decided to buy a Ford Ranger and move her little bit of belongings there. Then, we would drive back to Ecuador.
Once we got to Prescott, we found there was no decent housing to be had, so she quit that job before her first day and decided to try her luck in the place she has wanted to live for a long time. Why not? She just graduated college and has to find a job and a place to live. We agreed that she should do those things in a place she wants to be.
So, we loaded up the truck and we moved to (still another old song, but I digress!) Tacoma, Washington! It was an awesome trip all the way. Bruce and I have decided we'll be doing it again when we don't have a truck full of stuff and Grandkitty in the carrier so we can stop and enjoy a lot of the things we wanted to stop and enjoy this time.
We spent a little over a month getting our daughter settled. Monthy hotel rooms weren't cheap in this area, just like they aren't in most places, but she found a job rather easily. In fact, she went on a few interviews and got placed in a temporary job. The placement agency didn't expect it to be a permanent job, but the employers have offered it to her permanent, and she has accepted. The shortest serious job search I believe I've ever seen! And, she found an apartment and has moved in. We're currently sleeping on a blow-up mattress in her apartment waiting for new credit cards and such to reach us, and then we'll move on. In the meantime, we have explored the Tacoma/Mt. Rainier area quite extensively.
This is a picture of flowers beside the White River. It gets its color from the white, chalky "glacial flour" that flows from the Emmons Glacier. This apparently clears up in the winter when the glacier stops melting. The Emmons Glacier on Mt. Rainier is the largest glacier in the continental US and the first glacier I've ever seen. It was awesome!
We drove up to Sunrise to get as close to Emmons Glacier as we could. This is a picture of us at Sunrise Point with the glacier behind us.
Once we got up to the Sunrise Recreational Area, we took a hike. Neither of us is in terribly good physical shape for hiking, but with many stops and rests and taking much longer than it should have, we managed to get to Shadow Lake. We were rewarded by being able to watch the chipmunks run around and drink from the lake. Those little critters hate sitting still for even a second. This was the only decent picture I could get. I had lots of blurry shots of chipmunks or clear shots of where a chipmunk HAD been! People we met said there were bear and bighorn sheep on up the trail, but our knees and hips just wouldn't make the rest of the it.
We're hoping to be on the road heading south next week. Hope to see you traveling along with us.
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