Jared and I started our married life together up in Seattle during the summer of 2012. After a glorious ten months in the Pacific Northwest, it was time to move to the Texas desert for J's pilot training in Del Rio. Naturally, we decided to take two weeks of leave to make the move into a west coast road trip. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
Now, we are living in Florida two years later and I still look at these photos time to time and think about the awesome variety of experiences in America. I don't know if we will ever get stationed out of the country, but I do know that there are plenty of adventures to be had here at home.
A couple of days before we hit the road, we met up with some of our friends at the Bastille back bar. It was really hard for me to leave knowing that we would be living so far away from many of our favorite people. We had a brilliant, talented, caring community of friends surrounding us during our first year of marriage and I knew there would be a void in my life for quite some time as I prepared to move to a city where I knew no one. (Spoiler alert: I ended up meeting many incredibly awesome people in Del Rio, but the Seattle crew still holds a huge part of my heart.)
We made one last trip to Gasworks Park to take night shots of the city skyline.
A few days before heading out, we decided to head to a place that we had not yet explored, Lake Chelan. We stayed at The Lakeview Hotel and it was delightful. Anytime there is a fireplace in my hotel room, I am automatically loving it.
Once we left Seattle, we drove until we hit the upper corner of California (with a quick stop for dinner in Portland). We arrived in Crescent City late that night and got up early to explore the beaches.
As we made our way down HWY 101, we found ourselves in the redwood forests. Very few things will make you feel as small as a towering forest of redwoods.
After a long day of driving, taking breaks to hike, attempting to drive through a redwood tree (the truck was just too big), and jamming out to Macklemore, we made it to San Francisco! We were lucky enough to stay with our dear friend Kate Gilbert in her beautiful home. We also got to see Bob & Natalie Clark! It was Jared's first time in SF, so it was fun to show him around. We spent the whole day walking and admiring the sights.
Stay posted for PT 2!