In a Northerly Direction…
To us, home means many things. We both have many places we call home: Eugene, OR, Johnston,
RI, Danvers, MA, and Portland, OR – where Dan lived since 2006 and Katharine
since 2007.
Even though we called Portland home, it never felt like the
place we wanted to settle and start a family. This past summer we set out to
find that place. We traveled to Boston; we talked about our past trips to the
Bay Area; we even considered Michigan and North Carolina. Ultimately, our
conversations always came back to one place – Seattle, WA.
Seattle has always felt comfortable to us. Whenever we would
visit, we wouldn’t want to leave. With that in my mind, we decided in August of
last year to pack up our lives and cats, and make a permanent trip to Seattle.
Since arriving in October, we’ve found a cozy daylight
basement apartment with plenty of windows for the kitties. Our new home is north
of downtown across Lake Union in the Wallingford neighborhood – right near Green
Lake (which just happens to be our favorite running spot). We have basically
everything we need within walking distance and we are especially excited about
the yard that is big enough for a real garden. We’ve broken ground, our starts
are going strong, and with the weather getting warmer, we’ll begin growing our
own food very, very soon.
Trading Salem for Olympia…
Katharine could bore you with all the nitty-gritty details
about talking to legislators, and how much more dysfunctional Washington is
than Oregon. But instead she would like to share some facts about our new home.
More details on feeding hungry people to come!
Washington State
Facts:
·
Total
Area: 71,300 square miles (18th largest)
·
Population:
6,898,012 (13th highest)
·
Highest
Point: Mount Rainer (14,411 ft)
·
State
bird: Willow Goldfinch (Cardeulis tristis)
·
State
Fruit: apple
·
State
Vegetable: Walla Walla sweet onion
·
State Gem:
petrified wood
From the classroom to the
classroom…
After eight plus years working in politics, Dan has decided
to change careers and work towards becoming a Social Studies teacher. This goal
isn’t far off from his original undergraduate major - Music Education. Though
his college education and subsequent career took him in another direction –
politics – he never lost the urge to teach.
Dan is currently enrolled at North Seattle Community College,
fulfilling a few prerequisites in order to apply to the University of
Washington’s Masters in Teaching program. We should know by the end of this
year if he will be accepted to start the one-year program in the Spring of
2014.
When he’s not in class, Dan has taken a part-time job at a
company called Rack N Road where he helps people pick out and then installs
rack systems on cars so people can carry bikes, snowboards, skis, etc. to the
many awesome outdoors activities the Seattle area has to offer.
Finally, when he’s not working or learning, he stares
longingly at the Cascade and Olympic mountains hatching plans to hike and climb
all over them.
A thousand words…
Visiting Peace Arch State Park on the Washington-British Columbia
(US-Canada) border during our recent trip to Birch Bay, Washington – March 23,
2013
