We've Settled in Blaine, Washington; For Now

To even begin this post, seems overwhelming to me. I don't even know where to begin without making this a novel, and inevitably, never hitting publish. I'll try to summarize as best I can the actual moving week, and hurry along to the more exciting part of it--where we've settled.

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On February 19th, we hit the road for a long drive with a fully packed Penske truck at roughly 8:30 in the morning.  We drove through 4 hours of the hardest wind I've even driven through, and then it was flat and stark Nebraska horizons until we hit Denver, for a late dinner with my grandmother who lives there. We were able to stop and visit with her for a couple hours before going onward to Laramie, WY, where we'd hunker down and fall asleep, exhausted, within minutes of checking into our hotel. 

Driving; morning, noon and night with only stops for bathroom breaks, and gas-refills, with one long hour stop allotment for dinner, until we arrived in Bellingham, Washington, late on Wednesday night. The kids did very well. I was grateful and quite surprised by how well they did. They had fun 'traveling bags' and little gifts from friends, along with the novelty of driving in the moving truck after trading shifts every few hours.  Thursday we spent looking at rentals all over the area, and by the afternoon, we'd nailed down a place. We needed to move in the next day, and give the truck back (empty) before Saturday noon-time. [Insert scream and stress-eating noises here.]

Needless to say, I don't remember much about that week, it seems like a lifetime ago (it was only 2 weeks ago!) but it was the most exhausting week my husband and I have ever had--minus the birth of our first child when we had no idea what we're doing, and I wasn't getting any sleep--period. 

We have found a rental in Blaine, Washington, that is 6 blocks away from the beach, and seven (because of the length of the road) blocks from the border crossing where Stefan has to go everyday to get to work in Richmond, British Columbia. Our backyard, funny enough, is 0 Ave. I can literally throw a stone into Canada from my backyard. Thankfully, he'll get his nexus pass in the mail by the end of the week, so no more border waits for him, but the traffic and commute have thus far been long and agonizing. 

The view, however, has been spectacular. The Pacific Northwest is known for its days, weeks, months of rain (drizzle, pour, mist, etc.) and that is basically how winter up here is. It doesn't snow, or get too cold, it just rains nonstop. We've been pretty lucky for the 10 or so days we've lived in Blaine, we've had 2 beautiful, crisp, sunny days. This means we're outside enjoying it as much as possible. 

The two 'blue' pictures are from a Sunday morning excursion with the kids on their scooter (Lukka) and trike (Ani), from our house down to the main street where there are 2 nice lookout or viewing areas. On a clear day (update: yesterday AND today!) you can see the boats (above) in the marina, the ocean, White Rock, in Canada, across the bay, and mountains in all directions. It's gorgeous. It's the kind of view I dreamed of having since my first international travel experience as a mid-teen. I get to live this life!

Stefan and I, pre-marriage, had talked about eventually moving back to where he was from, in British Columbia, because we both love the culture, the geography, and the climate. We were and are sad to leave our immediate family back in Nebraska, but this has always been in the back of our mind, and we consistently pursued this goal for years on end. When we go married we joked, "5-7 years, and then we'll move back", but we didn't actually think it would take that long. People, we are on the tail end of 7! It was right on time.