Night Seattle Skyline

Tonight I took Sarah to a musical called "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". Matt, one of the guys I work with at the bike shop, in his other life is a musician and conductor and was conducting the orchestra for this musical. It was an awesome show, great acting and really funny...Sarah and I really enjoyed it. Well after the show and on the way back we found a spot with a really nice view of the Seattle Skyline and we decided to stop and take some pictures. Here they are:

Sunny Seattle :)

This past Monday, out of nowhere, the sun decided to come out...so I decided that I wasn't going to be inside :) I ended up going to Gas Works Park which has a nice view of the city skyline and there happened to be a couple float planes taking off. If you have ever seen '10 Things I Hate About You' then you know of Gas Works Park...it is where they are throwing paint filled balloons at each other in the movie. Well here are some sweet pictures below, check them out.

Since in was sunny outside after I left the park I decided to go to my favorite road to drive on because of the view when you get to the top of the hill.

Moving to Seattle

As the title says...I am MOVING to Seattle! Not visiting, not flying through but actually living there and working there till October...at least. It's kind of crazy how it all happened and awesome to see God's hand in it. So, I'll try to keep the story short but there are no guarantees that it will be.

It all started after I got back from Seattle after my spring break. After I found out that the Air Force was delaying my EAD till at least October 1st, I had to start looking for jobs. Started looking in North Carolina where my parents live but then someone suggested that I look in Seattle. I didn't really take them seriously at first but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the sound of it. The big issue about the whole Seattle thing was finding a job and a place to live (Seattle is kind of expensive). If I worked in North Carolina I could live with my parents for free and work. I'd make more money in Seattle but have to spend more so was this just a pipe dream or something more. Ever since I started thinking about this idea I started praying to God that he would show me what He wanted me to do this summer. I didn't want to just do my own thing and not be in His will so I trusted in Him that He would show me where to go. I started applying for jobs in both Seattle and Fayetteville mostly bike shops, but Starbucks, Best Buy and others as well.

So this is where the crazy part starts. 6 hours after I fax my resume and application in to this bike shop in Seattle I get a call from them, my first phone interview. They really liked me and told me their service manager would be calling me within the next couple of days to interview me on my technical bike repair skills. I go a week without hearing from them and I start to worry. All this while I am not hearing anything from any other jobs in both places. I call my first interviewer for this bike shop up and ask if they are still interested in me and if the manager was going to call me. She says they are still really interested in me but the manager has just been really busy. This same week I started looking for place to rent in Seattle just in case I got a job there. Sarah pointed me to the message board on her church's website. I put a post there saying I am looking for a room to rent and hope that I get a response. I began praying that if it was God's will for me to move to Seattle that I could find a place around $300 a month because that is all I could afford. Near the end of the week I get another call from the bike shop...this one is the big one! Short little interview about my skills and then they tell me they want me to come out, build a bike for them (easy) and I have the job! Only 30 minutes later I decide to sign on to the message board where I posted about renting a room. I had just gotten a response saying the person had a room available...for...you guessed it...$300 a month!!! If that is not God opening a door for me and saying this is where you should go then I don't know what is. I find out that I have a job and a place to stay all within an hour of each other plus the exact amount for rent that I had been praying for...WOW!

I'm just excited now to see what God has for me in Seattle. I move out there the third week of May...it should take me about 4-5 days for driving, just depends on how many hours I drive a day. If Sarah had her way I'd be taking 6-7 days to get out there (she is just looking out for me) but I just want to go ahead and get out there and get the drive over with. So yea, call me to keep me awake, it will be greatly appreciated :)

Seattle and Canada Trip

I have to say, this was a pretty awesome last spring break! I had so much fun with Sarah, her family, and Jessica...I don't even know where to start :)

Ok, so the first two days I was there I went to work with Sarah as a "volunteer" :) One of her jobs is the volunteer coordinator so I made her do some work...she retaliated by making me do work, so nice of her ;) The organization had just moved to a new building and their copy room was a mess so I used my amazing organizing skills to clean it up and wow what a difference when I was done. The people in her office were so nice, I hope I have co-workers like them when I start working.

We left Friday, bright and early, for Canada!

The boarder wasn't bad at all, it took us like 5 minutes to make it through. On the Canada side...it looked just like the US. The houses were the same, the cars were the same, the view was the same...we were basically still in the US besides the funny accents and the km/hr. Well, we made it to the ferry 30 minutes later but barely missed it so we had to wait around for the next one. 

Here is all of us on the ferry.

Jessica, Sarah, Me

We finally made it to the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at around 1pm...and wow, this place was awesome. When I booked it, the lady who owns it hooked us up with an awesome deal and put us in the best room there...the Olympic Grand Suite! This place was so awesome, the pictures below will show you why.

                

                                                    

I wish we could of stayed more than one night but it just would have been too expensive. After checking in to this place we went to this castle we found. This place was awesome! This nice little old lady gave us a tour of the first floor and sent us on our way. Sarah even set off the alarm when she stepped over the barricade to try to take a picture. I was hoping the mounties would show up but it was just this other old lady who gave us a dirty look the rest of the time we were there. Below are some pictures of this place.

After the castle we went to go watch the sunset on Mt Tolmie near the Univ. of Victoria. It is supposed to be the best view of the city and the surrounding mountains...it was amazing!

After the sun set went went back to the B&B and ate the baguette of bread, brie and mozzarella cheese, and grapes that we bought at the grocery store. We had a fire place so I had to get the fire going then we all relaxed and put in The Goonies! I missed like half the movie because I kept falling asleep. The next morning was the best part of the B&B! I had my devo's outside as the sun was coming up which was beautiful. Before breakfast we decided to make some Earl Grey tea which was awesome. Even more awesome is the fact that after I took a shower I found a robe in the closet...this all combined into an awesome picture!

We then went down to breakfast...a 4 course breakfast! It was amazing. It started off with some tea, then homemade granola, plain yogurt and an assortment of fruit, then came the lemon scones with homemade raspberry jam, and last but not least...eggs benedict but instead of ham there was smoked salmon and a slice of tomato! The rest of the day involved touring this amazing garden for a couple of hours, geocaching and walking around downtown Victoria. It was very sad when we left this place, we had such a good time! 

The next day after we got back, Sarah and I just relaxed because we were both worn out from Canada. We made apple cinnamon pecan pancakes which were super delicious then watch Newsies, an awesome movie by the way, then made the best cookie bars ever! They are called Nanaimo bars and are probably one of the best deserts I have ever had. Her mom made this awesome soup for dinner and we watched Mamma Mia. Snap, two musicals in one day :) 

My last day there, Sarah had to get here car emissions test done and get new tabs, then we walked around a park, went to lunch with her parents, geocached, went to my favorite place to eat in Seattle called Assimba which is this amazing Ethiopian restaurant, then went bowling. Now bowling, this is a crazy story. It was Sarah, Jessica, and me. Let me preface this with my average the last time I bowled, 106. With that said, I did much better this time ;) I started the game off with a turkey in the first 3 frames. by the end of the game I had two open frames with 9s and the rest strikes and spares. I ended up with a 199, my second highest score ever! 

This trip was incredible! It was in an amazing place, with amazing people! For my last spring break ever...I totally went out with a bang!