We're moving...

Yep. That’s right. Aaron and I are moving to the big ‘ole ATL. Let me be the 1st to say, that this is definitely not what I had envisioned happening at this time in my life. I had no plans, aspirations, or thoughts of packing up my wonderful home in Nashville and leaving my friends, family, and work after just a short year and a half. But it looks like God had other plans for us. Aaron has been offered a wonderful, way-too-good-to-turn-down offer at Georgia Tech to continue his education. The plan is to work on his Masters and then continue on to his Doctorate. (but we’ve seen how our plans work out…) I am so extremely proud of him and this wonderful opportunity. We are getting excited about the changes that are to come and nervous as well. Currently, I am networking and job searching the best I can to find a good place to work. So if anyone has any accounting connections in Atlanta, feel free to pass them along. :) Our move date is tentatively set for August 8th. Aaron begins orientation on August 11th. FDH (my current accounting firm) has been so wonderful and understanding with the announcement of my leave. They have been more helpful than I could have ever imagined. They have passed along my resume, given me contacts, and even proofed my resume. I couldn’t have asked for a better firm to work for over the past year and a half and I am truly going to miss it. As much as we are truly going to miss Nashville with everyone and everything it has to offer, we are also excited about what’s to come. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this new journey. (especially for me to find a new job quickly!)

Seaside Seattle

Aaron and I arrived in Seattle, bright and early on Memorial Day. We flew United Airlines and were upgraded, free of charge, to the economy plus section… not that I really needed the extra leg room, but I’ll take it! We had originally planned to meet up with my cousin, Laura, and her husband and son in Seattle, however they were unable to come. So Aaron and I arrived with all of our luggage with no hotel to check in to until 2:00, so we came up with a plan. Rent a car. Drive to Mount Rainer. And that’s what we did. Neither one of us had ever rented a car, so it was a fun experience. Aaron was extra cautious with the rental as we drove through the beautiful backside of Washington towards the mount. After a while of driving up and around hills and curves we pulled over to a side parking area. Even though there was tons of snow all around, we hopped out without any jackets into the best weather we had experienced thus far on the trip. It was absolutely breathtaking outside. The air was crisp, skies were clear, the snow glistened, and the sun shone brightly.

After visiting beautiful Mount Rainer, we headed back towards the city. All I have to say is, I’m glad I wasn’t driving. The roads in Seattle are weird. Not only are there tons of one-way streets, which I hate a lot, there are also a lot of streets that connect on angles. Weird. It took us a while to get to the hotel and then over to the satellite rental car drop off site. By the time we had accomplished all of that, we were starving. We headed out through the side streets of the city towards the needle, but were distracted by a delicious smelling pizza place. Zeeks pizza. Yum. We got to sit at a table right by the window and watch all the crazies walk by. People wear the craziest things over there. And everyone is “tatted up” – as Aaron would say. We even saw one guy drop kick the cross walk button. Haha. We were just cracking up as we again enjoyed just sitting back and people watching. After lunch, we headed over to the Seattle center to see what it’s all about. It was a happening place. There were tons of people, everywhere. Apparently there was some sort of folk festival going on. Inside the main building there was a music/dancing group on the big stage teaching the crowds some dances. I tried to get Aaron to go in and dance with me, but he was having none of it! We then decided it was time to see the city in all its’ glory from atop the needle. At first I was slightly afraid of riding to the top of the needle but as Aaron said, it was just like riding an elevator in a tall building. The sights from the top were INCREDIBLE. I absolutely loved looking from all the different sides. There were so many different things to see from the top. I absolutely loved it. We stayed up there for quite a long time. We hung out outside taking pictures and looking around, then went inside and sat at an overlooking table while having a snack. I really wanted to stay for the whole night, but we were beginning to get hungry for some dinner and also beginning to get tried from the incredibly long day we had. So we hopped on the tram and headed into the heart of the city to find some yummy food. We ended up wandering around for quite some time, as many of the restaurants were closed for Memorial Day. We eventually stumbled across a really nice guy that recommended a delicious restaurant right by the fish market. That night I had the most delicious halibut ever. It was my 1st time to try halibut, but the guy highly recommended it since it was in season. I ended up ordering halibut about 3 more times on our trip. It was delicious every time, but nothing compared to that 1st place.

The next day Aaron and I wandered back through the Seattle Center to see more sights before heading down to the Pike Place’s market. It was a really neat place, filled with unique smells, people, and sights. We even got to see the guys throwing fish around. Later we took a water taxi over to West Seattle. I loved riding on the taxi and looking at the beautiful city skyline. We loved Seattle!

Seattle Album

San Fran Part 2

Alright.. here we go again. I am dedicated to finishing my postings about our trip before the end of June! Goodness.. I am slow.

On our 2^nd day in San Fran, we had a detailed list of all the places we wanted to see with Google Map (public transit option) directions to each place. We were determined to see all that we wanted to see without walking the extensive amount that we had the day before.

1st stop: The painted ladies… or at least that’s where we were supposed to stop. The night before I had googled the painted ladies and got an address. I was dumb and didn’t double check it. We ended up in hippyville… there were tons of weird shops and people. It was definitely more of a residential area than the other places we had been.. so it was strange getting on the bus, holding a map, shoulder-sashed camera, and looking completely lost. After lots of wondering around, asking peeps for directions, and catching a bus – we finally made it to Alamo square. After passing multiple people out walking their dogs and one random guy stretching on a brick wall, we finally saw the painted ladies. They are really awesome. I really liked the cityscape in the background.

2^nd stop: Union Square. We didn’t do anything real exciting in Union Square. Just saw some of the sights. We sat on a bench for awhile and listened to some live Indian music while we watched people. That’s one of our favorite hobbies. We saw a gigantic Macy’s and a fun heart statue while we were there. And of course we watched the trolley for a little while.

3^rd stop: Ghiradelli Square. Via China town. We didn’t get out and wander through China town, but we did get to see a few of the sights through the bus windows. Enough for me. Once we arrived at Ghiradelli Square we headed straight in for the World Famous Hot Fudge Sundae, despite the fact that we hadn’t had lunch yet. It was delicious. I wanted another one! Aaron was going to get some of their coffee and me some hot chocolate.. but the line had grown long out the door so we decided it was best to move on.

Next we wandered down the street to the cable car turnaround. We hung out there for a while watching the cable cars, the interesting people, and snacking on a hot dog from a street vendor. After that little rest, we began the hike up Hyde street towards Lomard Street. Oh. My. Goodness. It was a very long and very steep hill. But it was worth it. We arrived at the top of the crooked part of Lombard street and enjoyed the sights as we caught our breath. After awhile we headed down the steep stairs to the bottom.

After Lombard street, I consulted my handy dandy San Fran map and we headed towards Coit Tower. Once we realized the ridiculous hill we would need to climb to get there, we then consulted the map to find the bus route that would take us there. Coit Tower was pretty neat.. we wandered around inside and saw the paintings then captured some pictures of the city from a little lookout area.

After Coit Tower we hopped on a bus, completely exhausted, and headed back to our hotel for a little afternoon nap. After our nap and refreshing a little, Aaron and I headed out for our nice dinner date at Sinbads, a steak and seafood restaurant right on the bay. Our window overlooked the bay and the Oakland Bay bridge. We had steak and lobster. Delicious. After eating dinner, we waited until the lights on the bridge came on before heading out to take a few pictures. Then we headed on back to our hotel to pack up and call it an early night. We had to wake at 3:30 in order to grab our 4:05 shuttle for our 6:20 flight to Seattle.

Fun on I-40

1 hour 58 minutes. That's how long it took for me to get home from work last night. I was working at a client in Hermitage... a little further than I usually go.. but not much further and I would be traveling home against traffic. As soon as I hopped onto the interstate I got confused. Confused as to why there was so much traffic heading into the city at 5pm.. hmmmm. Then is started raining. really hard. After about an hour I had moved about 3 miles... and that's when we hit a stand still. No one was moving. I saw no brake lights, everyone had put their car in park. I dozed off for a little while, waking to see some guys on the side of the road playing football, a lady walking her dog, and a family taking a little stroll. All on the interstate. After about 35 minutes of sitting still.. we finally started moving again. It was a long night. (The hold up was due to a tractor trailer hauling cargo not clearing an overpass) I hope it doesn't take as long to get home tonight.. the cargo has yet to be cleared.

San Francisco Part 1

As I previously mentioned… Aaron and I recently headed out to the Pacific Northwest for a little anniversary get-away, vacation, and to go to a friend’s wedding. We had such a wonderful time. There are way too many memories to put them all onto this blog… but I definitely tried to capture some quirky moments on camera. There were so many interesting people and sights over there.

Our 1^st stop on the trip was San Francisco. We arrived very late on a Friday night after traveling for almost 8 hours. From the airport we experienced our 1^st ride on a Super Shuttle van… oh my. Those people don’t even slow down for speed bumps! The next day we were woken by some crazy protesters across the street yelling “Don’t check in” “Check out” in front of another hotel… I was just hoping they would be done when we returned later that evening. We headed down to the Ferry Building to experience the Saturday Farmer’s Market. There were so many different foods there. Fruit, fish, bread, cheese, etc… it all looked delicious. Aaron and I settled on a little meat shop for some breakfast sandwiches while looking out at the bay. Such a good start to a good day. After breakfast, we explored more of the farmer’s market before heading towards Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39. Instead of attempting to figure out the SF bus lines we decided to just walk so we could see the sights on the way. There were runners everywhere! It seemed like the closer we got, the colder I got. By the end I had on mine and Aaron’s jacket.. then I went in and purchased a SF fleece souvenir, since I assumed Aaron would be wanting his back soon. Fisherman’s Wharf was really cool and we really liked checking out all the sights.. but our favorite part was watching all the sea lions. They were hilarious. Some looked like the were drugged out on meds, laying perfectly still and soaking up the sunshine, while others where hopping in and out of the water, all while making lots of noises.

After FW, we began our 1^st attempt at the SF public transportation to get to the golden gate bridge. It was not easy. I didn’t realize how far the gg bridge was! When trying to switch from 1 bus to another we couldn’t find the bus stop we needed, so we ended up walking quite a distance. What was supposed to be a 45 min bus ride ended up being about 10 mins, since we had already walked a good portion of it! But we got to see some fun sights of the town… So we finally made it to the golden gate bridge! Whoo hoo! The icon of San Francisco. It was a beauty. It was a pretty foggy and cloudy day, but we enjoyed it anyways. We walked all along the paths near the bridge, through a tunnel, and some pretty wooded areas, and down to the rocks below. Such beautiful sights. After all that walking we decided to walk some more… We are crazy. That’s when we began our journey across the bridge. My feet were aching… later we learned that the bridge is 1.7 miles. No wonder… It was a very long and very cold bridge.. but we enjoyed getting to experience it. However… I refused to walk back. I didn’t care what we had to do.. call a cab, hitch a ride with strangers, pay for the SF tour bus… didn’t care. I was not walking back. And that began our journey to Sausalito.

On the other side of the bridge was a “vistor’s center” I guess you could call it. And the only people there were visitors so they had no clue where anything was. Go figure. We ended up finding the trash man, and he directed us to a bus stop right up the road.. right off the interstate. The most random bus stop sign in all of SF. And that’s where we waited for 45 mins in the cold SF breeze with 4 chinese ladies. I’ve never been so relieved to see a bus pull up! After a little bus ride, we ended up in Sausalito where my motto was “The sun shines in Sausalito” . It was a beautiful town nestled in the hills with fun little shops and restaurants lining the street across from the water. Aaron and I decided on a little “Fish & Chips” restaurant for a very late lunch then we boarded a ferry back to the city...to take a nap.

More to come…

San Fran Album