Housing

We have spent the last few days hovering in the assignment unknown due to housing issues. It's not really an issue to fix, it's an issue to find! lol. Steve landed a great contract in Northern NV. We are so grateful for that and while it's exciting to say the least, it won't be doable til we secure pet friendly safe affordable furnished housing with A/C, cable and internet. There's more but you get the picture. I can be really picky. I left a great home and I'm not living in scary substandard housing while my husband is working nights. Sorry, not doing it. Steve's agency has the greatest staff who work together on all areas of the contract tweaking it to meet all our needs. However, the best housing specialist in the world cannot find housing that just isn't there. So we have been back and forth with the housing specialist doing just that! I'm excited to say that we are very pleased with what they have arranged for us! It was no easy feat to meet all our requirements in a town of 7K. Yeah, this place is small...hope we get good internet and cable tv service or it's gonna be a long hot summer. I don't think there's much of a library there either. I'm just thankful that it all came together and the contract is signed! We are leaving Tacoma on June 9 traveling to Nevada the very same day. I think it's about 10 hours away. It will be a hard drive with the 3 of us, 2 cats with everything we own in a jeep! I'm really looking forward to a new location for the summer, weird food to eat and strange people to meet...fun! Just part of the adventure!

Nevada

Steve has verbally accepted a job in Nevada for the summer. Yes, NEVADA! not New Mexico or Colorado as we hoped. He did get some lowball job offers from NM and CO, but they came in too low for us to even live on. The CO contract was so poor that we would have to pay them for our housing. So... Nevada it is! He hasn't signed any papers yet, so of course anything can happen. His recruiter said we should get the final contract by Tuesday. They are still tweaking it and working out the final numbers for us. So, as long as it all comes together on paper everything should be fine. Please pray that they can help us secure safe affordable air conditioned pet friendly housing available in 2 short weeks. I know it's a lot to ask, but we trust God with all the details.  Even when we don't understand it all, we know it will all work out in the end. .  

Anyway, this hospital is in a small town in the high desert near the Oregon border.  Hopefully the summer will not be such a scorcher at 4500 ft. We were looking forward to an extended road trip but now that's been cancelled. Nevada wants him asap, so we will leave Tacoma June 9, and check in the same day just 10 hours later in Nevada. His start date is June 11.  This saves us a ton, about $2000.00 in travel fees. Last time we were 3 weeks in between contracts and that proved very costly. We really don't have the budget for a big vacation right now. Living in the pacific northwest has been a dream come true...and a expensive one at that, but I wouldn't trade these days for anything. His new assignment should run 13 weeks ending in mid Sept. That will put us back in Texas by Fall...so looking forward to a good long visit with our family and friends!! We miss you all so much!

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

We spent a lovely day on May 21, 2014 traveling to Canada via the Victoria Clipper Ferry.
http://www.clippervacations.com/clipper-ferry/
 We left Tacoma about 5:30 am and arrived in Seattle around 6:30 am to check in and pick up our boarding passes. The Boat sailed about 7:30am, so we had plenty of time to spare. 

 Here is Pier 69 in Seattle...

http://www.portseattle100.org/properties/pier-69

checking in...

time to board!

ready for our clipper ferry ride!

We arrived in Victoria, British Columbia about 10:30am

http://www.victoria.ca/

My sweet hubby enjoying this beautiful day down by the water...

beautiful flags all around the city!

these are some of the harbor tour boats!

The British Parliament Bldg right across the street!

http://www.victoriabc.ca/victoria/parliamentbuildings.htm

What a lovely sight! 

The Empress, known for  their pricey afternoon tea.

http://www.fairmont.com/empress-victoria/

We weren't dressed for the occasion and at $57.50 per person....we decided to pass. 

Update... $59.95 pp

We enjoyed a quiet stroll through the downtown area...Look who I found!

We even sampled a few hot dogs! lol

lots of interesting sights to see...

Beautiful gardens and landscaping throughout the city

We decided to visit the Royal British Columbia Museum.

http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/

The Viking Exhibit was awesome...

I think these are the viking weapons

viking headpieces for sale in the gift shop!

the modern living history section...a theater 

showing silent movies...lol

The Museum was very extensive, we loved our visit!

even the signs are British...

We toured the Parliament Bldg next...

\

It was magnificent! 

So elegant...

The stained glass was beautiful!

This week was open house and we were able to tour 2 floors of the bldg

We happened upon a school group tour and made the acquaintance of Queen Victoria herself...

She is very proud of her namesake and shared so much great history with us!

more flags...

This donation box is full of currency from around the world...

My favorite souvenirs...

Canadian currency...isn't it lovely? I think so.

Our wonderful day has come to an end and now it's time to sail back to Seattle.

Our ferry leaves Victoria at 6:30 pm and we arrive in Seattle about 9:30 pm.

It was a bumpy ride back while crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but as we approached Seattle at night we enjoyed the most amazing view of the Emerald City! Wow!  

Today was a big learning experience for us. We went through customs 4 times, took in some wonderful harbour views, got schooled on loonies and toonies, strolled through lovely gardens, visited the British Royal Museum, walked through the Parliament Bldg with Queen Victoria, took a boat ride straight from deadliest catch, ate strange food, met weird people, and drank bad coffee all within about a 16 hour time span.

We are tired, but it was a day we will remember forever.

Moving On

We are leaving here in a little over 2 short weeks. This next week is all about the purging and packing.  We are limited in space to 2 travel bags per person...backpack or duffel and a rolling carry on. This is really all we need anyway. I'm donating most of our winter gear and looking forward to shorts, tshirts and flip flops for the summer months. Steve has not finalized a summer assignment as of yet. The contract summaries that have been submitted to him are low. There is still plenty of time, so we will just "take a potato and wait" for now. 

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here in the Pacific Northwest and it will be a sad goodbye, however we may return someday for another visit. We haven't left yet and there are plenty of jobs up here, so ya never know.... but honestly I think we will head back to New Mexico soon. 

With just 2 weeks left we have been trying to fit in some final sightseeing trips. 

We took a lovely drive back to Snoqualmie Falls and hiked down to the bottom of the waterfalls.

 It was lovely... but the trek down there nearly killed me.

 By the time we got back my feet were really hurting bad...  

thank goodness for these boots or I could not have hiked as far as I did.

and I might have missed seeing this...

and this...

but I made it and it was a sight to behold.   

so amazing! 

The water is so loud and smells so good. I wish I could bottle it all up for safe keeping! 

   

I love these two guys so much! 

Today was such a gift for us! 

We also drove back out to Roslyn, where they filmed Northern Exposure. 

The weather was lovely and we had a nice stroll through the town ...

KBHR

Ruth Ann's Store and more lovely shops...

and the coal mining museum! 

We had to have lunch at The Brick! 

They have the best Philly Cheese steak baskets!

We stopped for ice cream at Maggie's Pantry before leaving! 

I had their blueberry cheesecake...yumm

There's Dr Fleischman's office behind me in the blue building! 

and as we were leaving, we drove by Maggie's house! So cute!

Time to head back to Tacoma, Bye Cicely for now! 

 There was still some snow up in the mountains...

 but the pass was clear and it made for a wonderful Sunday afternoon drive home.