#motomoveswest

[vatowa]

The cats are officially here and have already taken over!! A huge thank you goes out to Adam's parents who have been taking care of our two boys, Mac (gray) and Indie (white/brindle), for the past few months. It was a bit of a task to figure out how to get two rather large cats cross country. Eventually I discovered that United has a program called "PetSafe" where your pets can fly in secured and safe conditions domestic and international. So, our cats flew direct from Dulles to Seatac with no issues. Our parents are really the ones to thank as they are who ensured that the cats were crated properly and made it to the airport on time. Then it was simply the case of tracking their flight and picking them up at cargo hold. Needless to say the cats were a bit disoriented after being in crates for an extended amount of time, but they have bounced back really quickly. It's like they were never separated from us now, which makes me very happy. Our family is finally whole again. Now to see if we can all survive in a 1 bedroom apartment!

[vatowa]

And we have Blog artwork!!! I have to give the BIGGEST SHOUT-OUT EVER to my friend and amazingly talented illustrator and designer Jamie Spencer who created this amazing artwork. I could not have dreamed up anything more spectacular.

Thanks so much Jamie, your talent astounds me.

[vatowa]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to my amazing parents who went on this crazy cross-country adventure with Adam and me. Thank you for all of your support and help. I know that it won't be easy being so far apart, but now you have another place to visit! Love you both!!!

[vatowa]

Moving In Well, all of our stuff arrived successfully in Seattle... Phew! Moving it all into our small apartment proved to be a bit of a challenge and about halfway into unloading the truck we decided that we were going to need to put a lot of our stuff in storage. I cannot say enough good things about our movers - Lee and Tammy from Mayflower. They literally saved us by coming back out on Sunday Nd helping us take boxes back out of our apartment and take them to the storage unit. They also were like storage unit magicians - packing it in aisles so that we have access to everything if we were to need it. The apartment is coming together and I am excited to finish unpacking clothes and the kitchen this week. There will be a tour once it is all together.

[megrock]

Lovely day to be on the roof with a beverage. #motomoveswest (at Lower Queen Anne, Seattle, Washington)

[vatowa]

We Made It!!! After six days on the road, we finally made it. We spent our first day in Seattle by doing some essential touristy things and some necessary house stuff. We started the day with breakfast in Pike Place Market with crumpets and coffee from the ORIGINAL Starbucks. We then took a nice stroll through the market. After that we headed to our new apartment to sign all the paperwork and get our keys. We got the chance to show my parents our apartment and the rooftop views. It was such a beautiful day. Then we walked five blocks to the Seattle Center, home to the Space Needle. We went up the needle and had an amazing lunch at the rotating restaurant on the top that offered beautiful views of the entire city and the sound. After that, we took my parents over to Luna Park in West Seattle, where there are fantastic views of the entire city. With a lot of "touristy" stuff done for the day, we did what any good transplant to a new city would do - go to Bed, Bath and Beyond. It was an adventure, but we got everything we needed. We finished out the day by going to dinner at a local find called The Masonry where they have brick oven pizza and a great beer selection. We will definitely be going there again.

[megrock]

On the Road - Day Six This was the longest drive day of the trip, roughly 10 hours in the car from Bozeman, Montana to Seattle. All of it was highway driving as well, so not too much to report from the sight-seeing side, but we did see some beautiful country. We passed through Idaho on our way from Montana to Washington State. We had lunch in a place called Coeur d'Alene which is a lake resort area that is really nice. It's only about 4.5 hours from Seattle. Driving trough eastern Washington State was a lot of farmland. Once we passed over the Columbia River we saw tons of wind farms with huge power-generating windmills. As we got closer to Seattle, we drove through Snoqualmie which was so beautiful - mountains, trees, and waterfalls. We arrived in Seattle around 6:30pm absolutely exhausted.

[vatowa]

On the Road - Day Five We started off the day leisurely having a great breakfast at the Bunnery in Jackson. We then did a little shopping and went to see the Jackson Jole Mountain Resort, and the amazing Four Seasons Hotel at the foot of the mountain. True ski-in/ski-out. We definitely need to come back during ski season. Next we drove through Idaho and into Montana towards the town of West Yellowstone. We had a quick lunch and headed towards the park. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK This place is a true wonder of nature. From the get-go we saw amazing vistas, but then the Wild West got real and we were greeted by a small group of Buffalo and elk grazing by the side of the road. Thinking that we were so lucky to see any wildlife, especially Buffalo, we were so surprised to happen upon another three buffalo walking down the middle of the road. We were so close to them, it was fantastic. We headed towards Old Faithful and saw it erupt in all it's glory. We then went to see some of the mineral hot springs/geysers which were steaming and the most beautiful Aqua color. As we were leaving the park, we saw a heard of buffalo 30+ strong crossing the river - it was a very "Dances with Wolves" type if experience. I would love to go back and spend much more time in Yellowstone. We then drove through Big Sky and arrived in Bozeman, Montana around 9pm... Exhausted.