A New Chapter Begins

With the hectic month of June coming to a close, we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We still had a few significant tasks to tackle, but everything was finally coming together.

On July 1st, Steven and Tara flew to San Diego to get her moved into a new apartment. She had nothing but her car and whatever she could cram inside within the weight limits imposed by the shipping company. This meant her apartment would have to be completely kitted out in the five days Steven was there to help. It was a massive undertaking.

    
Tara at her new apartment and nearby beach in San Diego.

  
Steven cools off in Pacific Beach and Tara poses with her new kitty Rocky.

My job at home entailed taking Zac to get his wisdom teeth out and managing his recovery. Clearly, I got the better deal here. Except not. I hired a lawn care company and painters, cleaned out the garage, supervised Handyman George, consolidated the things we still needed to move into Scoopy and spent a full day going through the dregs of our paperwork. It was a very productive, if tedious, few days.

 
Linda managed to whittle all our little stuff down to this…

Two days after Steven returned home, we retrieved Scoopy from her storage place for the last time, drove her to the Issaquah RV Village and settled in. It was now July 8th, the day we had worked so hard for, and it was finally here!

  
Scoopy’s last farewell to storage.               Traffic at the highway exit to our campsite!

  
Finally at Issaquah Village RV Park!                               Not much room for an awning here.

Our first few days weren’t exactly as we had envisioned all these years, but it was still pretty awesome. The painters were working in the house, so no one could sleep there. That meant Zac moved into Scoopy with us for a week. Though we were dreading the close quarters, I have to say it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Zac basically used his car as a suitcase, so he really didn’t bring anything inside. He likes to take long, leisurely showers, so he used the campground facilities. And for most of the day, he was either working or hanging out with his buddies. All-in-all, things worked out just fine.

Since we had already moved the majority of our things into Scoopy, we really didn’t have much to do in order to get ourselves settled in. We had a week before the next big event –  renting another U-Haul truck to move Zac to Bellingham.

Originally we were planning to load, travel to Bellingham and unload in one day. Hahahahaha. Of course, we came to our senses and loaded up the U-Haul the day before the big move. We also hired a couple of guys to help unload in Bellingham. It took Steven, Zac and me over three hours to tightly pack up that truck, but we got it done. When we arrived in Bellingham the next day, we swung by Zoe’s soon-to-be-vacated apartment and loaded up everything that was too big to fit in her little car. Then off we went to unload at the new place that Zoe and Zac are now sharing. The day was a success and we celebrated with a glass (or two) of wine that evening in Scoopy.

  
Another U-Haul in our driveway!                       Making a pitstop on the way to Bellingham.

The next day we were back at the house, finishing up in the garage and making one more trip to the donation station. Finally, on Friday July 19th, our Realtor listed the house for sale. We are leaving the area on August 1st, whether or not the house is sold. Over the remaining time we have here in Issaquah, we’ll visit with friends, say our goodbyes, spend a day in Seattle and generally prepare to close this chapter of our lives.

We have had a wonderful 14 years in the Seattle area and it will always be home. But there is a big country out there and we are ready to go exploring!

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