Friday, January 31, 2014

One Day More

Sunday night, before the packers arrived
I write this while sitting in our hotel room, which is located about .25 miles away from our current/old apartment. It's been an extremely busy week and this is the first time I've really had the energy and time to write. Here is a short recap:

On Monday morning, the packers arrived at our apartment and began to pack all of our belongings. This took all day Monday and spilled over into Tuesday midday. Hank spent most of the day attempting to eat the packing paper and bothering the three workers. Chris and I sat on the couch and read while they worked. By midday Tuesday, everything was packed in the apartment and in our storage unit, minus the televisions and one bed, which made sleeping that night much more enjoyable.

Monday night, after packing
Monday night, after packing
On Wednesday morning, the movers arrived to put all of the furniture and boxes onto the truck. That was an all-day affair. They arrived at 9 and did not finish removing all the items from the apartment until 7 p.m. The movers were very friendly with Hank but he got very confused throughout the day and had several accidents in the house. Once they left, all we had left in the apartment was our aero bed and our belongings for the trip.

Post movers = empty house
On Thursday morning, we got up early to pack the car since the cleaning people were arriving at 9. Alas, we discovered that the packers had forgotten to pack some things that were in our cabinets. They had packed the lids to the pots but not the pots themselves, and had packed the glass oven dishes but not the lids. They also missed a bunch of ziploc bags and some coffee travel mugs. In haste, we put together two leftover boxes and packed them. Luckily we'll have space in the car for them, but it is definitely not an ideal situation. When the cleaners came, I left to drop Hank off at a friend's place for a couple of nights so we could run errands and relax. He was no longer upset after that and I'm not sure he noticed when I left.

Thursday was filled with errands that we had to run, including dropping the cable box off at Verizon, mailing last minute packages, exchanging our coins for cash, and shipping Chris's car. Once completed, we finally went to see the second Hobbit movie, since we've had no time to go since it came out.

Today has been a very relaxing day. I've come down with a bit of a cold so I slept in and Chris went back to the apartment to handle the exterminator appointment. Then we got breakfast and Chris got his haircut while I finished a book. Now we just have to wait around until 3 when we have our final out appointment with the rental company.

Hank, before he ran away because the photo flash was capturing his soul
Chris and I are amazed and excited that our trip is finally here. We've been talking about it and planning for it forever, so it's surprising that it has actually arrived. It probably won't feel real until we're on the road tomorrow. I've posted a link here the route that we will most likely take. Everything will depend upon the weather, so if it's nice tomorrow, we may take Skyline Drive and if we have enough time, we may head up to Vegas after the Grand Canyon.

That's all for now. I will do my best to post every night about that day's distance covered and eventful occurrences!

- Kate

Sunday, January 26, 2014

California Dreaming

First things first, I've returned to the blogosphere. It's been a very busy 1.5 years but I've found a good reason to blog again and I hope you'll all enjoy it.

There are few things I enjoy more in life than travelling. I was lucky enough to be born into a family that loved travelling and was blessed that they wished to bring me along on these trips, even though I was remarkably good at disappearing. 

Despite traveling far from home and living abroad (but only for a month each time), I've never actually moved more than 4 hours away from home. State College and Washington, D.C. are all within a half a day driving distance from the Jersey Shore and it's been easy to visit family (and for them to visit us) and come home for holidays.

Alas, life is full of curve balls. Enter Chris, who I met two years ago and recently decided his was a worthy life partner and his career in the Army. It is this career that is moving us across the country to Southern California for two years! (There are worse places). Come February 1st, (one week from tomorrow!) we (including our 80 lbs. dog, Hank) will begin our 7 day trek across the United States to Huntington Beach, CA.

This space will host my daily blogs about the trip cross country and our future adventures in California. I'll hopefully post a few times next week (wifi willing) regarding the packing process and the week leading up to the big move.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days!

- Kate