Night in Waterville

 

We came across Waterville, WA in our search for cooler sleeping arrangements after the AC went out in the RV.  The flawlessly vintage Waterville Hotel was just too adorable to pass up.  It saved us from a sweaty 100 degree night in the RV and it also provided us with an interesting look into small town life.

On our trip through Eastern Washington we passed through dozens of small towns, some prosperous and others not so much.  Joel majored in Urban Studies so he’s rightly fascinated by what makes one town flourish while others fail.  I’m sure there’s a multitude of historical and geographical evidence that we could uncover to get to the bottom of why Waterville is so desolate.  But we instead chose to simply enjoy the night we had there by strolling through downtown taking in the Mayberry-like wholesomeness.  If you’re ever driving though Eastern Washington searching for a blast from the past, I highly recommend cruising through Waterville.

Eastern Washington RV Adventure

After living in Seattle for three years, I felt like I knew a little something about my adopted home state.  This trip through Eastern Washington showed me that I need to get quite a few more treks under my belt before I can truly say that I’ve conquered this region.

Joel’s parents graciously offered to take us on a little welcome-back-to-America trip in their RV.  Growing up in Washington, their family vacationed and camped throughout the state so they knew all the biggest, brightest, most badass places to stop on our excursion. We planned our overnight stops for Winthrop, Sun Lake and Leavenworth, but as the saying goes, it’s about the journey, not the destination.  Along the way we pulled over for a nature walk in Newhalem, an overlook at Diablo Lake, touring the Grand Coulee Dam, another overlook at the expansive (and dry!) Dry Falls and a staggeringly colossal antique store in Cashmere.

A surprising highlight of our outing was when the AC broke in the RV.  In 100 degree heat that wouldn’t sound like a highlight, however it forced us to freestyle a bit which is how we came across the quaint and tiny town of Waterville.  I took probably a zillion shots in this picturesque town, a selection of which I’ll be posting soon.

First week home

Our first week home was a relaxing one filled with beach walks and days in the sun.  The weather has been a perfect 75 degrees, exactly what I’d been missing while living in the South Pacific humidity.   We capped our first week with a family July 4th celebration at the beach house.  So far our homecoming has been everything I was hoping for and more.

After the Independence Day fireworks subsided, we went home to pack for our Eastern Washington RV trip that started the next day.  Photos coming soon…

USA here we come

The time has come for Joel and I to triumphantly return to Washington after two years living abroad.  I’ve already listed all the things I’ll be missing about life in Indonesia, so I thought it only fitting to do little round up of what aspects of life in the US that I’m most looking forward to.

Favorite Images: Indonesia

Initially my idea for this post was to make a top ten list of my favorite images of Indonesia, however that soon proved to be impossible.  Scrolling through two years of blog posts there were too many memories and snapshots of unforgettable destinations for me to narrow it down to a mere ten.  So my top ten became a compilation of pretty much any image that I was fond of starting with our fantastic honeymoon in Kuta and Ubud.  I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed compiling them.

I’ll miss you Indonesia!

Truth be told, I can’t wait to get back to the Pacific Northwest- three weeks and counting!  The weather, the water and my beautiful, little doggy will welcome me back just in time for a glorious summer.  Living in a foreign country has been enlightening and also had its share of challenges.  But after almost two years, it’s started to feel like home and there are aspects of life in Indonesia that I’ll be missing once we’re back in Washington.  Here are a couple at the top of my list.

What I’ve been up to