Goodbye Tacoma. Hello Port Angeles.

During our last weekend in Tacoma, we finally made the bike trip across the Tacoma Narrows bridge that we'd been planning since week one. The weather was in rare form: sunny and warm with clear skies. Mt Rainier towered over the city in all it's gigantic glory...at a whopping 14,000 ft above sea level its more than 2x as high as anything I climbed on the AT....a monster of a mountain. On most days it hides just behind the fog but on clear days it jumps out from behind buildings and hills, surprising you with its size each time.



We had to pick up our keys for our new house by 5pm on Friday. Because of traffic, we made it to the real estate office at 4:30, which was only the beginning of the bad luck we've had at this house so far. Danielle thinks its haunted. Upon entering the house, we discovered the filth that had been left for us...years of accumulated pet hair and dust coated everything in the house, from throw pillows to curtains to floors....food and drink were dried onto table tops and door jambs....spiders galore... pubic hair on the shower wall. Rocky found at least 4 things to eat on the floor our first night here. I've never seen anything like it. We spent our first 3 days cleaning from morning 'til night (with 8 hours of help from a professional cleaner, sent over by the realty broker after I left a hysterical rant on her emergency after hours voicemail) and there were still things to be done. We refused to bring anything we owned into he house until it was finished, so we wore the same clothes and didn't shower for 3 days. Come to find out, the quirky old woman who lives next door is the owner and was supposed to clean the house before our arrival. Apparently we all have different definitions of clean. The amount of "things" the owner keeps in this 950 sq ft house is unbelievable but easily explained by the fact that she collects antiques and frequently visits garage sales. After 3 days of cleaning, we brought in some of our things and I finally took a shower, only to have the toilet overflow minutes later, soaking the bottom 2 inches of my only clean pajama pants. We are hoping for better luck during the next 12 weeks but have already had our next catastrophe, which will be addressed in another blog. I'm taking it day by day, trying not to sweat the small stuff. I'm getting better and better at that by traveling. On a happier note, I really like my job here and I love Port Angeles. It's the smallest city we've lived in so far but without the small town mentality. We walk 2 blocks to get to the concentrated downtown blocks of bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, and outdoor stores...and now that the house is clean, it is winning me over with its character.

Kitchen

Living Room-I love the stained glass door.

Living Room

Bedroom. No Mom, I don't make my bed everyday.