Category: Washington

I have spent quite a bit of time on the A1A on the east coast. I really like the A1A especially in S. FL. Well now I am on the 101 which is kind of the same thing as the A1A but on the west coast. I had been on the 101 in Washington a number of times but never south of there. We jumped on the 101 in mid-Oregon. To get there we headed SW from Portland. OMG, there are a ton of wineries, vineyards down that way. I mean a ton. We also drove through the Willamette and Tillamook area. It reminded me of Ohio, well at least the people. Drive throughs were not for expediency but because the people were to big to get out of their cars!

The true magic came when we hit the coast. Everything you have heard about the Oregon coast is true. Amazingly beautiful but unfortunately it is still pretty chilly chilly. The 101 on the coast is an amazing drive. Many, many spots to pull off and take pics or even walk down to the beach. The road in many places gets pretty serpentine, almost Grand Pri-ish. You will be going 65-70 and then all the sudden have to slow down to 25-30-35 for curves. There were also a lot of little towns you needed to slow down to 25-30 to pass through.

When we hit Californication it seemed either the smog had moved north or the ocean mist had not burnt off. It is also quite pretty in N. CA with the Redwoods and all but the mist is pretty heavy. It is late afternoon and it is still here. We stopped at a Redwood tourist trap and got pictures with Paul Bunyan and Babe (see Denise ‘boxing’ babe). We will hit the Avenue of the Giants tomorrow before San Fran to see the real trees.

For now we are staying in an Indian Casino Hotel overlooking the Ocean at a distance. Our room faces the Ocean. We actually could see it if it was’t so damn foggy/misty out. For now we are planning our invasion of San Fran tomorrow, drinking mimosa’s and then Makers when that is gone. Finally we will see what the live entertainment in the Casino Lounge has to offer.

BTW – our last night in Seattle was shared over dinner with Katie and Sean at Ivars Salmon House on Lake Union with a view directly back onto downtown Seattle. It was a great meal and a beautiful location for a ‘Last Supper’. The company was great. We are so proud of both of them.

For now – Good Day

RB

Ah, just a few more days. Yes the house sold and closes in 4 days. It was a long process but we received everything we wanted with no requests to make any changes. Inspection and Appraisal was a breeze. This process to move has been double difficult since it was not just packing everything up and transferring to somewhere else. One of the main efforts was going through everything we have accumulated…everything…and purging things we will no longer need or want to take. After 18 years in the same house and 30 years of marriage plus kids there is a tendency to have ‘stuff’. On top of that our plans are to store what ever we keep for a couple year while we travel. Last thing you want to do is pay for storage ($$) for a bunch of stuff you won’t need anyway.

Actually the purge has been the hardest part. You go through everything and end up with two piles – ‘keep’ pile and ‘purge’ pile (in our case garage/moving sale). After the first selection you then go through the keep pile again and do the same thing. Finally you do it a third time with the hopes of really being down to nothing more than what you feel you can’t part with. I truly believe Denise has done a great job in doing this but I also truly believe that in the end, a number of years from now, when we finally go to use this stuff we will find that there is still a large amount of items we will again want to get rid of – can’t avoid it.

I am not a fan (yes I despise them) of garage/moving sales. So all three weekends of doing these were quite the chore for me. Denise is much more aligned with doing these and again did a great job preparing everything and orchestrating successful events. With everything that sold there was still about a dozen large boxes remaining. After the 3rd sale we loaded up all that was left and took the stuff to Goodwill. Well now we are down to packing, packing, and more packing. Since we had some time, at least we thought, we purchased used packing material on Craigslist which saved a small fortune, and began to pack. Wow, this is another extremely time consuming chore. We are down to the last couple days and are just about done. We are bringing in some outside help to pack the kitchen and help professionally load the truck. We started out with using a POD like storage/moving system. It is called Upack by ABF. Since we had no idea of how much space we really would need we cancelled the Upack and they are bringing out an empty truck. The way this works is we load the truck and where our stuff ends they provide secure temporary doors that seal our things off from anything else with locks only we have keys to. We only pay for the space we use. After they pick the truck up they can then back-haul other commercial material in the balance of the space and then deliver our trailer to Florida for us to unload into a permanent storage unit. So far it has worked out well except for all the work on our end. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and in less than a week we will be heading south out of Seattle pointing toward San Diego and then Florida stopping along the way wherever our fancy steers us. After about 4-5 weeks in Florida we will ‘be leaving on a jet plane’ for Panama. First stop is the ‘Coronado Golf and Beach Resort’.

Last night we had a gathering at the Fairwood Country Club to say good-bye to friends. About 40 people came by and it was nice to have some cocktails and dinner with them. It is funny as about 1/2 think we are just crazy for what we are doing and the other 1/2 are excited and almost jealous of us. Each to their own I guess. They say don’t let others dampen your dreams.

btw – if you want to follow our adventures it would be a good idea to bookmark this site and feel free to comment if you have any words of wisdom but don’t feel that you need to just to do it :).

RB

Our D Day is approaching. Yes ‘departure’ day. The house sold at full price, no questions asked. Things went so well that we received a call 2 weeks ago asking if we would agree to move up the closing date by 5 weeks. Unfortunately it was to late as we already had moving arrangements confirmed as well as needing to get rid of more ‘stuff’. It is amazing how many things we actually have to live.

This weekend is the final Moving Sale. After the sale ends on Sunday what is left will get boxed up and will be donated. From there we start packing what we so far think we want to keep or take. There is a good chance that most of what we take will end up in storage for a couple years as we travel. If it was up to me it would all be gone and not stored but in a partnership ya got to consider the desires and needs of the other party, ho hum.

We hope to have an Open House Good-bye ‘party’ at the country club before we are out of here. There are also a few folks asking for good-bye gatherings separately. This is hard to do with all the work needed to be done to move especially on Denise as she currently has the brunt of the work dealing with the household stuff. Oh well, I was never one to turn down a party! I have been doing my part by focusing on a few tasks such as the on-line postings for all the stuff we are trying to sell and the liquidation, literally, of our alcohol. The Scotch went first and now I am getting pretty low on the Jack and Makers. I still have some Jim B and Crown and then some various Rums, some Vodka, Gin, etc… I slip in a bottle of wine here or there in between. This is all hard work and Denise has been no help at all as she is busy with her own tasks :).

A couple random comments: 1) We used Redfin as our listing agent. I recommend them. They did a great job and saved us 1.5%. 2) We have moved 4-6 times in 30 some years and each time it is strange how people basically acquaintances for years but as soon you say you are leaving they get all emotional and want to be close friends, get together, say they want to keep in touch and visit, etc… People are strange animals. I know it will be harder with Denise’s friends as she has many and well, I guess i will miss my friends.

Quick tips: Start getting rid of stuff NOW. Simplify your life. You don’t need all that stuff. How many things do you need?

The tropics and surf is calling and we are getting closer. I guess months of waiting is finally going to pay off. I think this is a rather bland post but hopefully soon I will have lots of interesting adventures and pictures to tell about and share.

For now, be cool!

Purgatory, …. is an intermediate state …. in which those destined for heaven “undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven”…..

Yes that is where we feel we are at. Waiting, waiting, waiting…..to get to a paradise of sun, warmth and beach – a heaven!

We are not yet ready, not yet prepared. But soon oh very soon. The first big ‘purification’ event is getting the house sold. We have had many showings and lots of interest and we are now so close to offers. The value of a home located on the fairway of a country club becomes much more evident when the sun is shining and some folks are swinging the sticks. The weather is improving and so has the traffic looking at the house. Word of offer(s) are rumbling around.

Our second ‘purification’ step will be the moving sale(s) and deciding what we will take/store. This will be no less stressful than the house sale itself. It is life changing to depart with items that have supported your life for 10-20-30+ years. Denise is doing her part by sorting through and deciding on things and I am doing my part by listing items on-line and reducing our liquor inventory to save storage/shipping expense.

In the mean time we keep the house in ‘show’ condition, work on the offer negotiations, plan for the moving sales, and oh yes…reduce the liquor inventory. The move to heaven is coming but it seems you need to first go through a little bit of hell!

Remember: Keep Calm and Purgatory on!

RB

January in Seattle is like living in a cloud. Dreary, gray, wet/damp, cold, can’t see worth shit and feeling like you are trapped with walls closing around you. On the positive side of things the Seahawks are again in the hunt for the Super Bowl and for us ex-Ohioans, the buckeyes are in the national championship against the somewhat local Oregon Ducks. Football usually means beer and beer helps to dull the pain of the Seattle dreariness. I just hope we can survive the winter weight gain. I have thought about working out more, maybe even twice a day. Hasn’t worked so far though since I haven’t done it. Isn’t it the ‘thought that counts’!

The Hawks play Charlotte today and Katie and Sean are supposed to join us for the game. We also just sold a few more items today anticipating our move. On the home selling front we continue to have lots of activity. Lots of Realtors are calling our realtor and some of their customers are interested. Some have said ‘call us if you get an offer’. For homes like ours on the golf course there have been multiple offers once they got one so we are keeping our fingers crossed. People just seem to be in a ‘holding out’ mode and not yet out of the holiday slowdown. Another thing holding folks back is the climate/weather here. The day light is so short here that it limits the time folks are out looking since it is hard to see the place in the dark. Prices continue to firm up and rise and supply has dropped. Hell maybe I should resist at a higher price!

During the last quarter of 2014 we had a unique and pleasurable experience of meeting a young woman from France, Victoire. Years ago we had a French student stay with us. Through this student we were contacted by Victoire looking for assistance in finding lodging for 3 months during an internship at Seattle Children’s Research Center. Well long story short, Vic ended up staying with us for a few weeks, we helped her move to Seattle, and then saw her off when it was time to leave. Vic is a delightful young woman. We hope to visit her in France someday on our upcoming travels.

We continue to be very anxious to get out of this dreary environment. It is getting old waiting but I feel good that something will happen in the next week or two. Got to get to SUNSHINE!!!!!

I meant to start this blog over a year ago but I guess better late then never. For now I will try to capture the activities that will bring us to beach:o’clock.

We have been in Seattle now for almost 20 years and now it is time to leave. It is truly a wonderful city and area – for 3 months of the year. That is when it is warm and sunny. The rest of the time it is gray, wet and dreary. If I am going to drink my self into a stupor I would rather do it on a beach. We are in the process of selling the house and a large amount of our possessions in order to move. It has been a pretty good home. It is on the 9th green of a Country Club fairway so i will not complain.

It is a couple days before Christmas so we know it was not a good time to go to market but we know it will sell soon. As soon as the house sells/closes we will head down I-5 stopping to see the Redwoods along the way and making our way toward San Diego where we will visit family. The plan is that from there we will head east toward Florida and use south Florida as our jump off point for some adventure. For now we need to keep the place tip-top shape for any showing and keep selling stuff off.

The anticipation is great which causes a lot of anxiety which is the opposite of beach emotions. I guess I will just continue to consume my stored liquor while I wait.

RB