Home Sweet Home!

We made it! Friday afternoon, after 43 hours in the car, we finally made it to Kirkland! Driving into the city was crazy, even at 3:30 the traffic was backed up. Even though it was intense, it was the prettiest drive yet. the mountains here are HUGE and so pretty! Mom would have had a heart attack on our exit because people are getting on the interstate while lots of people are also trying to get off, including ourselves. Kirkland only has about 45,000 people living in it, but there are lots of cities neighboring it, including Seattle. A lot of the people that are in the city actually are here on business, like us. The Microsoft headquarters is around here somewhere, so many of people are employed by them.

Our apartment complex is less than a mile from the hospital and right on the interstate. I think the noise from the interstate will help us sleep during the day. We are on the second floor, so I feel safer and we can leave our windows open. Our apartment does not have an AC, but for the most part I think we can manage without one. The weather is great today and it was yesterday as well! We are living in 645 sq feet, so it is a bit of a down sizing, but we have everything we need. The furniture is really nice, I had a dream that it was going to be wicker, so when I saw big fluffy brown suede couches I was thrilled.

Last night, we ventured into our new surroundings. We went and parked downtown to walk around. There is a very diverse group of people here, which is so exciting and different from Tallahassee. The rich people drive very nice cars and there are some interesting wardrobes worn by the skaters/wake boarders. All of the cars stop for pedestrians, (not that in Tallahassee they hit you, but it is different here). Even if you are the only person waiting on the curb for the car to pass, they will stop to let you by. I think the whole city of Kirkland was out and about last night. On the lake people were hanging out on their boats drinking and some where skiing and stuff. For those without a boat or who didn't have friends with a boat, they hung out at local restaurants and pubs. Most people sit outside to eat since the weather is so nice. Many people bring their dogs along with them, since so much can be done outside, they even sit at their feet while they eat! We ate at a grill type place near the water to people watch. The food was excellent! Afterwards we headed back to our side of town to go grocery shopping. We went to a place called Fred Meyers, which is like a Wal-Mart. They had everything we needed and it is very convenient to us.

There are lots of parks to explore while we are here too, which is what I think we will do today. Bradley is beside himself with excitement that we did not make him get in the car again today and that he finally has all of his toys, (especially his baseball, which is like his girlfriend, although, he did rip the arms off this past week in the heat of the moment, poor baseball)!