Packing and planning to move

Our journey has begun.  With the help of two of our children (one is an honorary child and Meghan's boyfriend), we crammed almost ever last piece of our belongings into a small storage unit in Tacoma.

Aram and Nick were amazing and amazed that it all fit, sort of.

We passed the cleaning inspection on the apartment with flying colors, sold Steve's car for asking price, and even sold his bicycle - all on the same day; certainly a sign of good things to come.  So... no more apartment, no home, and we are currently sitting in the bedroom of an AirBnb room in Lakewood/Tacoma - effectively Homeless. 

Guess whose feet are whose.  Boy, it's hot today.  Do I really want to go to Arizona?

Tomorrow, we go to Seattle for a gathering of the clan at Six Arms restaurant on Capitol Hill.  We won't see our children for a couple months.  It will be happy/sad; the downside of "following your dream".  Both our older sons, Roarke and Nicholas, are living and working in Seattle now.  Our daughter, Meghan, and partner Aram ,live and work in the Tacoma area.  We will miss them all terribly - when we aren't having the time of our lives on the road :).

But, 4th of July is coming and our daughter is having some people over to watch the Ruston fireworks near her apartment overlooking Commencement Bay.  I haven't done that for many, many years and it sounds like fun!  (I always worry about people blowing parts of their bodies off at the neighborhood fireworks shows. It will be great to see a professional, bloodless presentation.)

We leave for Arizona on July 5.  More photographs to come and information on the places we go next.  Fortunately, our daughter and Aram, have recently broken the trail for us.  They have lots of information about good places to go and things to see in California.  We will be heading down I-5, possibly stopping to see a garden in Portland, and going all the way to the turnoff for Corvallis, Oregon (a place where my parents met and married 69 years ago and where I lived when I was very young).  Then, it's off to the Oregon Coast, a stop to see relatives in the San Francisco area and "straight" down the California Coast. 

We have 11 days until July 17, when we have to be in Glendale, Arizona near Phoenix for our next BnB reservation.  And, there is so much to see in Arizona when the recycle bins are not melting from the heat.  We can't wait to see my parents again and are wondering how much exploring we can actually do between 7am and 11am, which appears to be the only time humans should venture out in mid-July/early-August in Phoenix.  I hear it's monsoon season, too.  Better and better.