Prospect Park

Here is the park, only two blocks away from our apartment. It looks alot prettier in the spring I'm sure, but you get the gist. It's a big park, not as big as Central Park, but good enough for us Seattle folks who love the outdoors. Surrounded by neighborhoods, businesses and subway tunnels is this park, which includes the Brooklyn Zoo, the Botanic Gardens and even an ice skating rink.

This is the historic Prospect Park Boathouse. It's a neat old building and supposedly gets very busy during the warmer months. Back in the 1920's, you could rent wooden rowboats and float around the lake. The Audubon Center and Park Visitor Center are located in the boathouse. We saw a couple of men fishing at the lake, although they didn't seem to be catching anything.

Thanksgiving in Jersey

We travelled over to Flemington, New Jersey for Thanksgiving with Ethan's cousin, Joel and his wife, Tracy. We stayed with them until Saturday. There was a big group over for dinner, over 20 in all. Joel and Tracy have 3 kids, one of Tracy's sister's has 3 and one of her brother's has 2. So it was similar to a Thomas gathering with lots of kids around. We had a fun time, with tons of good food! Here is Ethan playing with Joel's youngest, Maeve. She just turned 2.

The day after Thanksgiving, we were on a mission to sell Ethan's car. Joel helped us find some dealer's to take it to and we visited 2 before we found one that was interested in buying. We ended up at the local Honda dealer. The used car buyer test-drove the car, and looked it over before giving us a price that was very close to what Ethan aiming for. Ethan filled out the paperwork that evening and now we are officially carless. Here's Ethan, saying goodbye to Black Beauty. :)

Painting Day

Everything I learned while on SPU's Paint Crew came in handy once again. Ethan and I took a trip to Lowe's and shopped for paint colors. We got "Oatbran" for a couple walls in the living room and "Morning Fog" for the bedroom. It's amazing what a little bit of color on the walls can do!

Boxes, Boxes, and More Boxes

The movers came a week ago and unloaded our belongings. We were left with the fun task of unpacking all the boxes and finding places for everything. Here is what we learned about professional movers: They hate stairs, they can carry twice their weight, and they love packing paper! We found out that last one as we unpacked. When the movers drove away, we were started opening boxes---only to find that every item was wrapped in multiple sheets of packing paper.

It was like an exaggerated Christmas---I unwrapped a microwave popcorn packet, rubberbands from the junk drawer, Ethan opened juggling balls---each individually wrapped. It felt like a giant waste of paper---good thing NYC is a huge fan of recycling!

We had a near disaster---our couch barely fit into the living room, and I mean BARELY. The movers got it through the front door, which is pretty much all they cared about. The rest was up to us. Ethan and I were determined not to have a couch in the kitchen, so we got out the tools and went to work. Ethan worked on taking the short wooden legs off (they were the cause of the problem). After much hard work trying to remove stripped screws, the legs were off and we were ready to bring the couch through the hallway to the living room. We literally had to shove it past the door jamb, but we got it through with only a few scrapes on the wood. Success!

Days 7-10

Day Seven: Naperville, Illinois

We had a short drive day today, a 2.5 hour trip to Naperville (which is west of Chicago). We stayed with Jim and Amy in their nice, new house. Jim was transferred to the Chicago office in May and told us what it's been like, adjusting to a new city and job.

They took us to a nice dinner at Walter Payton's Round House, yes, THE Walter Payton, Ethan's most favorite sports star. The restaurant had a one room museum dedicated to #34 and what better place than that to use as the backdrop to our Day 7 photo. :) (The restaurant is in Aurora, IL, where my mom, grandparents, aunts and uncle went to college. )

Day Eight: Youngstown, Ohio

460 miles later, we stopped for the night in Youngstown. We crossed through Indiana and almost made it through Ohio but needed to stop for the night. It was a long day and we were dead tired, so we ordered pizza in our hotel room, watched Grey's Anatomy and took our day 8 photo.Day 9: Grove City, Pennsylvania and Flemington, New Jersey

We drove through Grove City, PA today, which is Ethan's mom's college town. We stopped at the Grove City College campus and took some photos. Marcia, these are for you. :) Here we are in front of her dorm.

Here is the chapel, along with the inside. It was being decorated for the holidays.

We headed out to New Jersey for our last night of hotel living. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in Clinton, NJ. It was quite a place---it seemed like a town hangout, there was a nightclub/bar in the lobby! We skipped that and went to Ethan's cousin Joel's house in Flemington for dinner. He and his wife Tracy have a great farmhouse with lots of outdoor space for their 3 kids to make use of. Ethan and I are heading there for Thanksgiving and staying until Saturday morning.

Day Ten: Brooklyn, NY

Crossing the Verrazano Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn.

We finally made it! After 10 days of driving and staying in hotels, we are finally inside our apartment. Granted, we are sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags but we made it to our destination in one piece. No speeding tickets, no accidents, no flat tires! It was a fun road trip and we saw many things we had never seen before---national monuments, mountain ranges, historic towns, and pick-up trucks full of deer.

I had never seen a hunter's deer carcass before, but after driving through the Midwest, I have seen my share. Just one of the observations I made during my ten days on the road... :)

Luna did a great job on the road trip. Thanks to the drugs the vet gave us, she slept most of the day and had fun exploring each hotel room we stayed in. However, when we got to our apartment, she freaked out a little and started a new routine of hiding under the covers of the sleeping bag. Hardwood flooring and and empty apartment make a loud, echo-ey combo and Luna didn't like that very much. The first night, she spent part of the night curled in a ball at the end of my sleeping bag, with me in it. I had my very own foot warmer.

More to come later about the movers delivering our stuff and the unpacking process...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Road Trip...Part Three

Day Six: Madison, WI

We drove from Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Madison today. We crossed the Mississippi River on our way into Wisconsin! It was a long day but we were glad to see some familiar faces. Ben and Cara took us to a great Mexican place for dinner and we had frozen custard for dessert. A Wisconsin treat--- almost like gelato but probably twice as bad for you. :)

We stopped at the state capitol building, which is just down the street from Ben and Cara's apartment. Madison is a great college town and reminds me of Bellingham.

Road Trip....Part Two

Day 4: Devil's Tower and Deadwood

We stopped at Devil's Tower, Wyoming. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed here. I forgot my sunglasses and was blinded by the bright sun, so we didn't stay long. On to the next stop of the day...









For those of you who either watch the HBO show Deadwood or are fans of the Old West, you will like these next photos. We stopped in the real life town of Deadwood, South Dakota. The main street still looks authentic, but as soon as you look in the storefront windows, the effect is ruined. Slot machines fill almost every building in this town. Gambling was made legal again in 1989 and it seems like the casino's have taken over the town.









We visited the hillside cemetary in Deadwood and saw the gravestones of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Sheriff
Seth Bullock.

Day Five: Mount Rushmore

We stayed in Rapid City, South Dakota and the next morning, stopped at Mount Rushmore on our way out of town. We figured we would have the place all to ourselves, since it was a cold Monday morning. We arrive to the parking lot and are surprised to see it full of cars. It just so happened that we visited Mt. Rushmore on the day of the new South Dakota quarter unveiling ceremony. There was an ampitheater filled with people, with the President of the US Mint, the mayor of Rapid City and the Governor of SD on stage.

On the Road....Part One

We are now in Madison, WI visiting Cara and Ben. This is the first opportunity I've had to update the blog, so although this is a rough diary of our first few days, it still gives you an idea of what we have been up to. Once we get settled in NY, I will write a more detailed blog. :)

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Day One: Spokane

Luna's first road trip---kitty valium saved us from listening to her cry all day.

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Day Two: Missoula

We visited my cousin Abby at her apartment in Missoula, had some Mexican food and saw the new Will Ferrell movie.

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Day Three: Heading to Sheridan, Wyoming

We stopped at a Cracker Barrell restaurant and checked out a book on CD. Although it made the drive go by faster, the book wasn't that great. (At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks)

We stopped by Three Forks, MT--my Grandma Christianson's home town.

The first snow flurries we encountered---leaving Montana and heading into Wyoming.

Stay tuned for Part Two....

A Brownstone in Brooklyn

WE FOUND A PLACE TO LIVE!!!

Hi everyone! I forgot to bring my USB cord with me to New York, so I wasn't able to download my photos from my camera until I got back to Seattle. We had a sucessful trip to NYC---we found an apartment on our second day in the city. Finding an place to rent is all about luck and timing. We headed to 7th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where many of the real estate offices are located. We walked into a few with no luck finding something we liked or in our price range. The next office we went to had just received a listing from a landlord and fit our preferences and budget. We took a look at it and liked it, so then the rental process begins. Renting in Seattle is a piece of cake compared to what it takes to secure an apartment in NY. The landlord needed pay stubs, proof of employment, bank statements, tax forms, credit check, first and last month's rent, security deposit(one months rent) and a 12% of the annual rent broker's fee. Does that tempt anyone to move to NYC? :)

Here are the pics of our new place:

Here's the building, our apartment is on the left, 3rd window up. It's a thru-apt, so we have the whole left side of the 3rd floor. Living Room.....

The kitchen...

The bedroom...

The bathroom, complete with lovely turqoise tile...

Large closet, perfect for storing our bikes, camping equipment, books, and the computer. DSL ready! May become the "card-making factory"...

Decorative fireplace in the living room...

This isn't our street, but all streets in Park Slope look like this one. This is a few blocks over from us.

Our new neighborhood, Park Slope, is full of families, kids, neat shops, restaurants, laundrymats that wash, dry and fold your clothes for 99 cents per lb, grocery stores with aisles so narrow you have to squeeze past people to get by them, and even a few Starbucks. Our apartment is 2 blocks away from Prospect Park, which is a lot like Central Park, just not as huge. We will have bike trails to ride on, and grass fields perfect for bocce ball. We are vey happy with our new location and are excited to get settled in. Fun fact: We are moving from King County to Kings County. :)

We leave Seattle on Nov 8th, with the goal of reaching NewYork by the 18th. We have a few stops to see friends along the way---Devon and Chris in Spokane, Abby in Missoula, Cara and Ben in Madison, and Jim and Amy in Chicago.

Stay posted for more pics from New York---the touristy kind. :)

The apartment hunt begins.....

Ethan and I leave on Friday to search for an apartment in NYC. We have 9 days to find our dream apartment.....or something that has closets, a bedroom, no bedbugs and a monthly rent under $2000. We have our fingers crossed and we hope you do too! More to follow about the search....