HEADING WEST

I’ve always lived on the east coast. Virgina, mainly, along with little stints in Florida and New York, but always on the coast. The “right” coast. When my dad got a job in Memphis, Tennessee, however, I had my first brush with a different region of the US. People said “bless your heart” and “y’all”, all the time. I went to an all girls school, and attended church every Sunday, and youth group on Wednesdays. We had awesome barbeque. As high school came around though, guess where I ended up… back on the eastern seaboard.  For the next seven years I embraced Virginia as my homeland, and I do believe I will call “Charlottesville” my hometown when we finally get to Washington.

Daddy, football season, the Rotunda and me

Besides a family vacation to Colorado in the third grade, I had never been west of the Mississippi. Enter Kevin. Quickly after meeting on a service trip to New Orleans (968 miles from Charlottesville), this native west coast boy and I started many adventures together. Our apparent love of road trips took us to my family in Alabama (618 miles), Tennessee (546 miles), and to his family in Italy (4592 miles) and California (2566 miles). And now, the big one. Charlottesville to Washington (yes, Washington STATE, not DC. I have to specify this in Virginia) a whopping 3358 miles. 

Our epic adventure

My third year at the University of Virginia I wrote an American Studies paper on The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond rocks. (Have you seen her show on the Food Network?) Apart from simply drooling over her gorgeously documented recipes and fantastic ranch photography, I discovered that P-Dub and I share an exploration of the unknown.

When you say Seattle, certain buzz words come to mind: coffee (obsession with coffee, check.), Sleepless in Seattle (watch 17 times, check.), and of course…

Rain.

Getting used to the rain

I went out and bought two really cute umbrellas (see above), only to hear from multiple friends that only tourists use umbrellas. But for now, I am a tourist. I am an accidental west-coaster, and I am excited to share my adventure with you! 

Cheers! 

Meredith