Daily Archives: March 31, 2009

When in Seattle, Julie got a job at an environmental consulting firm, and I worked for the University of Washington Medical Center. I split time between the University Medical Center:

And Harborview Medical Center, which is run by the University:

The job was a job, but Julie and I definitely enjoyed our time exploring Seattle. Summers were awesome: 70-75 degrees every day and sunny. The winters were a bit dreary, with rain and in the 40s-50s pretty much every day, but it was nice to be in a big city, with actual stuff to do.

We definitely would take more advantage of things like the Pike Place market. The market itself is pretty amazing. On TV you always see the fish chuckers, but the actual market is multiple levels of shops and restaurants, with all sorts of weird things to find.

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After we got back from the honeymoon, Julie and I pretty much packed up our junk and moved out to Seattle. We didn’t have jobs, but it sounded like a good idea. We packed up a U-Haul, attached our old Honda to the back and set off from Wausau, with a stop in Winona.

It took awhile, and it was scary going up the mountains, but we made it. We had a small apartment lined up in Kirkland, which is one of the eastern suburbs of Seattle. We were on the 3rd floor, and I think our rent was more than we pay for our home mortgage now.

It had a small kitchen, dining room, and living room, a deck, bathroom and two bedrooms. This was before Julie started to cook a bunch, so the small kitchen wasn’t a big deal, and coming straight from student housing, the rest of the apartment felt way too big. We didn’t use the deck much, since the people who lived below us smoked constantly and it came right up into our apartment.

We lived right next to a strip mall with a Rite-Aid and an Albertson’s, and a sweet Chinese restaurant, so grocery shopping and eating out was super easy. We really didn’t keep much stuff around in the apartment. When we needed something, we would just walk over to Albertson’s, usually a few times a week.

This was all pre-cats (Nut came later), so it was peaceful and relaxing