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Corey and I live with my parents. When I found out he was getting deployed, I felt like we had to get a house, so he had somewhere to come home to. So I could have my own space to cook and create and cry out loud when I want to. So my dog could sleep in the bed with me. Plans quickly changed after I lost my job, and I was dreading living at home, once again, for another year while he's gone.

I wanted pictures of our fresh life on the walls to keep me strong.

But I know well that life is not always beautiful, and sometimes you don't get a choice but to be strong. Or at least at like it, so you don't break down the people around you. And hey, sometimes it actually makes you feel better. What I have to remember is that I don't have a choice. I have to be strong.

Especially for one of the few people that I truly love.

Even if tears might be coming from my eyes as I type, I know that it's true. I am beyond blessed, and so damn lucky. I have so many dreams and goals for my life that I am excited about. I have years and years to look forward to with the love of my life. Most of all, I am happy. For the first time in my life, I really know that I am. So even though I might somedays stay in bed and only get out for tea, I know tomorrow I have to suck it up.

Sorry for the lack of posts around here, I want to take this blog to great places and through many improvements, so consider this a start. Or maybe it's just a promise to myself. Either way, I will try to keep the sad posts to a minimum. :)

  

All photos from weheartit.com

Portland, Oregon

My favorite place on our trip was Portland. We stayed at Northwest Portland Hostel, which was exciting since I have always wanted to stay at a hostel. The lobby had a list for anything you could want to do in the town, and we took a lot of recommendations from there.

We walked around Alberta Street, where Corey got (organic! handmade!) ice cream at Salt and Straw and I got some Stumptown Coffee. As we were walking back to the bus stop, we passed a craft store named Collage that was a combination of all of my favorite sections at the craft store. I could have easily spend a thousand dollars there, but I stopped myself after 30. :)

Oregon is such a beautiful state and full of friendly people. Although it was rainy, it makes the land so green and refreshing. My favorite thing about Portland was that everyone was very involved in keeping it local. Eating organic is easy to do, even the soap in our hostel bathroom was organic! What! I love love love it.

Of course, we went to Voodoo Doughnut.

The next day, we did some laundry and the dryer didn't really work. Our room ended up looking like this until we left.

I wish I had more pictures to show of my favorite city, but I was just so happy to be spending time there and experiencing it all. I will definitely be back some day. :)

San Francisco

When we arrived in San Francisco, the first thing we did was go over the bridge... And this is what it looked like the whole time we were there!

Our first night, we were both feeling pretty homesick but decided to go out for dinner. We got on a bus (our first public transit bus ever) that made us get off, then ended up taking a cab to Haight Street for almost twenty dollars. After eating the most delicious salad ever at Squat & Gobble, we walked to a bar for a comedy night, but it had just ended and the music was extremely loud. We left to walk around, and figured that Haight is full of homeless kids that don't necessarily need to be homeless. Hard to explain, I guess.

The next day, we opted for more touristy spots, and spent a good part of the day at the Fisherman's Wharf. Although it was very crowded, it was a nicer and cleaner place to spend our time.

There were a lot of street performers, including the guy who does the space art stuff. My personal favorite was this guy, who swallowed an entire balloon, then popped it and wrapped the remains around his face! He saw me taking pictures and brought me to the front to pose for me.

Since Corey is military, we got to go onto a WWII ship for free. The ship was built by women during the war in only fifty-six days! It was really interesting to see the conditions in which the soldiers lived and worked.

Outside of the ship, there was a little museum/arcade with hundreds of vintage game machines. I was on cloud nine wandering around and looking at them. We also took got pictures inside of a restored photobooth from the 1940's!

Pacific Coast Highway

You've probably heard about the crazy storm around Denver, which was our last destination before heading home. By Sunday night, we knew that it wasn't an option for us and we would have to change our entire route home. It has been a huge disappointment, especially because one of my best friends moved to Denver recently and I was really hoping to spend some time with her. In the words of Andre 3000, "You could plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather."

I'm a little behind on keeping up with our trip so far, so now that we've gotten stuck in South Dakota you can expect to see more updates. We've been laying around in the hotel room all day after getting stuck in the snow (more on that later) and now we're eating hotel cereal for dinner. Good times!

;)

Anyway, this post is an update on part of our last few days spent in California. We left Santa Barbara and started to make our way to the Pacific Coast Highway. Before we even got onto Highway 1, we followed some winding back roads through the beautiful hills and countrysides. 

I wish that I had taken more pictures of the scenic views along the highway, but I really just couldn't stop watching. My train of thought was something like... I need to take more pictures-but I wanna live in the moment and appreciate it fully-and they really just don't capture how beautiful it is-damn this is unbelievable!  

It was literally jaw-dropping, breathtaking, and so inspiring. It sounds a little cheesy but I honestly think that drive changed my perspective on life. There is so much beauty in the world, in this country, and it's so amazing to experience something different. I never thought the west coast was any better than the east, and my opinion has 100 percent changed. Now I understand what the pacific northwest hype is all about. It's hard to put it into words.

Santa Barbara

After leaving Vegas, we started our drive to Santa Barbara. It was definitely an experience driving through the desert in the middle of nowhere, but once we saw trees and sweet, sweet grass again I was definitely more at home. I cannot imagine living in the places we drove through on the way to California. I've gotta have some green in my life!

Santa Barbara was really pretty. We arrived around dinnertime, so the first thing we did was eat some food. Then we walked down to Santa Barbara Brewing Company, where they had about 7 or 8 beers they brewed. We played some pool and I actually beat Corey in two games!

Of course I had to take some jumping pictures on the beach, and I made Corey do it, too. I think his definitely beat mine... Someone was feeling a little bit silly.

City of Sin

Las Vegas was a place that Corey really wanted to visit because he loves playing poker. On Easter Sunday, we had the entire day to spend wandering. Within five minutes of leaving our hotel, we got suckered in to touring a resort with the promise of $100 in visa gift cards and $100 each in slot machine credit. They said it would take 90 minutes. It took over two hours, and at the end we got accused of wasting their time by saying no to buying property! We walked like 6 blocks to the only casino we could use our slot credit, which took all of two minutes, then found out our visa card doesn't even work! Live and learn, I suppose.

I didn't take that many pictures in Vegas mainly because it was way too crowded for me. It seems like you walk in a constant zig-zag and there's drunk people all over the place. Our second night there, I did have more fun. Corey was playing a poker game for a long time, so I hung out and played keno, which is like a bingo game. I put four dollars into a game and ended up winning 60 which was awesome! I always lose at things like that, so it was especially surprising!

The free drinks were an added bonus, so while Corey was winning back the money we spent on our hotel, I didn't really have any problem waiting around. :)

I do wish we had more time to spend looking in all of the amazing hotels, but one thing I have gotten used to during this trip is picking up and moving on. Last night I was feeling pretty homesick, but I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to keep going. I've had a lot (A LOT) of time to think on these long drives and I'm honestly excited to get back home and really make some changes in myself.

Grand Canyon

After leaving Austin, we had a "layover" in Albuquerque, NM. We got there pretty late, and I mentioned before that I didn't feel well at all when we were driving in. I don't know if it was the change of atmosphere or all in my head, but I do know that I don't care to go back! Haha. One cool thing we saw was Crossroads Motel, where they filmed a couple episodes for the show Breaking Bad. We were going to stay the night there, but it seemed a little sketchy and the front desk lady was pretty weird as well! If you watch the show, she even resembled Wendy the prostitute!

My gourmet lunch on the way to the Grand Canyon, and a still swollen thigh.

Hula girl eventually just decided to cruise in her birthday suit.

The Grand Canyon was beautiful and breathtaking (of course) and I'm so glad we went out of our way to visit. They charge a $25 fee for entering the park, but since Corey is military we actually got an annual pass to visit any national park free of charge!

I hope you all had a great Easter! I wish we could have seen our family and friends but sadly, we were stuck in Las Vegas. ;)