Washington 2017 - Candice's reflections

Travel does not exist without home... If we never return to the place we started, we would just be wandering, lost. Home is a reflecting surface, a place to measure our growth and enrich us after being infused with the outside world.  

-Josh Gates 

Probably the most striking thing I noticed during this visit was how tall and strong the trees are in Washington. Southern Australia is, of course, a very different environment (and there is great history here too) - but we've spent the last four years in a neighbourhood where almost everything is relatively young. New buildings and business locations appear every month, new restaurants and cafes open (and close) in very short time spans. Everything here seems... temporary. Which is how we've always viewed our time in Australia as well.

But in Washington, there are roots in the nature. Roots that grow deep, for better or for worse. There is history in the landscape, there are traditions, there are generations upon generations of stories.

That was what I kept thinking about during our time in Washington this year, as we took our almost-2-year-old daughter back home to visit her paternal relatives.

I've said it before - I was neither born nor raised in the state, but because all my time living in Seattle was linked to my relationship with Ben, I do feel like it's "home" now. And it's almost always the place I give when strangers ask where I'm from in the USA. No offence to Michigan or New Jersey at all - but it no longer feels genuine to say that I'm from the Midwest or East Coat.

This year, we spent the majority of time on Whidbey Island, dividing our stay between Ben's two parental households, and spending a few days at Pacific Beach for a Labor Day vacation with his mom and sisters' families. Two weeks is never enough for a trip to Washington, but this year we tried to be better at spending more quality time with family, as the end of the summer is always a challenging time to navigate schedules.

on a morning run with my sisters-in-law.

gorgeous sunrise at Pacific Beach.

This year we were able to meet up with my good friend Kathleen and her family - they drove all the way to Pacific Beach from Eugene, Oregon just for a quick meal at our rental house! It was wonderful to see them and for our little girls to play together.

We also visited a few of our favourite places in Seattle - the University Village and Green Lake, primarily - and spent a day in Everett running some errands and visiting friends Abbie and Darren, who just had their third (!!) baby.

with Abbie and her three kids!

at Green Lake with my Green Lake t-shirt. smooth.

Our friends Tara and Nathanael also graciously hosted an open house for our friends, as we didn't have enough time to make individual visits with everyone. Many of our friends have kids around the same age as Arden, so it was fun to see them interacting together, sometimes chasing each other around the room and playing with toys together. Our friends Zach and Kyara (the ones who visited us when Arden was two weeks old!) just had a little baby themselves, who Arden was delighted to meet.

Arden and Declan.

It was a little strange going right from three weeks in Michigan without Ben, to a very condensed and busy visit to Washington with Ben and his family. Fortunately, Arden had no problems adjusting back to life with her Dada. And even though she missed her Michigan family, she quickly warmed up to most of her Washington family, holding her Mimi's hand and asking her "Auntie Say-yo" (Auntie Saralyn) to hold her on her lap. She especially loved her cousins and uncles, and was so excited to pet and chase around some of the family dogs.

Arden and her cousins at the beach. 

Throughout our entire USA tour, it was really neat seeing Arden fit into the various contexts of families, holding unique but similar roles in their lives: grandchild (one of four, one of two, the only one - and the sole granddaughter for all), niece, cousin, great-grandchild.

While Arden mostly recognises everyone's faces from photos and video chats, she also just internally knows that these people are Important to us, that these are relations by blood and marriage and history and friendship, that she belongs in each of these family circles and subcultures without hesitation. She is well aware of the roots we come from, roots that we continue to nurture as much as we can, even from clear across the globe.

Thanks to all our friends and family for hosting us, making the trips to see us, and showering Arden with love and warm memories. We'll see you again soon!

CK