Welcome to Washington

What I did with my weekend

Roadtrippin Postcards

After lots of miles and hours and money, I made it to Seattle! I started the week by live-tweeting my adventure https://twitter.com/liztowne #roadtrippin, but then I started doing other things besides driving and I didn't have coverage most places and my sister only drove a little bit the first 2 days so I didn't even have any time.

goodbye Austin!

We drove straight West on I10, and it was the best experience I've ever had driving in Texas! We only had like an hour of boring driving!

Then we camped in Las Cruces, NM. It stormed so bad that night and it was so windy that even during the couple hours when it didn't rain, Carolyn still got dripped on. We both ended up in the car and didn't sleep much.

leaving Las Cruces

Sunday night I arrived to stay with none other than the bestest roommate ever, Hannah!! It was just like old times. We did some touristing in Los Angeles, and then Monday night I got to see Betsy! and remembered how much I miss having her in the same physical location. Someday.

Hollywood sign!

Tuesday we made our way up to Santa Barbara, where we net my aunt and uncle for dinner. We got an early start Wednesday morning so we could take Highway 1 up the California coast to San Francisco. It was probably the most beautiful and stressful drives of my life! We saw elephant seals and I had to pay lots of money for gas so I wouldn't get stranded in a random state park.

Santa Monica pier

Santa Barbara Farmer's Market

Driving in San Francisco wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, but it was okay. We had to spend lots of money for a pretty average hostel. But at least my bike didn't get stolen. We had a little time to sight see but didn't make it to the Golden Gate Bridge in the small window of time where the sun was actually out.

elephant seals!!

Golden Gate Bridge

We drove north the next morning, and drove through a redwood tree! We also saw an Elk herd right by where we camped, essentially at the south end of Redwood National Park. Luckily it only rained a little and the tree above us protected us.

I drove through this tree!

Friday we drove into Oregon and met Meagan, who was an au pair in Hannover with me, in Portland. Traffic in Oregon was annoying. We saw a family friend from Germany in Tacoma, and then finally made it to my new home and Kate Finman at 11pm!

welcome to Washington!

my new home. I have upgraded to a futon in the living room

Home again

I've been home in Austin for a couple weeks, and it's weird. Germany feels a long way away, and things here are just like they always have been. I start driving to Seattle tomorrow, so I've been spending all my time packing, replacing things from my lost wallet (it was stolen from a swimming pool a couple weeks before I left - fun, right?), getting things taken care of, and applying for jobs. Lots of jobs. And I still don't have one. At least I'm not homeless anymore!

I've been meaning to write this for a while. Between France and Germany, I was in Europe for just over a year.

In that year I went to 9 Countries (France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal. and the USA for vacation, so it counts)

and 9 Cities in Germany (Hanover, Frankfurt, Bremen, Goslar, Berlin, Lüneburger Heide, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Hildesheim

flew on 21 planes, and ridden on numerous trains, buses, trams, boats, and a couple times in cars.

eaten apples, potatoes, strawberries and raspberries that grew right outside my front door

rode my bike 1200 miles through the Alps, ran my first half marathon, and did the first ever Tough Mudder in Germany

took care of 5 beautiful, adorable, crazy, high energy children

and most of all had a fun year. It wasn't the easiest year, mentally and emotionally, but I really did enjoy it and was sad to leave.

So long, Farewell, Aufwiedersehen, Goodbye

I promise I didn't do the Sound of Music thing on purpose. But the twins do love that song. We have to sing it every night before bed and Philippa always says the "no" part of Liesl's line.

It still hasn't hit me that I'm leaving. Sunday night, the family had a kind of surprise going away party for me, except all my friends that haven't already left couldn't come. Which was like 3 or 4, apart from Rachel and Max who were there anyways. So it was just us, the grandparents and Sigrid, and Sonja, who was staying here the first month I was here. We sat out in the garden and grilled, and they hung up the Texas flag that hung at the capitol once. It was really nice, and I'm glad it wasn't a big thing. I don't like being the center of attention. I'm going to miss a lot of things here, and most of all my kinders! I love them all a whole bunch!

Greta's still convinced she's coming with me, flying away on the tram and eating ice cream and fries in the airplane. Johanna would come, but she told me she doesn't have enough money.

Tough Mudder Nordwestdeutschland

The first one ever in Germany.

Tough Mudder: the picture version. I'll probably write a real recap soon. But it was a ton of fun!

from their facebook page

before

after 18km and 19 obstacles

cartwheels! 

walk the plank

electric eel

spiders web

funky monkey 

I finished the last half basically crippled

Color Run

Gritta asked Rachel and me a while ago if we wanted to do The Color Run with her in Hannover. Of course we did! We made a team with Laura, who was the au pair here before Rachel. She ended up not being able to do it because she's been having some pains and the doctors don't know what it is, but Laura's boyfriend (also a former apprentice) Nils was able to take her place.

I was on my tip toes. Why am I so short...

Rachel stretching after running her first full 5k!

Done!

We definitely have Tough Mudder in the bag if we could do this!

Happy Birthday America!

I need to get this video to work


They both say this, and I also got them to say "USA!". Except the best version so far has been more like "you say say!"

Happy 4th of July!