End of an Era

This post is dedicated to my BFFaeaeaeaeaeae4L (do you guys remember doing that in school?), Nat! Our days as travel nurses came to an end a while ago and we both have been talking about doing a last post on this blog. Today is a rainy day. Perfect day to write down some thoughts.

The day we left. 

Throwin it way back to nursing school days. This is Ron and Opal. 

One of our trips back to Florida to visit family.

It was the early morning of October 1, 2013 (or was it? the date may be wrong but I'm sure Nat will correct me) where we hugged and kissed our families good bye and drove away in Nat's tan Toyota Corolla, Ron (I believe that came from "Parks and Rec"). I was a young 26 year old and Nat was an old 26 year old. We talked about how we felt like Bilbo Baggins "going on an adventure!" Little did we know that we were not only going on a fun-filled adventure but we would encounter loneliness and some depressing days (mostly during the holidays). The great thing is, we had each other! (Nat may not be so quick to feel the same). We were able to feel lonely together, depressed together. We literally spent our time 24/7 together. One car. One home. One job. It became more than a friendship. It became a marriage. That's why we started out in California.  Noooooo, but seriously, it became a sisterhood. 

Our stop in Utah at Temple Square

Travel nursing was so much fun. And challenging. The great thing was you worked there for a few months and then you moved on. The bad thing was you were thrown onto the floor with little to no orientation and you had to quickly gain rapport with the staff because you needed them to have your back at times or lend a helping hand (which wasn't too difficult, most people were very helpful). Our first assignment was in CA in the bay area (near San Francisco) and we had already seen so much on our drive out there. When we left Florida, we drove up to IL (did some sightseeing) and then across through MO, KS (the worst drive, SO windy!! I was for sure Ron was going to blow right off the interstate. Thankfully we had a lot of heavy luggage in the car.), CO (stopped to visit with my friends, Robin and Ryan), UT (stayed the night, what a beautiful state! all of that red rock was something I had never seen before), NV (first time I went 90+ mph!) and then drove across the border into CA and was able to drive along Lake Tahoe (I will NEVER forget those views, absolutely beautiful!). We did a lot of traveling in CA. Went from SF to LA and made some great memories along with A LOT of inside jokes. We were starting out learning about each other. Afraid to tell the other how we were feeling or what we needed to do (know where I'm going with this? hehe ;) ). 

17 Mile Drive, Monterey Peninsula, CA

Then came our next assignment in WA state. The northwest. It is a green place. I love the trees and landscape. When I came back to FL to visit the first thing I noticed (yes, was the humidity) so really the second thing I noticed were the trees. It's so different. I know, strange to keep talking about it, but seriously. If you travel from the northwest to FL look at the trees. We also did quite a bit of traveling in WA mostly to Seattle which is one of my favorite cities! Was so sad to say goodbye :( We went into Canada and visited small towns and eventually made our way to Vancouver. Traveled to MT, ID and OR. WA is where we made great friends and many more great memories. And I think we ate much more in the northwest. Man, we learned what it meant to eat GOOD food.

Our first day in Rathdrum, Idaho (WA assignment). First time I experienced snow like this AND driving in snow!

Forced best friend photos. Kerry Park, Seattle

Our first trip into Canada! (my Caaaaaaaanaadah)

Visiting friends in Portland

I can't believe all we did in a short amount of time. I can't believe how much growth we both experienced in such a short amount of time. There is so much LIFE (friendship, loneliness, depression, happiness, healthiness, body image acceptance, faith, dating, love, hate, anger, deaths, hurt, forgiveness...) we lived in that one and a half years. Right, Nat? 

Oahu, Hawaii

Then I moved. And now our relationship is in shambles. We need help. Just kidding! We like to say that was the end of that chapter and now we have started the next one. I gained another sister out of this and love her dearly. She is so goofy but has (Nat, I actually wrote 'some' but then deleted it haha!) rbf so it's hard to see it at first. She is hilarious! And she is one of the best nurses I have ever worked with and has some strong intuition. I would trust her with my life. Just wanted to throw that tidbit in there. If you ever have her as a nurse. Because I think I may have joked that she could kill you or something like that.

(This one was for our favorite career consultant, Charity, at Medical Solutions).
I LOVED working together. Some of the best memories. Love you, Nat Nat Bear :)

Thank you to those who followed our blog, thought about us and prayed for us! It was much appreciated!! 

Crossing into Canada: Travel Adventures Part 1

We have done quite a bit of traveling while being here in the northwest and are taking a short reprieve, exploring more of Spokane and surrounding cities and spending time with people we have gotten to know. I believe our last post had us leaving soon...whelp, we're still here :) Have been asked to extend our contract x2. We absolutely LOVE working at this current hospital. The floor can be ROUGH but the people we work with more than make up for it. More on how we're doing later on. 

We crossed the US/Canadian border by car, crossed this off on my non-existent bucket list. We were told about a hot spring in a cave located 3 hours north of us in a small town called Ainsworth and had to go and check it out.

I know, not very exciting. We played the national song while crossing the border. Weirdo Natalie already had it on her playlist (it was a Disney version).

 Our passport pictures (don't laugh) we had to present at the checkpoint to a really good-looking Canadian guy. We both got our passports the same year! Our friendship was meant to be. 

Oh Canada! Had to pull over and take a picture with the welcome sign.

We got into Ainsworth late evening, stayed at the hot spring resort and enjoyed a Canadian dinner (we do not have pictures of our food, don't know how that happened). It is a 150ft horse-shoe shaped cave with stalactites and hot-steaming mineral water. (We couldn't get many pics because the lens fogged up). There were some creepy guys lurking around in the dark corners of the cave so if we revisit we plan on sticking to visiting during the day.

Canadian brekky (ham and brie stuffed french toast and santa fe burrito with pesto potatoes).

Nat enjoying her first cup of joe after giving it up for a few months.

Ainsworth, BC Kokanee River. It was really cold that day!

Did some light hiking in Kaslo, BC. There was a "big Bear" (reference from Allison Bear) sighting :) It's a BEAST.

Enjoying coffee. Views of the mountains everywhere.

I was pretty excited to be in Canada.

 Walked around a small, Canadian town named, Nelson. Loved the old architecture and views of the mountains! People here were so friendly! They would say "hi," "good afternoon," or just smile at us. Really enjoyed the Canadian accent...well, at least I did :) 

So we can't use our cell phones in Canada other than where there is free wi-fi. Definitely did not pre-plan on driving directions and such. We didn't get TOO lost but we did end up taking a different route home. And that's ok because while we were driving up a mountain there was a look-out point with a beautiful view. Natalie captured the moment perfectly, bird and all.

This is just Part 1. We recently went to Portland, OR and Vancouver, BC and that will be Part 2. It seems like there is usually a few weeks before we blog again but we won't do it this time! Maybe...

*Just a quick update: Our landlords have been so gracious and hospitable towards us and have let us extend our stay at their condo (more on that later). We have made friends at work. I know, shocking, right? We absolutely LOVE working with them (more on that later, too). Did I just mention that again? ;) Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read about our life! 

Seattle and Other Updates

All right, so it's about time for a Spokane update y'all!  Natalie here-- it's been awhile since I posted on here.  Been kinda out of the writing/blogging loop for awhile but I'm trying to get back at it.  A few weeks ago we took a trip to Seattle!

^^^On our drive out.. we were excited!

^^^Snoqualamie Pass.  At certain times of the year depending on the weather it can be super treacherous requiring use of snow chains.  Thankfully we didn't have to use them, although we definitely were ready!

^^^The first of many indulgences on this weekend trip.

^^^We took a trip to the first Starbucks!  Unfortunately, it is not *actually* the first Starbucks.  I was pretty disappointed to find that out, but it still made for a good photo op!

^^^The gum wall.  DisGUSTING

^^^Our awesome Pike Place food tour guide, Tyler!  He seriously was awesome and kept us laughing the whole time.  And may I mention that food tour was the BEST thing ever!!!

^^^The famous fish market!  They throw the same fish around all day.

^^^Hanging out with our friend from work, Gwen.  She joined us for a night while we were there!

^^^Space Needle!

^^^Seattle skyline from the bay

^^^Up in the Space Needle.

^^^Skyline from the Space Needle

^^^We had some drinks and dessert at the restaurant in the Space Needle.  It was pretty cool, because it spins around so you get a view of everything!

^^^The drive home through Snoqualamie Pass was definitely much better weather.  Beautiful!

^^^We got stuck inside allll day last week.  It snowed about ten inches and this is what poor Ron (my car) looked like.

 ^^^Determined to get out of the condo that evening, we spent a good 45 mins digging poor Ron out of the snow.  It was really heavy, wet snow, but we triumphed!!!  First time experience for these FL girls!

^^^We took a trip out to Mt. Spokane Park in hopes of hiking around last week, but there was just too much snow.  So we built a snowman (Bela's first) which ended up looking like a demon. 

^^^At Mt. Spokane Park

^^^On the drive into work a few days ago.  We realized that we haven't seen a beautiful sunset since FL!

^^^Just some more foodie pics from Seattle... this was called the Vancouver.  Quite possibly one of the most delicious/unhealthiest meals I have ever eaten.  But I enjoyed every bite!

^^^Bela's sassy calamari. 

 ^^^My healthy, balanced breakfast!  Best meal of the day!

^^^Paneer naan!  Holy cow that stuff was good!

^^^Bela and I indulged in a little shopping this week... we decided to try on our clothes last night and took pictures!  Being roommates has been so much fun!

^^^And so you all don't think we do nothing but travel, some work pictures!

^^^Bela's Hawaian dad scrubs... Bela says this goes out to dads everywhere

^^^I don't even know

^^^On a nice, (rare) slow night at work

 ^^^And this one is for our awesome career consultant Charity, aka our number one follower!

Sadly we have to say goodbye to Spokane in a couple of weeks.  We had really high hopes of renewing, but it wasn't in the budget for the hospital.  We don't know at all what is coming next, which makes me a little nervous, but a trip to Florida in a couple weeks is in the works!  Which we definitely are in good spirits about!

Washington has definitely been our favorite of the two assignments we have done so far.  Everything has just fallen into place, which we can only attribute to God.  I don't think I've ever been in a position where I feel so out of control, yet everything just happens nearly perfectly.  We were talking the other day about being really bummed about not being able to renew, but Bela pointed out that God knows just how much we love it here, so there has to be a reason... something better or something to stretch us and make us grow.  Time will tell.  In the meantime, we are going to enjoy our last couple weeks in Spokane!