so long, fare well....

So in honor of leaving the state I feel like I haven't even been in very long....a tribute to my favorites. The moments, and places (some of the people shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) that I love so much in the fair Washington. (in random order...and to be added onto as I think of it.

Best water sport - 3 way Tie - Midnight canoe ride with Stacy and Isaac - jumping in the lake in jeans - getting tipped in the canoe on my b-day
Best food - 7 corndogs, and two orange julius', with the only friend crazy enough to. (Newport bay comes in second)
Best view - Roof of the Edmonds library
Best weather pattern - Fog all the way (rain, the downpour kind, is second)
Best ferry ride - The first one. Dressed to the nines for an interview (feeling like an idiot) and talking to a good friend on the phone for company
Best Festival - Lavender with Annabell, complete with bee sting in the bum
Best locals spot - Tie- Ivars on lake union - monks at St. Marks
Best place to live - Anywhere but my car (I will laugh at this in a couple years....really)
Most skilled move - locking my keys in the car 4 times in the first 3 months (and learning how to break into the old girl with a coat hanger....it's harder then you think)
Best friends - The gang. You know who you are. Thanks for the grins and giggles, and more memories that I can list here
Best gift - getting to baby sit Willies dejembe (even if it got limited us)

Exit stage left

So I'm leaving town. This all feels so crazy. Since I feel like I just got here. I moved to Washington almost a year and a half ago. God said jump and I said where. To explain my life since then would be almost laughable. I can say genuinely it has brought some of the greatest joys in my life, and some pretty big lessons. But more then all of it, it has taught me what a wondrous God I serve.
So now...I'm going to new Zealand. I leave in about 5 weeks, and don't come back till January. What happens after that to this vagabond extraordinar is fair game. I've only left the country a couple times. 1 if you discount numerous trips to Canada. and lets face it. 1 week in Peru 10 years ago doesn't really compete here. On the surface this has all the makings of an amazing sight seeing adventure. Thru a set of unreal circumstances (including loosing a job, having no other commitments, and new found friend in NZ) The doors are open and away I go. But my gut (and apparently quite a few other peoples) tells me this isn't just a holiday. That God is up to something major, and this is me, along for the ride. At a work even one of the my last days, I found a toe ring, with foot prints. As soon as I saw it I knew what it meant, for me, it meant follower of Christ. I chose to follow God this far. Thru all of the wonder, craziness, and hardship. And the ring is a simple reminder that I will continue to. I know what your thinking, 'like it is hard to follow God to New Zealand'. And I soooo agree. But there are so many things tied into this. The money alone has been a step of faith, and amazing, all at the same time. (the life of a vagabond with your life in your cars...means you really shouldn't have enough money to do this, in two weeks!) So here I go, upside and all around His.