The Dreams That Didn't Come True

While my handsome husband is out to sea I have been tasked with a monumental job.  At the end of our whirl-wind six week tour, the Mr. and I drove a U-Haul from my storage space in Flagstaff to deposit all of my worldly possessions (and me) safely at my parents house in Northern California to await his return and our eventual move to a place of our own.  As I had very little time to go through them before I got on the boat, the relics of my past life loomed (overwhelmingly) large but mostly forgotten in that storage unit.  After seeing the panic on my new husband's face as I raised the stuffed storage unit's door at the thought of moving the huge pile more than once, I knew I had to pare down my belongings - and why shouldn't I?  I'm starting a new life and what better excuse to start out with just the necessities?

SO, I have been steadily going through the many boxes that represented my old life - I would say from college on but I should probably admit that because I'm an over-sentimental pack-rat, it goes way beyond that.  Going through all of that in addition to starting up my blog again and reading through my old entries has gotten me thinking about all of the dreams that didn't come true.

I found some old journals from when I was in high school that laid out in gruesome detail the heartbreak I was experiencing after my first boyfriend broke up with me.  I read these old blog entries and thought about how much I wanted a job as an airline stewardess or a 'real' job in Phoenix.  I thought back to when I first got on the boat that eventually led me to my husband and how homesick I was and how I was crossing all of my fingers that I'd get a six-week break during the time that the boat would be in dry-dock in San Francisco.  The day after we got to San Francisco my husband walked onto the boat and during the following 6 weeks we fell in love.

It simply amazes me when I think about all of those dreams that didn't come true and how happy I am now that they didn't.



Travel Thursday

After returning to my blog for the first time in the better part of a year I realized that there are a few things I wanted to change and a few that I wanted to stay the same. 

Travel has always been important to me and, because I didn't blog while I was actually traveling to all of the awesome places I have gotten to go over the past year-ish, I will continue Travel Thursdays (at least until I run out of those places).

Stop One: South East Alaska:

When I first got the job I was told that I would spend the summer in Alaska and then travel with the boat down to Costa Rica and Panama.  My first thought was that Alaska didn't sound all that interesting or exotic but that spending some time there would be worth getting to travel down to Central America.  When I got to Southeast Alaska that thought was blown way out of the water.  There is no other place in the world like Southeast Alaska.  The wildlife, the natural beauty and simply the grand scale of it all are like nowhere else and, ironically enough, I've missed it more and felt greater ownership of it than anywhere else I've ever been.  This is the first and last post I wrote after I got on the boat and it pretty much describes how I felt about Alaska for the whole of the two months I was there from day one until the season was over.

  Here are a few of the photos I took there that might convince any of you that might be Alaska skeptics (like I used to be).

Happy Trails!

Where I've Been...

Hello out there in the Blogosphere!  It's been almost 8 1/2 months since I left for the adventure of a lifetime.  I was expecting to keep up with my blog while I was away but iffy internet connections (out at sea, who would have guessed) and the lure of living a life a lot less connected kept me away - and to tell you the truth I'm glad it did.  But now I'm starting a new life and new adventures and, just like before, want to use this space as a place to document this transition.  For those of you who read my blog before (hi, Mom) I'm actually in quite a similar position - big transition, looking for a job and looking for somewhere to settle down with one big exception....

I left in July to live and work at sea and in September I met the love of my life,

Got engaged one month later,

And got married in Costa Rica two weeks after that (for anyone that's counting, yes, that's 6 weeks total from meeting to marriage).  Two weeks after we were married we were separated for 3 months (he's sea-faring as well) and when we finally got back together we traveled a solid 6 weeks...

To our honeymoon in Baja, Mexico,

To meet his family in Chicago,

To Seattle to introduce him to the other most important person in my life- my sister,

To California to introduce him to the rest of my family,

And finally to Arizona (my home state!) to end with a belated wedding reception

So now my love is out to sea again, my plans and priorities have changed, and we're starting a life together.  It's going to be crazy and probably hard sometimes (he goes out to sea for 6 weeks at a time every 6 weeks) and as of right now we have no idea where we will live, but to borrow words from William Shakespear and H.I McDunnough, these are the happy days, the salad days, as they say...

Lots, Lots more to come!

The Life Aquatic

Life has changed quite a bit since I was last here.  I am now living on a ship and have been for a week!  It’s everything I thought it would be and nothing I thought it would be at the same time. 

I got on my ship a week ago Saturday and already I’m amazed at what I’ve seen.  I’ve seen massive schools of salmon spawning at the base of a pristine waterfall from my kayak.

 I’ve seen a family pod of Orcas breeching in the crisp, early morning air.  I’ve seen the mist from countless Humpbacks and their massive and majestic flukes slamming into the water both mightily and gracefully at the same time.

 I’ve heard the sharp cracking and seen a mountain of luminescent blue ice tumble from the face of a glacier into the unbelievably blue-green water below.

Home Sweet Home

Last Week

Last week I spent the week travelling to see all of my family before I get on the boat!  I'll be missing the holidays and my birthday so it was really important to me to see my loved ones now!

First stop was Coarsegold, California for a quick overnight to visit my wonderful Grandma and darling Aunties...

Next stop was Redding, California to see my parents for three days...

Last stop was sunny Seattle, Washington to spend four days with my best friend in the entire world, my sister!

Now it's back to Flagstaff for my last night in my sweet little home.

The House That Built Me

Sitting here in my room, looking at the blank, bright orange walls that the 19 year old version of myself picked out, it feels a little like the last days of school (which, in a way, I guess it is).  I accepted a job on a cruise ship two and a half weeks before it disembarks, I'm giving myself a week and a day to visit family that I won't be seeing for the next 6 months, meaning that packing up the house that I've lived in for nearly 6 years has to be a fast and furious job- which is probably best for someone as sentimental as I am.

I am a sentimental fool.  To the extreme - anyone who knows me will tell you that.  So I can't really help but to get just a little bit nostalgic about leaving this home, although I am so ready and beyond excited to do it.

But this house is special, it probably changed my life, in fact. 

In 2004 I was an 18 year old dragged kicking and screaming in to the next phase of my life.  Flagstaff is a mere 100 miles from my hometown of Prescott, Arizona and not very different in size.  I didn't have to get used to 'big city' life, I didn't have to get used to a new climate, or even meet all new people (several of my friends already lived in Flagstaff), but I was still clinging to my old life- it had been such a great life, after all.  I spent the last half of 2004 and the first half of 2005 miserable in a dorm room and speeding down to Prescott every Friday after my last class ended.  I was a homesick mess.

My parents, savvy investors that they are, decided to buy a house in Flagstaff.  Their plan was that I would live in the house with roommates and pay them rent.  Great plan.  The problem?  I was desperate to move back home, quit college, go back to my old life (impossible right? once childhood is over it's over- try telling 18 year old Sarah that), and my old home.

My parents swear that they didn't do it to pressure me into staying, but having them spend the money and the time on the house was just enough pressure to get me to stay in Flagstaff, and stay in school.  Of course once I finally let myself get into the swing of things I fell into a new life that was just as wonderful as my life at home - but I've always felt greatful to the house for holding me here long enough to let me figure that out.  The whole course of my life could have been different without it.   

I have had six different roommates come and go in the time that I've lived here.  This house has seen me through the changing of so many seasons - I'll always be able to see it covered in the first snow of the year, or with baby green leaves on the tree in the backyard, covered in the yellow and orange of fall, or standing moodily and dark in the middle of an Arizona monsoon.  This house has been the site of two surprise birthday parties, several Cinco de Mayo (or Cinco de Drinko to my silly friends) parties, Christmases, Thanksgivings, Halloweens (even though we never got any Trick-or-Treaters) and then finally, Graduation parties.  This house has seen me through 3 boyfriends and 3 break-ups, countless heartaches and happinesses.  I hardly recognize the newly turned 20 year-old I was when I moved in.

But I love this house and I'll miss it very, very much.  It's the home my parents made for me when they knew theirs just wasn't an option anymore.  Everyone has to grow up and move on - this was once the place I had to move on to and has now become a place I have to move on from.  

Well, House - it's been great! 

Big, Big News

After 7 (SEVEN!) months of job hunting, I... have ...finally... landed... a... job!  It's not the great paying desk job in Phoenix that I had originally pictured for myself.  On further relfection it's actually probably something even better for me at this point in my life. 
As I had mentioned in an earlier post, my focus within the job search had been on any one of three options; a desk job, an "adventure" job or even the military- for now it looks like it's going to be a life of adventure for me.  Yesterday I was offered a job on a small, adventure/expedition based cruise ship.  This ship spends summers in Alaska and winters in Panama and Costa Rica, places I've never been but have always wanted to go!
The contract is for 6 months, during which I'll be working loooong days cleaning cabins, serving food and basically doing anything else that no one else on the crew wants to do.  I may only set foot on land a few times in 6 months and I'll be sharing a very small cabin with a complete stranger.  I could not be more excited!
There is every chance in the world that I may love this and there is every chance in the world that I may absolutely hate this.  Either way, this will be the greatest adventure of my life so far and maybe the first time that I've done something big and bold and completely on my own. 
As I mentioned I got the offer yesterday and the ship disembarks in 2 and 1/2 weeks!  Needless to say I am a little overwhellmed at the moment!  More on the process soon!