This time last year

I began my adventures about 3 years ago, when my engagement ended and I was wild with freedom, wild with urge to escape a town in Florida that seemed to swallow everyone whole. I never imagined that by this time in my story, I'd be on the complete opposite side of the country. I've lost most of my pictures of my travels East from Texas to Washington, D.C. So I believed it appropriate to reflect, and maybe share my experiences from the journey West, out of Virginia and towards Washington State.


In this moment I live here, in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. A place I had only ever dreamed about. A place that was over 4,000 miles away from where I once called "home". On this day I woke up around 4 in the morning. Excitement in my heart, as I was about to take a trip to one of my favorite places in the whole state- The Olympic Peninsula. To get there I drove 20 minutes through the mountains, then headed South towards Seattle to catch a ferry across the water. Timing is everything, and it worked out perfectly for me to experience a magical cotton candy sunrise as the ferry began to float away from the sandy shore of Edmonds.

I was meeting up with an old friend from Florida, whom was here in WA for a little bit- and as I waited for her arrival I hiked down towards Second Beach. The tempest was furious, with a sharp cool breeze whipping my hair into knots, but despite those wild waves and loud crashing, it was a moment full of peace and serenity. There was so much calm in all the wild, a powerful and natural dance of Mother Earth around this time of year. I sat on the massive drift wood pieces that have washed up on shore throughout the years, starring at the water. Realizing how anything that previously seemed of importance and of stress, was easily washed away with every wave that swept back into the sea. 

There was a secret spot on Third Beach (just about a mile down the road from Second Beach) that my lover and I discovered when backpacking through here a few months prior. From our tent on the beach I saw a few people begin to climb up the mountain side by a thick rope. They didn't make it too far, and returned to the beach. We immediately jumped up to go check it out. This spot isn't one I share with many, although I'm sure that plenty of people know about it. But it being unknown to us in that moment, an impulsive decision to follow it not knowing where it would lead us, is something I find intimate and like to keep as a little secret to myself. Of course, when my friend was coming to visit, I absolutely HAD to take her there. The one single rope leads to another, then another, then eventually a hanging rope/wood pallet ladder that you had to follow up until you reached stable land. After a few twists and turns, and switchbacks through the mountain top, you find yourself standing on top of a beautiful waterfall that falls into the ocean itself. A view you can see from down on the beach in the distance. 

You're pretty much on top of the world here, and can see ocean for miles and miles. One of my favorite places to sit and relax, simply BE, medicate, and enjoy this beautiful adventure filled life.