Alex and I are officially moved in to our apartment in Redmond, WA! The trip went incredibly smoothly, and thanks to the help of our dads, the move-in process was quick and painless (despite a near-100° day this past Sunday.)

Unpacking also began earlier this week. Our apartment is really starting to feel like home!

We’ve even done some exploring—trying a delightful dumpling restaurant nearby for takeout, meeting one of my cousins in the area for a socially-distanced walk in the spacious Marymoor Park, and visiting the Bellevue Botanical Garden with my dad (more photos to come in a later post.)

We’re still getting settled with our new jobs this week, but here’s a long overdue batch of photos from the final days of our journey out West:

Driving through Minnesota and half of South Dakota was both tiring and awe-inspiring at the same time. The scenery gradually changed from typical Midwest (plentiful exits, trees, curves along the highway) to flat, straight roads with bare surroundings except for fields.

Getting into the edge of Minnesota, interstate exits started becoming further apart, along with houses, farms, and pretty much everything. Occasionally, wind turbines dotted the land, but it was nearly all fields for miles.

At this point, Alex and I were already exhausted from driving, but we felt the Great Plains’ magnificence when we started to look around and wonder about it. The vastness of the plains was in every direction and hundreds of miles ahead of and behind us. For me, this short journey was unlike anything I’d ever experienced on the road. (At times, driving along this interstate felt like another world entirely! Especially when contrasted with, say, the traffic and large highway systems around Chicago.)

That’s not to say there weren’t moments of pure scenic joy. We crossed the Missouri River, which had an eye-opening overlook onto the distant hills and water. And a patch of the interstate in SD was packed with beautiful fields of sunflowers, the most I have ever seen in one place!

Tomorrow is looking to be around 10 hours of driving, so that will be another long day! But then, we’ll reach Montana. We’re slowly getting closer to Washington!

Today we started our move out to the West Coast! We’re currently settled in at a cabin in Wisconsin, and the first day of travel went well.

Driving through the Midwest has been surprisingly enjoyable—though it is flat out here, the endless fields and wide open skies are pleasant and serene. Right now I’m excited for the mountains and hills once we reach further west.

Tomorrow, we’ll be making our way toward South Dakota. I suspect the scenery will remain mostly flat and empty! In the meantime, enjoy some photos from our adventures today:

Less than a week until we move! This Wednesday, my fiancé Alex and I are leaving from Ohio to move to our new apartment in Washington. We are mostly finished packing and currently feeling all the emotions! Through this blog, I plan to document my discoveries in the Pacific Northwest and our new life together in Seattle.

Follow along on social media as we embark on this exciting journey:

@tedrulez