I'm in Washington!

I made it! I am sitting in my new apartment right now! I want to thank all of you who were praying for me during this trip, and who have checked in on me -wondering how everything went/is going.

The trip went so well, even better than I could have hoped for! As you can see from my previous post, I was able to keep occupied with the License Plate Game, and I'm happy to report that I saw 46 different states! I had decided that I would end the game when I pulled into my apartment complex, and when I did, I was happy to see #46, Georgia! The states I didn't see were Hawaii, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Mississippi. Maybe those will be my first four on the next trip...

During my drive, I took time to see the "famous" Mitchell, SD Corn Palace. As you can guess, it's a palace made out of corn. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see the individual ears of corn that make up the walls.

While in Wyoming, I got to see Devil's Tower, which was our nation's first National Monument. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was actually pretty amazing.

In the last picture, you might be able to see that there's a whole flock of vultures that were circling the top of the tower. There were also two guys who were climbing up one of the crevices. Pretty amazing!

In crossing the mountain passes of Idaho, it actually got pretty dark for me in the middle of the afternoon, with a huge cloud covering. It was raining on and off, pretty light, but the clouds were very dark. Well, just as I came down off the last pass, the clouds opened up and God gave me an INCREDIBLE view! The clouds opened up a little, and the sun was directly behind them in its sunset. The sky turned a bright gold color and I immediately thought "this must be what the streets of heaven look like!" It was that spectacular! As the sunset progressed, I saw every shade of gold, orange, pink, and purple imaginable. The picture can't even begin to do it justice!

I had a great time in Wyoming, Spokane, and also Everett. Thanks to all my friends and family that hosted me during this trip!

I moved into my apartment yesterday morning, and it only took about 30-45 minutes to get everything unloaded from my car. I had hoped to be able to take pictures of my apartment to show you, but I don't have everything quite ready yet. Don't worry, they'll come soon!

When I moved in, I realized that there was a hill and many trees in the way of me getting to see Mount Rainier from my place. But, I knew a great view couldn't be far away. The sky was clear, so I figured I was in luck, but when I drove around and got to a good spot, this is what I saw. The clouds were hanging right over the mountain, but if you look real close you can see it hiding underneath.

Well, today, I went out exploring a little (finding the hospital, etc) and it was real cloudy. I went into Target, and an hour later walked out (I can spend a LOT of time in Target!). I was busy fumbling with my keys, but then looked up and the sight took my breath away! Mount Rainier really IS close, and it's incredible! I drove back to the good viewing spot I found, and there were three other cars there with people taking pictures! Now I can see that in this picture, it doesn't actually look as majestic as it did in person. Maybe because of the hills in the way, or the fact that I was trying to get the moon in the shot so the mountain looks smaller, but it really is pretty breathtaking! I imagine you'll get to see LOTS more pictures during my three months here!

I'm off to bed. I have to be at Human Resources at 8am for hospital orientation. I think that's also when I should find out my schedule, so I'm excited to start making plans during my days off!