Cross Country Road Trip 2022 (WA to PA)

We moved to Seattle, WA in August 2018 for me to pursue an engineering position with Microsoft, something I only dreamed of doing when I decided to become an engineer. It really was a dream come true at the time, and honestly it still is. I hold a lot of pride in what I have been able to accomplish in my engineering career so far and I am still in awe of the capabilities of technology every single day. However, this move brought out something in both me and husband that I’m not sure we would’ve found if we had not decided to take this adventure 4 years ago, and it didn’t necessarily have to do with our careers. We gained an appreciation for life, quite honestly, as cheesy as that sounds. We found joy in the little things, the beauty of the nature around us, the ability to move slowly and be present and thankful for this life we’re sharing. We’ve grown so much in the last 4 years, we’re not the same people and we’re so grateful for the experiences this adventure gave us.

As much as these last few years have taken from each and every one of us, it also gave my family the opportunity to make the decision to move back home to Pennsylvania. We both were blessed with permanent work from home positions which allowed us to work from anywhere. While I keep talking about how great this move was for us, there was always a sense of longing to be near family again, especially once it becomes time to start our own family. And we figured this gave us the perfect opportunity to turn the move home into an adventure as well.

So many memories were made on this trip. I’ll remember my last view of Mt Rainier, getting lost in the woods in Idaho looking for Hell’s Canyon (it’s in Oregon lol), I’ll never forget legitimately crying when we drove the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway because of how beautiful it was, I’ll remember our cabin in tiny Cooke City, MT, I’ll remember stopping under a bridge on the highway in Montana in the middle of a hail storm, I’ll remember how close we were to the elk in Grand Teton and the buffalo in the Badlands, I’ll remember Lewis Lake, Shiloh swimming in Montana, the mosquitoes in Yellowstone and Grand Teton, eating nothing but gas station food for two days while camping, forcing my husband to take a picture at the Chicago bean and then eating two giant pizzas (cause you have to try the thin crust and the deep dish), having a slight mental breakdown driving into Chicago because I knew the trip was ending but was also so excited to get home, and I’ll remember pulling into my parents’ driveway knowing this next exciting chapter was about to begin. I’ll remember this trip for the rest of my life and I’m so happy we’ll have these memories to look back on.