I never want to leave

I don't know how, but we were able to make it to Seattle by 1:30 this afternoon (the 19th).  Remember yesterday and how our train was delayed 7 HOURS...well, when we arrived we were only three hours later than scheduled.  God definitely had this all orchestrated in His timing.

But yes, we loaded up at 4:30am on the 19th and were on the train until about 9am; that brought us from Whitefish (MT) to Spokane (WA).  From Spokane, we were quickly transferred to a coach bus that drove us the remainder of the trip to Seattle.  The short delay in our arrival was actually a blessing.  By arriving a few hours later than planned, the church we were connecting with was able to send us a van to pick us up at the depot instead of us trying to work our way there through public transportation.  God's fingerprints are all over this.

We were all pretty knocked out from Whitefish to Spokane...I think I maybe slept three or four hours, minus one hour that was lost when we switched from mountain time to pacific time.  I woke up when we were traveling through Idaho and was immediately captivated by the morning sunrise:

While on the train this morning, I had the time to call home and that was much needed.  It was great to have the opportunity to talk to my mom and dad.  We talked for about 45 minutes which was a pretty fantastic way to start my day :)

Once in Spokane, it was a fairly simple process to get from out train car to the bus.  We loaded up and were told it would be about 5 hours to Seattle.  I believe we left about 9am and we arrived in Seattle at 1:30pm.  The drive there was...interesting.  The first two hours, Megan and I watched the Lorax on my laptop.  That was my third time watching that movie this trip.  During the movie I would occassionally look out the window to see some pretty flat-ish farm land--I was not expecting Washington state to be farmland!  But towards the end of the trek it became more mountainous:

Sorry, I am really tired today.  Like I said, I got maybe a few hours sleep at most :(  So I really want to finish this post up fast!

After we got in Seattle, we were able to connect with Chad for the local church we are staying at tonight.  He picked us up in a big van and brought us back to the church where we were fed some nice snacks and got ready for our Seattle adventures!

We drove around Seattle and got to see some attractions from afar like the Space Needle (it is really expensive to visit and honestly much more attractive from a distance anyway), the Starbucks headquarters, even...a Krispie Kreams donuts shop!  I remember when we had those in Wisco...but now I haven't seen one in a very long time.  We didn't stop for donuts but that was alright by me!

Once we found parking downtown we headed in the direction of the market.  It was so much more than I thought it would be--it's actually a market #whowouldhavethought?  There was everything from fish to veggies to jewelry to Chinese.  We were all in a tourist mode so we basically walked through it and took lots of pictures!

I was excited to have the opportunity to wear my Love the the Max shirt as you can tell from the picture.  Even though it was raining (surprise, surprise) and I wore my jacket for the walking adventure.

We even went to the first Starbucks that is located by the market.  Amy and I took pictures outside the store but there was a random car parked in front of it that kind of ruins my pictures.  Unfortunately due to the long ling, we decided to get some coffee from one of the other 35 Starbucks in the few blocks that we traveled.  Seriously, there was literally almost one on every block #ridiculous

Some highlights of my downtown Seattle experience include:

• my new, souvenir Starbucks/Seattle themed mug
• discovering my new favorite Starbucks drink (something-mocha with carmel and toffee nut)
• seeing all the 'hipsters'
• the market
• and walking the streets of downtown

We got a little peak at the building we will be serving at tomorrow.  We have to be up and at the bus stop at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so...I'm going to bed now.  For those of you who are able to view my Facebook profile, I will be uploading more pictures soon.  But everyone can see my Instagram feed that is updated as it is happening!

But as the title suggests, I have fallen in love with this city.  The style.  The view.  The attractions.  The coffee.  The lifestyle.  The food.  Everything.  I don't want to leave.  This could be a problem ;)

Kim