Honeymoon Pictures Part 6 - Seattle & Miriam's Cousin Chaz and Jana

On Sunday morning, we attending the Antioch Bible Church. While in graduate school, John had enjoyed listened to Ken Hutcherson online sermons and so was eager to see the church for himself. He preached a great message about not becoming weak in faith and how we should believe in the true God of the Bible, not one we've made up in our minds. He also mentioned the parables in Luke 14 and emphasized that God does not place a value on our lives.

As John enjoyes getting pictures with people he likes (as he says!), we introduced ourselves to Pastor Hutcherson and did get a picture with him :) After church, we met my Cousin Chaz and his wife Jana at their cute yellow house! They took us out for lunch and on a tour of Seattle. They knew all the best place to get great views of the city and so we got a lot of awesome pictures of the area. They even took us to see some unusual Seattle things - like a satue of Lenin and a giant concrete troll! We were able to go to their church, Mars Hill that night. Its a neat city church that seems to be active and effective at reaching many people in the city of Seattle, especially the young people. The church reminded me of New Attitude conferences and Sovereign Grace Church. They both have gospel centered music with more modern music and a focus on reaching out to others as well as to build up the church through thriving community groups. Both Jana and Chaz said they have grown a lot through their involvement in this growing church.

After church, we stopped for a night view of Seattle. While John took pictures, Chaz and I threw an awesome lighted frisbee. I'm not the greatest at throwing a frisbee, but I enjoyed it and loved the fact that it had lights!

After dropping Chaz and Jana back off at their house, John and I dropped off our rental car and once again found ourselves at the airport. We took off after midnight and after a couple of flights we were back in Ohio.

The honeymoon trip may be over, but we like to think that the honeymoon may never end :) We're enjoying married life and are so glad that God brought us together and protected throughout this trip. John did such a great job at planning the trip and including things that both of us enjoyed so much!

Honeymoon Pictures Part 5 - A Waterfall and John's Great Uncle Arnold and Aunt Beatrice

On Saturday morning, we were outside on a short hike first thing in the morning. The day was perfect for walking. And since we knew we would be driving most of the afternoon, it was great to spend part of the morning outside.

This waterfall was very pretty!

I drove for a while, but soon was ready for a nap so John took over. As I got a good rest, John enjoyed all the views he could get of Mount Rainier. At one point I woke up enough to realize we had stopped. John quickly explained that we were in a little town a few miles out of the way to Seattle in order to get a better view of Mount Rainier before the interstate turned!

After arriving in Seattle, we found our way to John's Great Uncle Arnold and Aunt Beatrice's house. They had been been missionaries in Peru for many years and reminded me of my own missionary grandparents. I enjoyed getting to know them and both of us enjoyed talking with them that evening. They took us out for dinner at a good Chinese buffet. John had not seen them for 18 years and was pleasantly surprised to find that they still drove the same car! Soon it was time to say goodbye. After a week of being with just one another (which was great as well!), we enjoyed spending some time with sucn nice relatives!

Honeymoon Pictures Part 4 - Hurricane Ridge and the Coast

On Friday Morning we took a scenic drive up Hurricane Ridge. It was great to get a good view of the Olympic mountains and the glaciers on them!

These pictures are looking toward Port Angeles and Victoria. It was a bit cold up on the mountain.

Within just a few hours, we drove down the mountain and around the park to the coast on the west side of Olympic Park.

I enjoyed the coast as there were great rocks to climb. I'm more of a climber than John, but he did join me on one of the rocks! I was wishing that my younger siblings were there. Lydia, Elijah, Anna and Jubilee would no doubt enjoy climbing those rocks as well. Climbing these rocks reminded me of climbing the great rocks at Joshua Tree.

After a little more driving, we arrived at Lake Quinault Lodge where we stayed for the night. It was a beautiful place and is from what they said, in a rain forest. This was our last night in Olympic National Park so we were a bit sad to know that our time there was coming to an end. Hopefully someday we can return!

Honeymoon Pictures Part 3 - Butchart Gardens, Victoria, B.C.

I just found and downloaded the newest Picasa (Picasa 3) and used its awesome collage upgrade to create all the collages in this post. If you haven't upgraded yet, it's absolutely worth it! Download Picasa 3 here - it's free!

It's been a few days, but I finally have sat down once again to put together pictures from our honeymoon. Early on Thursday morning, we left our little cabin at Lake Crescent.

We took a passenger ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, B.C. It was a little chilly that morning, so I hung out in a covered area on top of the ferry while John spent a little time on the deck taking these pictures.

When we arrived in Victoria, we took a tour bus to The Butchart Gardens. I'm not the biggest flower person, but this really was cool! I enjoyed looking at all the different types of flowers.

I enjoyed taking some of these close up pictures. God has surely made some amazingly beautiful flowers!

Eventually, we had seen as many flowers as is possibly in one day and returned to Victoria on the bus. Once in Victoria, we enjoyed lunch in China town and then did some walking in the beautiful city.

I was tired once we finally boarded the ferry to go back to Port Angeles that night! Another great day!

Honeymoon Pictures Part 2 - Sol Duc Falls Trail

Sol Duc Falls is a short (under a mile hike) from the parking area in the Sol Duc are of Olympic National Park. It's a beautiful Falls!

After visiting the lower falls, we continued our hike up the mountain. It was perfect weather for a day hike.

Soon we came to another great viewing area for some higher falls. I've always loved hiking and waterfalls and we both enjoyed the views.

After about 3.7 miles, we finally arrived at Deer Lake. It's a peaceful lake with some camping areas where many backpackers were staying the night.

After climbing a cool tree (I can't pass one up!), we took a break and had some lunch.

The hike down felt a little long, but it was enjoyable as well. We had some more great views of the area. After a day of hiking, we were exhausted so it was nice to be able to return to our nearby room at Lake Crescent that night.

Honeymoon Pictures Part 1 - Seattle and Marymere Falls

Before too much time goes by, I want to post a bit about each day of our honeymoon! We had a terrific time and took well over 600 pictures, so it's a bit of a daunting task to make them into something manageably small. But, since I think some of you might be interested in seeing more pictures, I will attempt to make a post out of each days pictures.




We left the Columbus airport around on Monday 5pm and arrived in Seattle without delay by around 10pm. We were able to stay in a Mariotte Town Place Suites with points that I earned last year due to the business trips to Chicago! It was very nice - more like an apartment than a hotel.



Tuesday morning we got on the road and headed over to the Seattle Ferries. Since we wanted a long ferry ride, we chose the ferry to Bremerton.

The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the views of Seattle as we left.



Once we arrived in Bremerton, we drove on to Port Angeles where we stocked up on some groceries and other essentials at Walmart - always a very useful store! We bought stuff to make sandwiches as well as some breakfast food so we wouldn't be stuck eating every meal at the overpriced lodge.

Soon we were at our lodge at Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park. After taking a brief nap, we took a short 1.5 mile hike to beautiful Marymere Falls.

We got back just in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset at the lake!

I hope you enjoyed getting a "picture" of the great scenery and fun that we had on our first day in Washington state!

Note - you can click on the individual pictures if you would like to see them full screen.

We're Home!

What a nice feeling - to be home! I haven't really been at home--defined as a permanent place where I don't live out of a suitcase :)--since leaving my place in Millbrook at then end of May. So it is indeed nice to be home. I've been busy sorting stuff and settling in - it feels great!


We did have a wonderful honeymoon. I enjoyed traveling and spending time with John while enjoying new places and taking (and having John take!) tons of pictures. I intend to post a few pictures each day so you all can see the cool places we went. Hopefully my good intentions will be carried out!


Our plane left Seattle after Midnight Sunday so we had a restless night sleeping on two planes and in the Minneapolis airport. But after resting a little after we got home around noon on Monday, we had some fun opening up the many nice wedding gifts and cards we had received. We have been truly blessed beyond our wildest imagination!



For those of you who are interested in seeing the many cool things we received, here's the pictures!



I am still putting gifts away and will get back to that now though I hope to post more soon.


Oh, if you think of it. Please pray for my job interview tomorrow at 1:30. After a phone interview a couple weeks ago, I was very interested in this job. So I'm looking forward to the interview - though I suppose I'll be a tad bit nervous :)

Today in Victoria B.C.

We're having a great time here in Washington! Yesterday we saw several waterfalls as we went on a nice 7.4 mile hike! Today we took a ferry over to Victoria B.C. and visited Butchart Gardens. The flowers were beautiful! More pictures to come later on . . . Thanks for checking in!