London

In 20 days I will be touching down in London, annoyed that I have to wait in line at border control and just wanting to run and kiss the love of my life who will be waiting for me (as long as the train is on time!). We won't be spending any time in London other than in Heathrow, the setting of our wonderful hello and the dreaded goodbye. 

The first time around, we had a quick 4 days/3 nights in London. I was sick at the time so I lot of it is a blur for me, but we had some very lovely adventures together. 

Day one, after taking our train up to London and checking into our hotel, The Cavendish. After that we set off to explore Borough Market. We had watermelon, a sausage roll, steak pie, fresh squeezed juice and lots of free samples. I think we scoffed all the food too quickly to have any pictures though! Later that night, we explored Piccadilly Square, the M&M Store, had burritos for dinner, and I just took in all the sights I could. 

Our room at the Cavendish 

The next day we woke up bright and early to meet some very special friends. Tim and I met on Twitter and we both have been lucky enough to make friends with other Twitter folks. Sue and Kirsty are Tim's Twitter family and have taken me in as well. They happened to be in London just a few blocks from our hotel to run the BUPA London 10k so we had a quick meet up before they went off to the race. It may have only been about 20 minutes total, but I feel so lucky that I got to meet them and know they will both always be a part of my and Tim's Twitter family. 

We spent the rest of the day with Harry Potter, which I decided to continue as a later post :)

Our final full day in London was spent being tourists. We saw Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and lots more. We tried to make a palace guard smile (and he did when Tim took a selfie) and I got attacked by the guard (kinda like this). We finished off with a date night out to Indian Express, which at the time of our trip was the top ranked Indian restaurant on Trip Advisor. 

And the final photo to leave you with...I will never forget London because it is the first time I had the chance to try Monster Munch after hearing about it episode after episode of An Idiot Abroad. Apparently I am not like the Mexican Family that seemed to really love eating it...

Thanks Karl Pilkington.

Southampton

In honor of my trip back to England later this month, here is my first trip to Southampton. We did not have as much time in Southampton as I would have liked because a) my vacations are never long enough, and b) we were too busy visiting other place (London, Paris, Bath), but the time we did have I loved. 

The first full day there we had a lovely walk around the castle walls of Southampton. It was the very first castle I've ever seen in person and it finally hit me that I was in England. I got to make my first purchase with GBPs (a water at a Boots), bought a lock for Paris at Poundland, saw the Mayflower memorial, went to Queen's Park and explored the City Centre. We even stopped in a real English pub for a cider and ginger ale. I may have sprained my ankle that day and gotten one of the worst sunburns England has ever seen, but it was a perfect first day. 

Unfortunately I don't have any other pictures of our time in Southampton but that's because they were just normal every day activities. Walking to the shop to get food to make, going to my first British Costco (and successfully getting Tim's mum hooked on it), dinner with his parents, discovering new British TV shows (Googlebox, Pointless), going to Southampton Common, and Tim forcing me to lead the way back home after a walk to see how well I was learning. I was introduced to a clothes horse, washing bowl, and the toilet being in a different room than the shower.

Even though we have a lot of things scheduled for our next trip, I am looking forward to getting back to Tim's hometown and learning more about life there. Less than 4 weeks to go and I could not be more excited!!

San Francisco

I have decided that I should start catching up on our past visits we have had together before I forget too much of what happened! As I've mentioned before, I want to use this blog to chronicle the adventures we have in life so we can always remember them. It is a good reminder for me to appreciate our time together. So, on to the trip...

Why San Francisco? On Tim's blog, one of the first thing I remember reading was his to-do list. I remember I wanted to do something similar on my old blog and his was perfect inspiration. Two of them stood out to me #20 - Visit Alcatraz Prison and #83 - See The Golden Gate Bridge. In March I had taken a 24 hour trip on my own to San Francisco so I was a little familiar with it and it is a short plane ride away from Seattle. Tim's birthday was during his first trip to the US so I thought it would be a perfect way to celebrate by crossing a few things off his to-do list!

After a quick flight down in the morning, we checked in at our place in Union Square. We got free breakfast from the hotel because Tim is so charming (and they were about to clean it up when we got there), put our stuff down, and headed out to catch a bus. We toured through Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, and ended up on the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful, clear day so we decided to walk across the bridge. After many photo ops and the 1.7 miles we successfully made it across!!

We got back on the bus and got off near the Ferry Building. After a stroll through the ferry building and a walk that seem like it lasted forever we made it to Pier 39 to take a look at the sea lions and Alcatraz from afar. After a little side trip to Ghirardelli Square for some ice cream sundaes, we headed back to the hotel for happy hour followed by a wonderful and romantic dinner at a little Italian restaurant. 

The next morning, we got up bright and early to be on the first boat to Alcatraz! If you ever go to Alcatraz get up and go on the first boat..there weren't as many people there so some of the places we wandered there was no one around. Once we went in the actual prison bit, it was really interesting to see what it was like. I've never been in a prison before (thankfully) and I learned a lot about it. I even enjoyed it so much that I watched Escape from Alcatraz when I got home! I was glad to help Tim cross it off his bucket list..and save him from buying everything in the store. I mean, does anyone really need a metal Alcatraz meal tray?

After Alcatraz we road a famous cable car up to Lombard Street and back down to Union Square. 

Before we headed home, we caught another free happy hour at our hotel, this time complete with a magician! I love magic and am still trying to figure out the tricks he did that day. He was basically our own private magician for 30 minutes and we both absolutely loved it. Perfect way to end the trip.

Other than a short road trip in the Seattle area, it was the first trip that Tim and I took together and one I will never forget. Hope you had an amazing 31st birthday, Tim..and don't forget to cross #20 and #83 off of your to-do list!

P.S. Tim, I did not forget about the blonde German/Spanish family that we kept seeing, but I have yet to come up with a way that it makes sense in writing. For now it will just have to be an inside joke...

Hello 2015

Hello 2015! It is nice to finally see you. As always, the New Year is a great time to look back on the past year and a time to look forward at what the next one has in store for you. 

2014 was good to me - I got to travel, got a new job, spent time with friends and family, watched sports, met some more of my Twitter family (Hi Kirsty and Sue!), and got to enjoy 4 visits with the love of my life. 

In those 4 visits we covered a lot! Seattle, Southampton, London, Bath, Paris, Big Island Hawaii, Victoria, and the Olympic Peninsula were all places we visited. We explored new places, swam, hiked, snorkeled, kayaked, and ran a 5k. We saw 2 Sounders games together and 1 Mariners game. Most importantly though, we got to spend time being a couple and doing normal everyday things together. We learned even more about each other and our love has grown even more than I thought possible.

In 2015, I have a few things in mind I would like to accomplish.

• Try to live my life in a way that supports being happy and healthy
• Explore more new places and try new things
• Blog about everything Tim and I have done - I want to catch up on the past year of adventures
• Grow in my relationship with Tim, and hopefully get closer to cutting down the distance
• Be a supportive partner and help Tim reach his 2015 goals 

I know it is a bit cheesy to start the year off with new resolutions, but I really feel like 2015 will be a year of great growth in my life, and I can't wait to find out what it has in store for me!

Anniversary

Wow...it has been a whole year since I met Tim in person and a whole year since he officially became my boyfriend. Time has flown by but gone so slowly at the same time.

The time in between our visits (usually between 2-3 months) drags on for what seems like forever. It feels horrible when I look at the time that has passed, see a number like 41 days, and then realize less than half the time apart has passed. Sometimes I feel our time apart is playing in slow motion, dragging out as long as possible.

Then I look at the past year and am amazed at how quickly time has gone and how much we have experienced together. In the past year we have traveled and seen the sights in Seattle, Southampton, London, Paris, Bath, San Francisco, Victoria, the Olympic Peninsula, and soon to be Hawaii. We've seen baseball, soccer, and football games, gone to the ballet, gone kayaking, and have had amazing adventures together. The great thing about spending time apart is that when we are together we make the most of every minute and really live our lives to the fullest.

I have learned so much about him and myself in this past year. Tim amazes me each day with how sweet, funny, smart and everything else that he is. He has taught me to be a better person and strive for greatness for myself and my relationship.

My favorite thing is that I have learned in the past year that when it is right, it is right. Of course being in a long distance relationship has it hard moments, but with Tim it just works. I never feel burdened with trying to make it work. I can explain in a thousand ways why we are compatible and why it works but the bottom line is that I know. I know we were meant to be.

Happy Anniversary, Tim. Here is to many, many more to come!

17%

The first day I met Tim was 345 days ago. In some ways it feels like I've known him a lifetime, in others it just feels like I met him yesterday. In our first year together we have spent 61 days in the same place..or 17% of the year. We have missed holidays, birthdays, events, promotions, and getting to come home every day to your partner and best friend.

We happen to be very lucky considering our situation. There are many people with spouses or significant others that are deployed overseas for the military or people like us, but don't have the job flexibility or finances to see each other (thank you Tim's job for the flexibility and vacation time!..and I'm not sure we really have the finances but we make it work). 

The 17% of the year I've spent with Tim have been the absolute best days of my life. Although we are both typically really, really excited to see each other, usually after an hour we calm down and act like totally normal people. I take off my makeup, wear my ugly pjs, and snore all night like no time has passed at all. I've learned that in this situation that's all you can do to try to have some semblance of a normal relationship. I know when it comes down to it my relationship isn't masked by these fun and exciting trips we take because at the end of the day I'm just my normal self with my normal boyfriend. Unfortunately for Tim, I have even worked 2 of the 3 times he's come to see me, so there's not a lot of glamour to hide in there. 

And the 83% of the time he's not here? Well I would be lying if I said those days were all hearts, sunshine, and rainbows. I try to go on as I normally would; going to work, hanging out with friends and family, and having a routine. Unfortunately even when I have a great day, I still end the day wishing Tim was here. I've spent 83% of my year feeling like half of me is missing, not having my favorite person to come home and chat about my day with. I spend a lot of time anticipating the next visit, a lot of time planning out what we want to get done together, and even some nights a lot of time crying. Crying because I miss him, crying because I'm frustrated that it doesn't seem fair, crying because I have so many hoops I'm going to need to jump through to be with the man I love.

Luckily for me when I look back at the year the 17% stands out the most, and I wouldn't trade that time for anything in the world. 

December 2013

It has been a while since I've posted and someone has been nagging me..(hello, Tim!) so I thought I would finish up our first visit together.

In total Tim was here from Friday Dec 6th to Monday Dec 23rd. We did go to San Francisco in that time but I will save that for another post. We spent a lot of time hanging out and getting used to being with each other in person. The rest is sort of going to be a big list of pictures because there is too much to possibly explain it all!

Date night at the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker:

Seahawks Game (we won't bring up the score):

Compacting holidays by celebrating homemade Thanksgiving dinner, watching the Christmas boat, and making gingerbread houses:

Exploring the city (International District, Woodland Park Zoo, Fremont Troll, Dicks) and putting our ever important mark on the gum wall:

Road trips to Bainbridge Island, Snoqualmie Falls, Tulalip Casino and La Conner: