Our One Year Anniversary of Adventure (and Marriage)

One year ago Katy and I started out on a great adventure, which is still continuing. We didn't know when we had our belongings packed up in Boston that we would be coming to China - we only knew that we were moving to the West Coast. We had spent over three years living together in Boston/Cambridge. We loved it. We had great friends, two community garden plots, and our families nearby. But alas our pre-married days were coming to a close and there was no time to waste, we had adventures to seek and were moving to the West Coast.

Sunset in August from our new backyard. Our house is the building to the right.

Katy had spent the summer of 2015 in Oregon, interning with Nike in-between her years at MIT Sloan Business School. I went out to visit and we agreed to move out there, but first we were going to get married in Vermont. Luckily Nike had everything packed up and shipped out West for us.

Celebrating at our wedding with our favorite fellow Polar Bears

We got married in a beautiful meadow in Vermont, then spent the next week making our way to Rhode Island for the wedding of dear friends of ours (from both Bowdoin and Boston). Next stop was Bozeman, MT, on our way Yellowstone National Park for a week. We saw bison, bears, bighorn sheep, moose, elk and a coyote; we bathed in hot springs and watched geysers explode. After Yellowstone we spent a week both chilling out AND hiking an average of ten miles a day in Colorado. It was great, the stores were super chill, the mountains were gorgeous and we had great weather except for one thunderstorm we almost got stuck in on top of a ridge.

Madly in love and dancing at our wedding in the Mad River Valley, VT

Next stop was Western Iowa for RAGBRAI (the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa). If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm not surprised, but you will be surprised when you learn about how awesome an experience it is (http://ragbrai.com/). My second time on RAGBRAI, Katy's third time, and her family's fifth or so time riding bikes across Iowa with tens of thousands of other awesome people. It's like Tour-de-France meets Mardi Gras, or a state fair on wheels: everyone is having fun, eating food, drinking beer and spending a week tenting in various campgrounds across Iowa. We had great weather again! What a summer so far.

Raising our bikes in the air at the Eastern shore of Iowa

We (or at least I) was long overdo for some relaxing fun in the sun, and luckily it was perfect timing to meet up with my family in Seaside Heights, NJ. We spent a final week of our extended post-marriage-extravaganza getting even more sunburnt, sipping cocktails, and laughing and eating with my family. Then suddenly we were in Oregon, staying at a residence type hotel and waiting to move in to our house. There were some shenanigans involved in closing on our house - oh yeah, we bought a house somewhere between Vermont and the Jersey Shore by the way - but we were able to move in a few weeks later.

Katy and I testing painting samples in our new Oregon home

After we deep cleaned, sanded, primed and painted the house, I got hired and started work at Torii Mor Vineyard and Winery in the Willamette Valley. Shortly afterwards Katy started work at Nike and our extended honeymoon/adventure was quickly behind us. Onto the next adventure! It was a whirlwind for the first few months, but we eventually settled into our new home, got to know our way around the local farmer's market, made some friends and got Oregon drivers licenses.

Me at work at the vineyard. I got to drive the beautiful orange tractor!

It was tough getting used to the West (some say Best) Coast, but I did just in time to leave and begin our international adventure. If you're been checking in on our blog you know we have had some cultural experiences, traveled about quite a bit, but also miss being back in the U S of A. As I write this our adventure is almost two-thirds complete - whew! We'll be back in Maine for a wedding in a few weeks but before we know it we'll be back to our new home in Oregon in the fall for good. Our crazy adventure is coming to an end and it's hard to believe that soon we'll be settled down.

I'm pretty sure this photo was taken at some point in 2017, somewhere in Asia . . . but I can't be sure

In the past year we have woken up in a dozen states, almost as many countries, and a seemingly countless number of beds. We have handled more than our fair share of global currencies, guidebooks, and restaurant menus. If there has been one consistent thing in our lives it has been inconsistency. I have often woken up wondering quite literally where in the world I am, but to be honest it hasn't mattered all that much, because I've been waking up next to Katy. She is the love of my life and while I never would have volunteered for the past year we've had, it's been amazing and I wouldn't trade our experiences for anything.

Happy 1st Anniversary Katy!

For our anniversary we'll be heading to Taiwan, or "Democratic China" as some of our new English-speaking Chinese friends have called it. Hopefully we continue our past year's streak of luck and have good weather, but if not, at least we'll be waking up next to each other again, even if I can't quite remember where I am at the time.