Getting Adjusted and Seeing the Sights

Ok, I'll be the first to admit, my job seems to be a little lame at this point in time. It really has nothing to do with design or architecture or engineering or anything that I really enjoy doing at the moment. I work with customers a little bit and get their job requests (construction they want done) and such through the ridiculous government system. I also do some military admin stuff with some of the enlisted members on base. The thing I am really enjoying about the military is really seeing how the government works from the inside. It really is a whole different lifestyle. I would compare it to a cultural immersion, which is the best way to really learn and understand about another culture. I am certainly not convinced that this is the life for me, but it is a very enlightening and bizarre experience that I will not soon forget. It's a great thing to really be a part of this country and try to contribute to its driving force. Another positive factor of my job is that has great pay, benefits, and job security. I guess if I was going to go through this experience at some point in my life, this is the economy to do it in.

Oak Harbor, where I live and work, is about 2 hours north of Seattle. It's off the coast on Whidbey Island, so i have to drive across a bridge to get there. Luckily, it happens to be an absolutely gorgeous bridge! It's called 'Deception Pass' and you can see Canada on one side and the US on the other. Oak Harbor covers about the Northern third of the Island. It is a small town and a good amount of it is military. There are a lot of really great outdoorsie things to do. I would really love to go kayaking around deception pass, there are some great little islands and lots of great wildlife. I saw a bald eagle the other day while driving around the island.



I spend most of my time in Seattle, however. There is definitely much more to do there, and it's nice to get away from the whole military thing for a while every weekend. I spend a good amount of time there before the holidays because I got snowed in! Luckily I had driven down to Seattle right before the big snow storm hit so I was stuck somewhere amusing. The base was closed down for snow days for almost a week, and then I took time off for the holidays. Apparently Seattle is not used to snow at all. I'm used to Michigan, where if it snows at night, all the roads are cleared and iced by the morning. In Seattle, they just close roads and don't plow them at all. I didn't even try to drive anywhere. It was pretty crazy. So instead of going anywhere, we just walked around and enjoyed the snow in the city.
It did become a problem, however, when we tried to go to the airport and fly home for Christmas! By Christmas Eve, which is when we were flying out, most of the flight delays and cancellations were over, but apparently there was a major parking shortage. I just assumed we would drive to the airport, park the car, and get it when we can back in a few days. There was NO PARKING anywhere!! I was even willing to pay the $30 per day for the short term airport parking. People were parked illegally everywhere, and the whole top deck of the parking structure was closed off due to snow. A lot of the non airport parking were either shut down or half of the lots was covered in snow too. Finally, we decided to drive all the way back to Seattle, pick up one of Ryan' friends from work, then drive back to the airport and let the friend drive the car back to the apartment. It all ended up working out, but it was a greatly stressful start to the holidays!