The new chapter begins: Life at the Lake

“Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.”

                                                    -- Jim Rohn

River walk downtown Chelan, Washington

It isn't so much about the travel as it is about the time spent in a place. And it isn’t as much about the place as the people who make up your world. Travel, time spent, people and place all contribute to our collection of experiences.

These aren’t new insights for us, but they’ve come to mind often during the month that we’ve spent in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

In the last couple posts about the purpose of this trip – to replant our roots in the U.S. -- I’ve been focused on the 'facts and figures' of ex pat life - making a case for having a foothold 'back home'. Truth be told, though, there's an emotional side to the story as well:

This October has been an almost mirrored reversal of our activities last  October when we boxed up our U.S. life and moved to Greece for a full-time ex pat adventure.

Back then we put our U.S. life, in a manner of speaking, into a storage unit; a place we quickly came to call ‘the morgue’. (You can probably see why from the photo). Coupled with our downsizing efforts, it became a  climate-controlled somewhat morbid reminder that we are boomers who have a much shorter road ahead of us to travel than we once did.

While we were eager to pursue our daydreams – a pursuit we heartily recommend – leaving one life for another does pack a wallop of emotions. Closing one door to open another can be tough.

Opening Another New Door

Wapato Point Lake Chelan, Washington State

But in our case, by closing a door we've opened two new ones! We are now at home in Greece most of the year and at home – for a bit of time each year  -- in Manson, Washington. The door has closed permanently on the ‘morgue’ and we’ve got a whole new lifestyle to live.

Lake Chelan from The Butte, Washington State

The weeks we spent moving into this new lifestyle had been a good reminder of how blessed we are to have special people at both ends of our horizons.  Long-time friends, those we refer to as our 'friend family' back in the U.S. welcomed us with get-togethers, offers of accommodations and help with moving chores. We had others make the trek to Manson to welcome us to our new life there.

Meanwhile back in Greece we had a cadre of relatively new friends who've become equally special to us, who stepped in to keep an eye on our life there. We were extremely grateful to them and their efforts when the ‘Medicane’ (Mediterranean hurricane) hit our area of the Peloponnese only days after we arrived in the U.S.

"Life is the collection of experiences" and friendships

”Time is not measured by the passing of years but by what one does, what one feels and what one achieves.”

                                     -- Jawaharlal Nehru

Life at the Lake

There is no doubt about it, we will again be 'living differently' as we plant our roots in both a Greek hillside and a small village in Washington State. While we are eager to return to our Stone House on the Hill, it is good knowing we also have a Life at the Lake.

I promised you a home tour last week so come, take a look at what we've been doing the last few weeks to create that new life:

The Scout on the front deck - sunset over the Cascade Mountains

We are as settled as one can be after three weeks. Thirteen days after the moving van had pulled away, we emptied our last box. (Our downsizing had worked – we were surprised to have a number of empty cupboards and shelves.) The walls seem rather bare.

Shelves and not boxes are much better displays of memories

This home – in keeping with our downsizing emphasis – is smaller than our Kirkland home yet it is larger than our Greek home.  It is also a 'boomer home' a rambler built one level. As a result, it feels very spacious. In fact, it feels downright enormous!

The amazing change - old things do fit in new places

The Manson house is furnished with many inherited items belonging to parents, aunts, uncles and friends who are no longer with us. Others, like the items on the built in shelves, were collected on our travels. All of these were considered ‘life treasures’ and spared the discard or give-away down-sizing efforts last year. Now they’ve come together in new spaces so we have a wonderful hodge-podge of  mis-matched furniture and memories of  people and places; our collection of life experiences.

“Learn to appreciate what you have, before time makes you appreciate what you had.'”

                                                          -- Unknown

Guest bedroom is ready to welcome friends

We’ve got a guest room and the welcome mat is out.  There are more than 30 wineries and vineyards now in the Lake Chelan AVA so we hope our wine-loving, lake-loving friends will make the journey to see us while we are in residence.

Using those Greek 'do-it-yourself-' talents we've developed to make our bed

We used some of those skills we’ve developed in Greece to set up the master bedroom. We'd discarded our bedroom furnishings last fall. Using those 'do-it-yourself-skills' we've developed in Greece we met the challenge of assembling an iron bed frame. By downsizing, old pieces got new homes. The rattan furniture in the photo had been in our family room and with no family room now, it went to the bedroom. It was souvenir we bought ourselves and had shipped to the U.S. from Bangkok, Thailand some 30 years ago. We are glad we didn't part with it.

The Chelan Room - the den

A third bedroom has become a den known as the 'Chelan Room' as we’ve filled it with furniture and photos collected by The Scout’s family who came to this area a century ago.  His grandmother (who may have provided his travel genes) traveled by ferry boat up the Columbia River to arrive in Chelan. For those familiar with the area, they homesteaded an area now home to Bear Mountain Golf Course.

Washington State's Columbia River

“. . .your soul knows when it is time to close a chapter. . .’

                              -- Unknown

While the quote is apropos, we think the soul also knows when it is time to start a new one. Thanks for being with us as this chapter begins.

As always we appreciate the time you spend with us and we’ve also appreciated all your comments cheering us along in this new twist to the journey.

Safe travels to you and yours and next week - if our travels go according to plan - we’ll be writing from The Stone House on the Hill!

Linking with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Communal Global
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Best of Weekend

Expat life: We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

“Turn things around sometimes and look at life from a different perspective.”

                                                      -- Jean Wilson

Two weeks ago we made the move.  Actually another move in the continuing saga of these two boomers who chose to ‘live differently’.

Unless you are a first-time visitor here, that ‘living differently’ isn’t news as we’ve been doing that for a year as full-time American ex pats in Greece. What’s new these days is that now we’ve upended the big city life we'd lived in the U.S. and planted ourselves in rural America. This latest move was prompted somewhat by our actions last year. . .

Welcome to Chelan county!

When we moved to Greece last October – after 30 years of living in a Seattle suburb -- we didn’t realize just how far outside the norm we’d taken ourselves.

Seattle, Washington from Puget Sound

In our quest for a ‘final fling’ (as we call our full-time expat adventure) we’d turned ourselves into square pegs that didn’t fit the round holes of those U.S. businesses, financial and medical institutions with which we were still affiliated. It didn’t take us long to learn that without a U.S. phone number and residence address (not just mailing address) to verify our existence, it was very difficult to deal with these folks. A foreign phone number and an address in Greece just didn't fit a U.S. verification form or protocol.

And our joking about 'living out of a storage unit and a hotel room' when in the Northwest was a joke.  It wasn't fun -- in the least.

Moonlight over Manson, Washington

So, a year later and still living full-time in Greece, we’ve purchased a ‘seasonal home’ (that’s the name these days for vacation or part-time homes) in Manson. It's an unincorporated town, the size of a village on the shores of Lake Chelan in eastern Washington State.

That might sound to many reading this like we’ve simply ‘returned’ to Washington State. But, au contraire! Those who’ve lived here know that. . .

East is East and West is West!

And we’ve just had another seismic shift in lifestyle.

View of Cascade Mountains from Kittitas County - Washington State

While the Cascade Mountain range physically divides the state, it is the differences in political leanings, lifestyles, traffic, weather, population density, housing prices and industry that creates the state’s real division.

Interstate 5 between Seattle and Tacoma, left; Highway 97 between Wenatchee and Chelan, right

No joke. There is often talk of the two sides going their own way; creating two states in the Pacific Northwest corner of the U.S. because of the vast differences in political leanings and lifestyles. The last ‘official’ proposal came from a group in 2015 who wanted to create two states: Washington to the west and Madison to the east.

Road trips in Eastern Washington cut through wheat fields and pass grain elevators

Eastern Washington with its wide open spaces has a much smaller population density; one that is predominantly conservative in politics and lifestyle. It’s main industries are agriculturally based (wine industry, fruit, cattle, truck gardens).

Western Washington, home to Seattle and its suburbs, is jam-packed with people, traffic and housing density.  Technology’s Microsoft and industry giants Starbucks and Amazon got their starts  and continue to be major players in the area.  One can’t overlook the contributions of Kurt Cobain and Grunge music, as they, too, have helped create today's Seattle and its surroundings.The population is liberal in lifestyle and politics.

On the road to Life at the Lake - Swauk Prairie, Kittitas County

We were both raised in the eastern side of the state, lived our adult lives in the increasingly jam-packed western side and now find ourselves back in the east – at least for what we anticipate will be a few weeks each year in our seasonal home.

Different shades of life make the painting more beautiful.

                      -- Mike Dolan

Small Town vs. Suburb

We've spent the last few weeks moving into life in Manson. It didn't take us long to realize that as Dorothy told Toto in the Wizard of Oz, we weren't in Kansas anymore!

'Moving Monday' as the day shall forever be known was a long sweat-inducing day of supervising and assisting the professional movers in the emptying of our suburban storage unit. We'd  left the suburbs in the mid-afternoon. A quick stop at the Manson house and then on to dinner at one of the two village pub/taverns. While eating, the desk clerk at the town's motel called to remind us that ther office would be closing in an hour at 10 p.m.Would we be there to pick up our key or did she need to leave it somewhere for us?

It’s a small town. Not a late night place. Not a 24/7 place. But a warm place.
Welcome to our other world.

Welcome signs greet guests at the Mountain View Resort - Manson, Washington

We easily got the key as the motel is two blocks from where we were dining. It is also two blocks from our new house. Everything in Manson seems to be two blocks from each other.
It is a small town.

The dock at Manson on Lake Chelan.

The moving van arrived at 8 a.m.Tuesday morning so we missed breakfast at the hotel (the office and breakfast both open at 8.am.) It was a long day of lifting, hauling, moving, thinking. Finally, unable to move another item, we headed to one of the several wine tasting rooms in the village. Wine tasting rooms are operated by wineries to showcases (by selling 'tastings' or glasses) their wines and provides an outlet for wine sales to folks who wouldn't travel into the countryside to visit the winery.

MVP Vintners made us feel like MVP's

It was 5:55 p.m. when we walked into the tasting room on the town's main drag. We asked how long they’d be open. “Six” he told us.

Sigh. Small town. Not a 24/7 place.

“We’ll try another down the street,” said The Scout to which Pete (our first new friend) replied,  “I am one of the latest to stay open, most close at 5.”  Then he smiled and added,  “I can stay open a bit longer. What will you have?  It is a great sunset tonight.”

Not late night. Not 24/7. A small town. A nice town.

Lake Chelan between Chelan town and Manson

Thanks for being with us as we kick off our other side of life; that which will be known as ‘Life at the Lake’.  Next week I’ll give you a tour of this seasonal home of ours just before our month back in the States ends  and we head back to The Stone House on the Hill.  As always, we appreciate the time you’ve spent with us today and we hope to see you here again soon. Until then, safe travels to you and yours ~

Linking this week with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Communal Global
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Best of Weekend