It's been a busy few days filled with lots of travel and lots of time adjustment! Especially when traveling by plane, I tend to get pretty anxious; not because I don't like flying, but the system of being at the airport hours before your flight, what you can and can't bring on carry-on luggage, making sure you don't put your license in a different place so you don't think you've lost it and therefor can't make the trip... 😅 And since meeting and marrying my incredible husband, traveling with someone with Type 1 Diabetes means you REALLY have to bring your A-Game. Did we remember all the supplies? Tester strips (including extra), insulin (packed in a way that won't break it and is temperature controlled), CGM and insulin pump supplies (again enough? Extra? Where is the best place to pack it?), Glucose tabs, snacks, drinks/juice, and the TSA info on what T1Ds can and can't do in terms of body scan/patdowns, etc.?
All that to say, a few other things have preoccupied my mind the last few days, thus the lack of a coffee check-ins 😎
But after arriving to our destination early Wednesday morning (east coast time), late Tuesday night (west coast time) and resting up and adjusting to the time zone a bit yesterday, I wanted to hop back in to help with my morning routine while out here.
So where is here exactly? For the next week or so, Chris and I are out in central Oregon, where he grew up. This is my second trip out here, but the first one where...well last trip was unplanned, last minute, and sadly revolved around the funeral of Chris' best friend, Rhett. It was a whirlwind 3 days full of so many emotions, but I fell in love with the Bend area almost immediately. Seems a lot of people do.
I can't imagine why...
Which brings me to what's on my mind and was the subject of much of our conversations after this photo was taken - home.
While born and raised in the south, and proud of how I grew up, exploring Florida's swamps, marshes, rivers, and the diverse ecosystems that make up the Panhandle region, my travels to visit my grandparents in the midwest and out west had a different sense of "home" than my "home" in Florida. I know the Wacissa River, St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Torreya State Park, and many other incredible areas in and around Tallahassee like the back of my hand. I know much of the areas in Wisconsin I spent my childhood summers, Palmyra, Elkhorn, WhiteWater, LauderLakes especially, I also know like the back of my hand, even now with my last trip up there being five years ago. The neighborhood my grandmother lived in in LakeWood, Colorado, I know pretty well, but I couldn't drive around LakeWood and Denver like I could these other places.
But there's always been something about the western mountains and coast that has always pulled at my heart - my soul. I was telling Chris last night that I think I'm finally able to put into words what that feeling is; love. True love. Which is emotional, rough, gentle, innate yet unfamiliar, trusting, work, safety. Even though I don't know certain areas like I do the other places I call home, every trip I've taken out west, be it Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and then the Pacific Northwest, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, I have felt at home. I haven't wanted to leave.
And I just want to explore it all. The mountains, high desert, trails, skiing, the seasons. I want to experience it all day, every day for the rest of my life. The cold, the heat, the sunrises and sunsets. And I've had this feeling ever since I can remember, so falling in love and marrying someone who was raised in such a place and wants to live in that again, is really just perfection.
After I took the picture above last night, we went inside and watched the sunset from the table where my coffee cup is sitting in the picture below - for an hour and a half. I listened to Chris and his dad talk, and joined in now and then, but I was just transfixed with the sunset. And I could do that every night for the rest of my life.
So while I'm not at home, I am home, and I'm so happy to be able to work and play here the next week.
While we don't have our fancy Nespresso out here, the Decaf Folgers we've had the last few mornings has been great. The view of course is a great distraction for anything, but it is really good everyday coffee. We've gotten a different kind of oat milk, which made great hot cocoa with adaptogens last night, but I'll have to look at the exact brand as I haven't seen it back home. Now off for my morning walk in the high desert!
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