Moving to the Northwest

I have a thing about hillsides with clouds above. A last view of the Hudson River Valley in NY.

Here are all the siblings on Hurricane Ridge above Port Angeles, WA.
One by one, three of my four brothers moved to Seattle. I am definitely not a Big City Girl, but when I first drove through Port Townsend, WA, in the late 1970's, I said to myself, "I could live here." In 1989 I rented a house and studio there, but chickened out at the last minute...living as an artist didn't allow me a lot of financial flexibility to move the 3000 miles from Vermont to Washington.

Finally, in 2005, after working, saving, growing spiritually, and developing both my Art Business and my money-making Occupational Therapy skills, I left a wonderful home, a delightful studio, and a very nice man, and made the 3000-mile trek from Saugerties, NY, to Port Angeles, WA, on the top edge of the Olympic Peninsula.

Here I am beginning the next phase of my life as an artist, a writer, a healer, a 58-year-old adolescent explorer of my own life. I have a strong urge to share the process with my friends and fans, and from what I've heard back from my books and articles and classes, you enjoy and relate to much of what I'm doing. Our lives are stitched together and take shape from the stories we tell ourselves, and I'm going to share mine with you.

Here I am, in June 2005, in one of the Dakotas, halfway across the country. It was a very, very hot day. I'd like to drive across country again and have more time to stop and look at the scenery and take pictures, but I was aiming to get to Port Angeles before the movers.

The Columbia River Valley, coming into my new state, Evergreen, rather than Green Mountain. The mountains are taller than those in Vermont, and the evergreens stand sentinal in endless rows.

My fine family of movers from Las Vegas had me unloaded in no time, then on to Portland.

I found both the rental house and my new job on the internet, with some help from Irene Snodgrass, whom I met in the middle of the Carribbean when I taught on the cruise for Soft Dolls and Animals two months before my move...who says that Fate doesn't take a hand in Life?
I picked up Mom on my way through Iowa, and she cleaned and polished my new home, while both she and my brother, David, helped me feel at home in my new home.

Beautiful downtown Port Angeles...a town of 19,000 on the northern shore of the Olympic Penninsula in Washington state, the Cascades to the south, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north. We can see the lights of Victoria, BC, across the salt water at night.

Port Angeles from the City Pier. In the summer, there are festivals and concerts and the Farmers' market. I am drawn to the water in every season and weather.

The sculptures throughout downtown are part of the city's charm; the cormorant sculptures sitting on pilings nesting with the real birds was what clinched my decision to move here. The sunny January days, with flowers in bloom put icy January days in the Northeast far behind.