it's not goodbye, it's just goodbye

I suppose it's high time to make the official announcement (even though if you read this blog, you probably already know it) - Cameron and I are moving to Tacoma, Washington in June! We are so thrilled to take on this new adventure. We've been plotting for a big change of some sort for several years, and the way all of the little details have so easily and seamlessly come together for this opportunity has been almost uncanny. It's involved a lot of luck, but when I really think about it, it's also the result of years and years of planning. (For example, my friend Juli pointed out this blog post to me yesterday that I wrote in June 2009. It actually freaked me out a little bit how much of that post foretold the future, and how I've been subconsciously gathering little bits of life plans through my addiction to the internet and squirreling them away for future use. Yes, it was written at a time when I had my sights on Nashville, not Tacoma; I'm not a fortune teller!)

Thus, a slow and steady goodbye to Salt Lake City has been taking place in my mental and physical space for awhile now. I've taken it in small doses and little moments, really drinking it up. Soaking in the mountain vistas from any point in the city, particularly on my drive to work. Visiting treasured neighborhoods from my recent past (read: Sugarhouse.) Eating out at favorite restaurants as often as I can, and accumulating last bites and last looks.

Yesterday was seventy and sunny and could not have been a more perfect day to make a symbolic farewell. I started the day with a walk around my neighborhood, a location I have not taken for granted and have stuck with for a shocking four years on what I had intended to be a six month lease. My undying love for this southwesterly corner of the Avenues and bordering Temple Square and downtown Salt Lake City is deeply ingrained.








All photos within a block of my apartment: Some favorite apartments across the street; Said apartments in view of Temple Square; Continuing down the street; Favorite red apartment building; Neighborhood Market on corner of 1st and State; Neighborhood Market in view of Temple; park on corner of 2nd and State; view up 1st with our apartment in center (and peek of mountains); 2nd Ave with view of Capitol; downtown view from park on 2nd; view of Temple Square from our apartment lot; back view of our building.

Cameron and I then picked up lunch to go at Caputo's and had a picnic on the Capitol lawn, drove out to the Great Saltair, then spent hours and hours at the Great Salt Lake marina and on the beaches of the desert lake. I waded out into the water and just stood there alone watching the sailboats, and the sunset, and the Oquirrh Mountains, then Antelope Island, then the Wasatch Mountains, then Cameron sitting on the sand doing Sudoku with the Saltair behind him, and repeat. I probably looked like a nut, but it was so peaceful, and so perfect.

I'd like to post pictures on this here blog as often as I can leading up to the move, but I will probably be light on the words, heavy on the photos and keep my thoughts to myself. It's so important to me to close personal chapters with inner gratitude and grace, and that's always too much to express with words.

(In a nice bit of symmetry, the bulk of the next couple of weeks will be spent in my true home state, Virginia, visiting with new eyes and celebrating the wedding of my sister! So I hope to share photos not just of my current-but-soon-to-be-former home, but also my childhood-and-in-many-ways-heart home, as well as my couldn't-be-more-excited-for-the-future home, Washington!)