Where's Abby (+ Dylan and dogs)

          It's been a year since our arrival to our new west coast home and here's my first update! I just found a draft from October where I vowed to myself I'd write a monthly update and here we are. And now I have the task of summarizing a whole YEAR. How to cover it all? "Plan some themes for a couple different posts? Organize your thoughts? ... Just start writing and figure it out?" Let's do this. You can click here to read about our roadtrip out here (also 1 year late), and you can check out Dylan's flickr for more pics.  Oregon Arrival          On May 15th, 2020, we saw our first signs for Pacific City. We drove through national forests, by picturesque rivers, on one way bridges, until we spotted the big old ocean rock in the distance (Haystack Rock), and drove up to our little blue house. We were kind of skeptical before arriving about what the town and house would be like-- exploring Google maps before had given us some doubts, but both were bet

Neptune Beach, FL --> Gainesville, FL--> Apalachicola, FL --> Dothan, AL --> Natchez, MS --> Austin, TX--> Santa Fe, NM--> Colorado Springs, CO --> Telluride, CO --> Page (?), AZ--> Park City, UT --> Boise, ID --> Pacific City, OR!  Our Oregon Trail             Last May, we spent 18 days traveling across the States during the weirdness of the pandemic to get to our new home on the Oregon coast. Most places were very shut down so we were getting lots of takeout, wondering strangely empty streets, "living the yuppy condo life and ordering Grubhub" at an Airbnb in Texas... Certainly not ideal for our big plans, but it was fantastic nonethess.  We started off with a quick visit in Apalachicola, FL, a town special to my Grandma Jeanne, on the way to visit Pa, Grandma, Dennis and Dede for a few days. Got to take Dylan to their old farm and farmhouse on Coe Road (our family name) that is actually still dirt. Excellent visits with them these days.

Between spring and summer classes, Dylan and I decided to do a trip to France and it was  fantastic .  We flew in to Paris for 2 nights, took the TGV to Bordeaux for one night, then rented a car to drive southwest and all around including the cities of  Guéthary , Toulouse, Cazals, Tours, then back to Paris. Paris actually somewhat disappointed the first go-round. I had this romantic picture in my head of what it would be, as I'm heard a lot of people experience. It was certainly grand. Grander than any city I've seen. But it was a big city with lots of traffic... I should've expected this but for whatever reason I was picturing what Bordeaux actually wound up being- charming, romantic, pedestrian streets, flowers everywhere, more bikers, more dogs, lots of greenery... But I certainly enjoyed the strolls (even through the rain), people watching at cafes, and exploring all around. Returning to Paris at the end of the trip left me with a better impression; we stayed