Time is FLYING. I can’t believe it’s the end of October already! Which officially puts us into “time to get shit done” mode. But first! Let’s catch you up on what we’ve been up to and some progress we’ve made. SUPER exciting stuff happening.

It wouldn’t be like us if we didn’t do some exploring in the past month or so. And we’ve definitely put in some miles.

At the beginning of the month we drove to Salt Lake for my cousin’s wedding – well, Kile drove. I was DJ the whole time. I’m sure Kile appreciated my early 2000’s pop and hip hop choices for a majority of the drive. Salt Lake was beautiful as usual and we had a blast celebrating my cousin and his new lady.

Since we had a whole day and a half to drive home (about 12 hours) we decided to take the long way home and try a route we’d never driven before. We drove west from Salt Lake, seeing some incredible salt flats, and cut up through north Nevada into southeastern Oregon.

It was gorgeous but – wow – it was crazy desolate. Almost to a creepy level. I’m glad we saw that part of the state because I’ve always been curious and – now we know – don’t foresee us returning anytime soon.

A couple weekends later we ended up in the exact opposite side of the state in Joseph, Oregon. It’s located in northeast Oregon – which, again – is a bit off the main drag of freeways. So if you want to go here – you really have to make the effort. I’m SO glad we did. Unlike southeast Oregon – the northeast part had adorable little towns and beautiful rivers, lakes and mountains. Southeast Oregon has the pretty Steen Mountains – but the Wallowa Mountains were just breathtaking.

It was super fun to explore this little historic town – and of course post up in their dive bar for a bit. AND visit Terminal Gravity Brewing. Which we highly recommend visiting if you’re ever in the area.

And now – it’s almost November. Since the weather is going to turn into the Portland winters that we all know and dread – it’ll be great timing for us to clean out our studio and get ready to get out of here!

Travel Updates!

Speaking of which – VERY exciting news! We found and secured our apartment in Playa del Carmen! It’s just a little studio – probably not much bigger than the one we’re living in now. There’s just a few more perks – you know, like a beach one block away, 88 degree weather, and it’s half the price of our place here in Portland. It’s a residential area where the locals live.

We’ve “explored” a bit from Google Earth, talked to some people in forums about the area, and we’re so ecstatic – looks like authentic local restaurants, markets, and shops are all within walking distance. Plus the WiFi in the studio is supposed to be great so I look forward to taking my writing job somewhere warm!

Now it’s time to learn some Spanish! Kile and I are actually going to be starting our lessons tonight. We know some basics so hopefully by the time March rolls around – we’ll be fairly decent in simple common conversation. Any tips on self-teaching a language, please let us know!