new adventures and a preview of what's yet to come.

So today turned out to be different than I thought.  Josh and I slept in a little and spend the first part of the day "working".  Josh was working on reading a section in a community building book, and I was working on hunting for jobs.

At noon Chris, Josh and I headed out for the day.  We started by getting more familiar with Renton area.  Then we headed for lunch at a park by Washington Lake.  So Josh and I have never been fans of seafood- but moving to the west coast we knew that would be challenged.  Chris has been giving us a "hard time" about trying some fish and he wanted to give us a good taste today.  The park had 2 restaurants- Kidd Valley (a hamburger place) and Ivar's (a popular seafood place).

http://kiddvalley.com/

http://www.ivars.com/

We first stopped at Kidd and ordered a bacon burger as a buffer for Josh and I trying seafood.  We then went to Ivar's and settled on trying the classic fish and chips (deep fried alaskan cod with fries).  Chris ordered salmon and red clam chowder.  We sat down to eat and we were going to try the clam chowder first.  As I brought the spoon to my mouth Chris puts his hand out and says to wait.  He pulls out his camera and says this is a moment that needs to be captured.  It wasn't too bad- but I am not sure if I had much clam in my bite!  We also tried Chris's salmon and liked that more than our cod.  It wasn't our first time trying fish- but it was the most we had ever eaten!  The burger on the other hand was great!  It reminded us of one of our favorite burger places in Chicago- Portillos....yum  

oh and I almost forgot- Josh and I got library cards for the Renton Library, just another step closer to being more authentic Seattl-ites! :)

We cruised around Rainier Valley- the area we hope to be living in.  We got a tour of the Rainier Health and Fitness center located next Emerald City Church/Urban Impact.  We stopped into Seattle Union Gospel Mission and saw what was happening there.  Both of these places are organizations we will be working with down the road.  Our day of running around ended with meeting with Steve- the director of Urban Impact.  We sat out on his patio- in the sun mind you- and heard his background/journey and talked about ours.  A cool little thing we learned in this meeting was that he has family that lives in Apple Valley, MN- no way huh?!?!   This time with Steve was encouraging and he emphasized to us the importance of LIVING in the community where you do ministry.

Urban Impact:
http://www.urbanimpactseattle.org/#!

Seattle Union Gospel Mission:
http://www.ugm.org/site/PageServer?pagename=default

By the time we got back to the house for dinner I was exhausted.  We left home one week ago today and I could not have predicted how draining it would be- I really would like a day to sleep in and not think about everything that needs to be done/figured out.  There is a lot running through my mind of realizing how challenging this adventure will be that we have been called to.  It is not (at the moment) the challenge of being far from home but of seeing all that is within myself that is going to be and should be challenged so I can become more like Christ.

Our trip to Portland has been set back a day.  We now will be in Portland Wed.-Sun.

Please be in prayer for us on a few things:
- job and house hunting
- our trip and time in Portland
- and that we would find time for the Lord with devotions.  We have not had a consistent schedule since we finished our jobs.  We have significant needs in our life right now and desperately need to be seeking the Lord to provide these things.
-pray our hearts are challenged and changed!

another sunny day in Seattle- we shall see what tomorrow brings :)