See ya later, Seattle!

ICYMI, I just spent 3 months in Seattle! If you did miss it, I don't blame ya, I almost did too, tbh. A typical travel nurse contract is 13 weeks which is just about 3 months.. and in the grand scheme of things, that is truly not that much time. For a standard 3 12's kind of gal who doesn't typically pick up any overtime, that's only 39 shifts! That does, however, lend itself to 4 days off a week to explore and adventure and take in a new city, aka one of the things I love most about being a travel nurse.

While I will not be calling Seattle my forever home anytime soon, it was quite a fun temporary home for the summer (which is apparently the best time of year to visit Seattle as I was told by just about every single person who asked about the timing of my contract.. I mean come on, I'm no dummy, I definitely didn't do that on accident haha). I think it only rained a whole four or five times the entire time I was out there, and while I definitely missed soaking up the sun and getting my tan on in a traditional summer sense, I think I'd have to agree with everyone on the timing.

The one thing that I likely would've enjoyed more about visiting at a different time of year would've been because of the whole air conditioning situation.. and by that I mean lack thereof. Many Seattle apartments don't have AC, maybe because for much of the year they don't need AC.. but when it is 87 degrees outside.. and 85 degrees inside.. you start to wonder how long is too long to keep the fridge open, and not just to decide what to eat next. This did though help to force me out of the house (as if that's much of a difficult feat) to explore a little more. One of the first places I explored was my apartment's rooftop as the hallway and community kitchen area were both air conditioned and even if the rooftop itself was toasty, the views made up for it.

I spent a lot of quality time with Mr Sun, Mr Moon, and Madam Rainy (more commonly known as Mount Rainier) who would show face in the distance if she wasn't hiding behind too many hazy clouds. It was often fun playing hide and seek with the mountain as I would venture around town. I think I won big when my mom came to town and we rented a car to drive up nice and close and did a little hike in the national park; those views were really hard to beat.

I spent even more quality time with me, myself, and I on this contract. I gotta say, it was rather difficult being three timezones away from my people. Like Ariel, I wanna be where the people are.. or my people, rather! Don't get me wrong-- I loved my coworkers and really enjoyed being at work, it just proved to be really difficult to come home and not be able to decompress with someone and was even more difficult to not have someone to explore the town with on my days off. I do owe a good deal of credit to my bestie, Aim, who flew out and spent much of July with me. She spoiled me with dinners after work and proved to continue to be an excellent travel buddy. I am very thankful for all of my east coast visitors, but am also very thankful to be back on the east coast for this next contract.

One of my most favorite parts of my Seattle adventure was during the time when Aimee was in town. We took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island which quickly became dubbed the absolute cutest little town I had ever been to. So cute in fact, that Aimee and I went back just a few days later. This second trip was special because we timed it so that we could take the ferry back to Seattle around sunset. I'm not gonna say that we're professionals, but we're basically professionals.. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

If you find yourself in Seattle looking for a Bainbridge adventure, you could very easily keep yourself busy with any number of things, especially if you let your car come along on the ferry ride, the small island is surprisingly rather large. If you don't have personal tour guides, you can virtually adopt us and copy our adventure. We mostly just stuck to the main strip and, between the two visits, found ourselves at Bruicato for tasty cocktails and wood fired pizza that you cut with scissors, Bainbridge Brewing Alehouse (not to be confused with Al's house) for beers next to a fun little pop-up weekend market with live music, Ba Sa for Vietnamese cuisine and great atmosphere, and Harbour Public House for a cozier beer sipping experience. When we weren't indulging in my two truest loves of food and booze, we explored Zutto Vintage and Antiques and a few other boutiques and shops along the strip. The charming little town was an absolute dream, but the sunset views on the way back from our second visit were a dream come true. Highly recommend.

I'm often dreaming and reminiscing on my sunset views, especially when I go back through my camera roll to pick out pictures for a blog post. Two other honorable mentions go to sunsets captured while sitting on the hill at Gasworks Park which is only a mile away from UW and made for a perfect after work adventure. In fact, now that I think about it, one of my very first sunsets in Seattle was captured at Gasworks!

Probably my favorite place to catch the sunset (and debatably just one of my favorite places in general in Seattle) was Pier 62. This was a spot on the water which often had completely unobstructed views of Mr Sun, especially when the amateur sunset viewers would leave after the sun went below the mountain line missing out on all of the best and most beautiful colors. It also was the location of a handful of random events and had some tables and umbrellas which made it a great spot to sit and read or people watch! It was fairly central to the coolest and most "Seattle" things like Pike Place Market and the Great Wheel (the big ferris wheel that probably would've been cooler to ride at sunset, but was still plenty cool and noteworthy thing to do). Sometimes you could even catch a view of good ol Mount Rainier! If there is one thing that I have learned during my adventures as a travel nurse, it is that I am often most happy when I am close to water. Towards the end of my contract, I started detouring to the water (and sometimes cheating on Pier 62, shhhh, don't tell him!) on my way home from work to catch the sunset and I was always oh so happy when I did.

Other rather "Seattle" noteworthy things include the Space Needle (which I walked past plenty of times, but never actually went up in), Starbucks (or just coffee in general), and the greeeeenery (Seattle was definitely very green, even in the middle of summer). Less glamorously, I definitely remember construction being a big component of my time out there, but honestly I feel like that is true no matter what city you're in these days. There also was a decent amount of homelessness and drug use in Seattle, both of which I did not partake in. I wish I would've explored the hiking more, but most of the hiking opportunities are a drive out of the city, so they were less accessible.

Thankfully, I wasn't personally impacted by the construction that much. I didn't have a car for this contract and had just planned to figure out my way around town with the public transportation which was definitely plenty accessible and generally pretty reliable. I took the link or one line or light rail or whatever you want to call it to/from work every day. I also frequented the street car which would get me from my rental up to Capitol Hill-- a rather popping part of town. The busses were also there.. definitely less reliable, but if you were just using them to get around and explore, and weren't on too much of a time crunch, I found them to be a good way to get places without spending an arm and leg on an uber or lyft. Walking is also a fine option, that is if you're ready to muscle up and down the hills!

Between walking around the city and walking around the hospital, I definitely got plenty of steps in. All in all, I really enjoyed this contract. Nursing on the west coast is a different breed compared to nursing on the east coast. I was spoiled with breaks (two 15 minutes and a 45 minute lunch), nurse to patient ratios (I only ever had 3 patients at a time on my telemetry floor), and adequate staff (shout out to the nursing assistants who were the real MVPs of the unit). I also really liked how the charge nurse would check in with the staff throughout the shift. They would host a huddle three times a shift and ask everyone what "color" they were. Yellow meant you were managing your patient load independently, green for being totally caught up (including breaks) and could help, and red were the people who needed help. I really valued the teamwork here and think I probably would've extended this contract if I weren't so far away from my people.

I also would've stayed in Seattle simply to try more of the IPAs. I joked that I was exploring Seattle one IPA at a time, but it really wasn't much of a joke. I wasn't always an IPA girl, in fact I remember a time where I really wasn't much of a fan of beer at all. Oh how that has changed.. as evidence by my surplus of beer pics in my camera roll. My favorite one was the Hazy Uptown IPA at Pike Brewing Company. I also enjoyed the changing lineup at Optimism Brewery which was just a mile up the road from my rental.

Naturally I saved my true favorite parts of Seattle for last.. the two places with the best name ;).

All in all, my three months in Seattle were something that had been on my bucket list for a while and I am very glad-- and very proud-- that I did it. I am always looking to challenge myself especially in relation to my career. This was definitely a challenge. I am making up for lost "people time" at this next contract by renting a room from one of my other besties in Reading, PA. However, I am challenging myself plenty this contract by taking on night shift. So if you don't hear from me again for a few months.. you know why (or maybe I'll have more free time to blog, who knows?! Guess you'll just have to stay tuned and we'll find out together!).

Until next time :)