June 28th was our one year wedding anniversary. If anyone had asked us last year where we saw ourselves after one year of marriage, it definitely would NOT have been homeless, living from our car, and about to set out to travel the world! But here we are, ready to take off on the adventure of a lifetime.

In true Jess and Steven style, our last night in our first house was far from relaxing.  Anyone who knows me, knows I like things organized. When we moved from Calgary to Ontario, I had a spreadsheet organized by box, with an inventory of everything in each box. Yeah, I guess things change. This time around, we were shoving things in that storage unit the best way we could and the fastest we could! We finished up around 1am and made another last minute trip at 7am the following morning.

It gets better. The morning of our closing, we locked all of the house keys in the house, not realizing that we had forgotten to leave a copy with the lawyer! We called a locksmith, who ended up drilling the lock to get it opened. Here is Steven installing a new lock in record time!

Our house closing day was also my last day of work. My co-workers had a going away surprise for me earlier in the week with an unbelievably generous gift and cards with some really thoughtful well wishes! To top it off, we also had a going away dinner with Steven’s co-workers! Needless to say, we had a great send off last week.

And now here we are in Pittsburgh for the week. I’m hanging out at the hotel all week while Steven finishes up his last few days of work.

Waking up on Monday morning knowing I didn’t have to go to work was such a weird feeling! I’ve been working close to full time hours since I started university. In my last year of university I lucked into a full time job so was busy balancing full time work and school, so there was no break between graduation and the real world for me. I am not complaining, however I am looking forward to the break over the next year, exploring new places and meeting new people!

We will post some updates from our road trip home – we’ll be stopping in Maine (and having some lobster of course!), and then Halifax to hang out with Melanie (Steven’s big sis) before we take the ferry across the gulf to NL. Already, it looks like the unpredictable weather at home is messing with our plans, as Hurricane Arthur is set to hit this weekend so stay tuned!

jess+trickett