It has been a while since I have written a post. Not much of note to share — until now. The last post was in September. We had just wrapped up our 15 month-long RV adventure traveling around most of the Western US and Canada.

Since then we applied in-person for the Portugal D7 Visa at the San Francisco Consulate and waited and waited and waited for our visa. It was supposed to take 60-90 days, but ended up taking nearly 6 months. Our application was put on hold then denied. We appealed the denial, and eventually prevailed! We received the excellent news our visa has been approved and we can officially and legally become residents of the country of Portual.

We sold our Wolf Pup travel trailer early on in the process thinking we would be leaving the country in less than 90 days. That turned out to be a mistake, but we just had no way of knowing it would take so long.

We lived at my mom’s house in Longbranch, Washington for a few months which we are forever grateful to my mom and step-dad for letting us stay so long. But we are the type of people that do not like to over-stay our welcome and do not want to feel like a burden whether that feeling is real or a fabrication.

So we moved to Yakima, Washington to wait out the visa process. It is pretty easy to move when all of your possessions fit in about 4 suitcases. Why Yakima? The New Portugal. That is what a friend jokingly referred to when we announced where we were moving. Well, it is hard to find monthly AirBnb’s that are somewhat affordable considering we have been paying for several months now on a vacant apartment in Braga.

But our apartment in Yakima exceeded our expectations. We are living in a historic building above a soap factory in the heart of downtown. Walk Score 90! You can smell the soap everytime you go up or down the stairs; free aromatherapy 🙂 So many cool coffee shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, breweries within walking distance — it kind of does feel like the New Portugal 🙂

The waiting and being in limbo for so long took a toll on our mental health. We even initiated contingency plans of applying for a visa from Spain and as a last resort a short list of US cities to move to which included Cleveland and Pittsburgh. So when we finally received word from the consulate that our visas had been approved, it felt incredibly wonderful!!

We fly out to start the next chapter in our lives on March 27.

In order to keep our minds off the visa issues, we did manage to keep quite busy these past few months:

Visited San Francisco for our visa appointment.

Cruised around the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

Hiked and rode bike around the Key Peninsula area of Washington State.

Rode bike across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge from Gig Harbor to Tacoma.

Visited Portland, Oregon to see friends one last time. We will miss you and hope to see you in Europe.

Visited Bothell, Washington to hang out with our Seattle friends one last time. We will miss you and hope to see you in Europe as well.

Spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with family.

Cruised the Mexican Riviera. Some amazing whale watching and snorkeling adventures.

Saw 100’s of elk at the Oak Creek Wildlife Refuge near Naches, Washington.

Visited many wineries in the Yakima Valley — some of the best wine in Washington and beyond.

Hiked Cowiche Canyon near Yakima, Washington.

Visited Wenatchee, Washington and shared the trail with some big horn sheep.

That’s all for now…next post will be from our new home in Braga, Portugal. Stay tuned…