a whirlwind weekend in seattle

the title pretty much sums up this past weekend. thatcher, ashford, and i were in seattle from friday to monday to look at places to rent, explore some neighborhoods, and hang out/stay with our friends mark and tina (who relocated there three years ago). the weather was gorgeously sunny and warm (i know that won't be the norm!). 

the rental market was much more competitive than i was expecting. we had 3 showings scheduled before we arrived and 1 of those got cancelled shortly after we arrived due to being rented already. we ended up seeing 9 places in 3 days. the places we saw on friday and saturday all had other prospective renters there at the same time (some even had multiple parties filling out applications on the spot). talk about intimidating! only one of the places we saw those days felt like a good fit. we applied for it and later found out another interested party bid up the rent to be chosen! umm no thank you! i was feeling pretty hopeless about the whole thing by saturday evening. i figured there was no way we would find something (and actually get it!) and thatcher would have to go out earlier than we planned to look for housing for us. 

sunday came (mother's day - which i kept forgetting, because it was weird). we had 4 showings that day. the entire day was a complete 180 degree difference! at every showing we were the only people there and most of the units did not have any pending applications. the third place we visited (a ground floor condo) we knew was "the one." it had everything we were looking for: 2br/2ba, great location, enough space/storage, private outdoor space, etc. we told the woman we were very interested and wanted to submit our application immediately. we think we were the first ones to view the condo and definitely the first to apply. she told us she had some other showings that day, and planned to collect applications from all interested parties and then would make a decision about which application to process. we crossed our fingers and went on our way. we obsessively checked our email for the next several hours. she emailed us the next morning saying she had chosen our application (and only ours) to process! woo hoo! everything checked out and we are signing the lease soon. i cannot believe everything worked out so well! the condo is in the ballard neighborhood and is a short walk from an elementary school, play ground, grocery store, coffee shops & restaurants. we are so excited! 

we were able to do some fun touristy things while we were there as well. we ate at lots of yummy places, took a "duck land and water tour" with mark and tina and mark's cousin who was also visiting, and went to pike's market on our way to the airport. so many times  over the weekend it would suddenly hit me we are gonna live here! it's still hard to believe, but we can't wait for this adventure. 

so that's my seattle update. i have house selling updates too, but those will come later. here are some phone pictures from our weekend :) azalea had a fun weekend spent with both sets of grandparents and didn't miss us a bit. we are so lucky!