House Sitting – Less Car, More Life

It’s Different Up North

We continued our Northwest summer ramble out of Seattle and headed up I-5 about an hour and a half to Bellingham, WA.

Emerald or « Toad Lake » near Belingham, Washington.

Closer to Vancouver than Seattle, Bellingham frequently appears on “Best places to retire is the USA” lists or click bait, and for good reason. It’s a small city (90k) on Puget Sound in a beautiful natural setting, kept vibrant by the constant youthful churn of 14,000 students at Western Washington University. This was our third visit to Bellingham, but the first time we had spent a week.

My summer bike at Clayton Beach, part of Larrabee State Park and the Chuckanut Mountains

Our house sit was across from a small lake at the edge of town, but amazingly secluded up in a steep vale in the local foothills of the Cascades. Our responsibilities included a very sweet outdoor dog and seven chickens. The dog was reportedly standoffish but we soon bonded with him and enjoyed some fun walks around the lake and woods.

Our dog letting me know he was ready for a walk!

Our house sit included all the fresh eggs we could eat!

House sitting is great for really trying out new locales to see if it a place we may want to spend more time or even settle for a time. We really liked Bellingham in the summer and had considered settling here at one point, but think now that we still need a bit more city in our next home.

Downtown Bellingham is in the process of reimagining its industrial waterfront with popular interim uses as a wild bmx track, shipping container bars and restaurants, and summer festivals.

The Pacific Northwest and Seattle in particular are so different than the Bay Area we called home for most of the past 30 years. We are used to the pace and competition of dense SF living and you really notice the difference in the Seattle area. We are the angsty rushed city folk here. The massive amount of wealth and economic prosperity generated in San Francisco and Silicon Valley has put pressure on every aspect of living; cost, housing, services, transportation. We lived a great life in San Francisco by keeping our work and home close and cycling, walking, or transiting most places.

Riding the #40 bus in Seattle. It’s fairly extensive, clean and reliable, but can we live comfortably without a car here?

And our double income, no kids (DINKS) life kept us comfortable financially. But we could feel the strain the past 20 years on services and the vast gulf that was growing between “knowledge workers” and those in service or more traditional blue collar roles. San Francisco and California has tried to fight this trend with social programs (minimum wage, city health plans, affordable housing, etc) but it can’t keep up with the demand for housing. It’s a global problem in wealthier areas of the planet, but especially evident in California.

Cycling the boardwalk to the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham, arguably its most charming area.

The Bellingham area is unrivaled for mountain biking, including expert crazy bike only downhill runs

So back to Seattle. Seattle has a lot of the same challenges as the Bay Area, including tech wealth and escalating housing costs. But as we noted in our winter visit Seattle blogs, they ARE building more and have looser zoning laws near transit by right. (meaning NIMBYs can’t stop it) DADUs (Detached Accessory Housing Unit!), townhomes and condos are sprouting all over the city in almost every neighborhood.

Great to meet and chat with fellow nomads at a meetup in Edmunds, WA

All this fairly random looking new housing looks strange to us as we’ve hardly see any housing construction in San Francisco, except the thousands of units concentrated South of Market, Mid and Upper Market Street Areas, and a few other pockets and buildings. But they are often not in the areas where most people want to live.

Great Pho at Miss Pho in Crown Hill. The diversity and quality of the food in Seattle is first rate, but unlike SF, you may need to search for it in strip malls.

Seattle is building more where people want to live, as well as very dense high rise residential in First Hill, and the South Lake Union edge of downtown. Add to this an ever expanding light rail metro system (thanks to a $54B 2018 bond measure) and you have a fairly dynamic feel to the City. It’s almost twice the size of SF, and feels more spread out, especially from north to south. It generally doesn’t have the magical density and intimate feeling walking from neighborhood to neighborhood as San Francisco and many more trips are by car. This is a big difference for us to adjust to if we settle in Seattle.

Golden Gardens Beach Park; beautiful and swimable, if you don’t mind chilly water!

The Puget Sound beaches are more for exploration than swimming

SF is dense but could and should be denser, with more new buildings all over the western half of the city, where the weather and transit are great. But NIMBYs, Prop 13, and zoning keep the city at a relative standstill. It’s created a bit of a housing doom loop, since new housing construction is so expensive, that it’s not even affordable for developers selling condos for 1-2 million each. We’ve blogged on this on our past visits, but the issue just gets bigger and bigger and plays a big role in our decision on where we might settle down next in the World (if we do -;).

« Bruun Idon » at Lincoln Park, one of Thomas Dambu’s six troll sculptures in the region and made entirely of recycled/reused materials.

But to be honest, the biggest difference we noticed in Seattle this stay was the pace of life and what I like to call the “expectation of goodness.” People here are more patient and expect that you are, and are acting honestly and in the public good. A friend of mine in SF noted to me that Seattle today is what SF was like in the 80s and 90s. A bit slower, more provincial, and where everyone was not quite so full of themselves. It’s a cutthroat world in the Bay Area…not quite New York City levels yet, but noticeably more manic than the Pacific Northwest cities. Seattle’s slightly slower pace is attractive to us in our early retirement.

The Iconic Aurora Bridge built in 1932 connects Fremont to Queen Anne

So after a pleasant week exploring the trails and cycling paths of the beautiful Bellingham area, we headed back to Seattle for our final house sit of the trip in the Ballard/Sunset Hill neighborhood. We loved the area as it’s very quiet traffic wise and has a nice grid of roads cut off on the western side edge by a bluff and Puget Sound. There are some views toward the Olympic Mountain Range that allows you to get out of the trees.

Cheryl tending our house sit Pea Patch, a community garden system throughout Seattle’s neighborhoods.

Garden fresh tomatoes and beans from the Pea Patch

Sampling some beers at Lucky Envelope, one of over a dozen craft breweries in Ballard alone!

Another magnificent troll outside the National Nordic Museum in Ballard

Cheryl contemplates how to get some of the endless driftwood to our future garden.

Our house sit kitten testing breakfast table boundaries.

The grid layout of most of Seattle makes walking and biking very tenable, but the hills are a challenge, even coming from San Francisco!? Why? Because the large masses of each neighborhood often rise up and fall over long distances, meaning a trip back up to your house can mean climbing up gradual hills for 10, 20, or even 50 blocks! And much of the east-west geography is steep, so cross town journeys can be steep in places.

The Neighborhood Greenways are a nice way to get around by bike in Seattle. The hills and rough pavement mean that wider tires and electric assist would be a great addition for getting around realistically by bike

Enjoying Ballard’s Scandinavian roots with good friends Cecily and Christine at Skål Beer Hall.

Oh but the trees, mountains, and water interplay are so nice! And there is a good bike network with some famous long distance rail trails, such as the 20 mile Burke Gilman, which links up much of the interior shoreline of North Seattle. I was able to do a 35 mile north Lake Washington loop from North Seattle almost entirely on separated paths…very nice.

Saying goodbye to Seattle summer for now with one final swim in Lake Washington….so nice and different from the always cold S.F. Bay.

So we loaded up the rental car and headed early out of Seattle for the 2 day drive back to San Francisco, again with an overnight in Ashland. The drive is possible in one long 13+ hour day, but we never like to drive more than half of that in a day. Heck, we don’t like to drive to the grocery store, but sometimes a car is the most convenient way and it is a chance to listen to some good podcasts and music!

Enjoying a road bike ride back in the Bay Area

And saying hello to some UK friends Frank and Liv in Alamo Square on a lovely fog-free evening.

Our four days back in the Bay Area were busy with sorting gear at the storage unit, haircuts, finances, Covid/flu shots, etc. but also some nice time with friends. But we now just arrived back to our euro-base in France after a successful and fairly pleasant one-way journey on Condor Airways. (SFO-FRA-GVA)

Now we’ll relax a bit, get over our jet lag, sort our gear, and get ready to head out on the bikes for another fall bike tour adventure in a few days. More on that soon. A Bientôt!

The holiday whirlwind and nomadic musings.

In San Francisco posing in front of someone else’s house. It must have been some party! Real snow and trees.

I’m writing on Christmas Eve day, looking back on six weeks of time in the US so far. Chicago, Colorado, California, and now Washington. Thanksgiving and Christmas this year are times to get together with friends and family, to try to renew the bonds which constant travel can fray, and catch up on small and large life events which feel like the very important glue holding relationships together.

Gorgeous White Park cow waiting for their water trough to fill.

To dip in and out of folks’ lives like we do can be challenging. To us the traveling, the changing locations and adapting to a new place is just life, it’s what we’ve been doing for almost two and a half years. But what’s it like for our friends and family to have us plop down in their houses and let out a big sigh and say repeatedly how lovely it is to be somewhere familiar?

Uh. You coming out to throw my ball? Soon?

The Getty Center in Los Angeles. The week after Thanksgiving can be a great time to visit attractions – not crowded at all.

Rich and our niece pondering life and the view.

Mercedes Dorame’s installation Woshaa’axre Yaang’aro (Tongva for “looking back”).

How tired are they of our travel tales? Are we getting insufferable? When, we hear from some friends, are we going to settle down? Get jobs again? Do some volunteer work? Something other than this constant travel and adventure and fun.

Wildwood Regional Park, Thousand Oaks California.

The creek is an oasis for wildlife. And us.

Short answer- not right now. Two plus years in and we’re still very content with our lives. We visit our storage unit when we’re back in SF (it’s actually in Walnut Creek), roll up the door and say “So much stuff!”. It’s not really that much stuff, the unit is only 10×15 feet, and we carefully considered what was worth storing and liberated the rest. We swap out some clothing and shoes, exclaim over the things we can see, oh look at that chair, my favorite. And then we roll the door back down, lock it, and leave.

San Francisco City Hall in festive red and green.

An SF Victorian decked out for the holidays.

We do miss nesting, especially around the holidays. Having a place set up to your own specifications, the things you want close to hand, comfortable furniture to enjoy. This is where house sitting, through Trusted Housesitters, becomes such a joy. With careful planning we can find sits in places we want to be for the holidays, Christmas in Seattle this year, near good friends with whom we will stay before and between two house sits. Right now, for Christmas, we have a lovely kitty to cuddle, and a comfortable house to enjoy and look after for the homeowners.

SF leans in to Christmas lights. And the buildings wear them well.

And what’s next? As we were boarding a flight from Denver to Burbank a few weeks ago Rich was trying to book flights for us from Singapore to Geneva in March. The website was not cooperating and he was frantically trying to get the payment through before we got to the gate agent. His boarding pass is on the phone. The tickets to Geneva are almost on his phone. I teased him, you know you have a travel problem when you’re booking tickets for a flight while boarding a flight. It’s not a problem, he corrected me. I did it.

Rich is working on our onward travels. SF to Taiwan. Borneo, Malaysia. Somewhere somewhere, and Singapore to Geneva via Istanbul in March. To be reunited with our touring bicycles. We look forward to bike touring so much.

Our sweet elder kitty at sit number one. The heating vent is Maggie’s favorite spot.

Our end of year list of countries as traveled: USA, Taiwan, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, South Korea, USA, Switzerland, France, Germany, Chezia, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, UK, France, Albania, North Macedonia, USA. Happy Holidays wherever you may be.

Housesitting side trips to fascinating museums.

I love a small specialized museum. A specific topic, a single person or industry, the narrower the focus the better.

The World of James Herriot. A great museum in the town of Thirsk.

Did I know he used a pen name? Maybe I’d read that before, but what a thrill to see this historical marker.

Doing my research about the area where we booked a house sit, I searched on museums. I quickly extracted a promise from Rich that we would not miss this one. James Herriot’s books were a big hit with my sister and I when they were published in the US starting in 1975. She went on to become a veterinarian. Did the books have an influence on her? I asked her and she said “They probably did.” How could they not?

If the equipment in the consulting room looks old and slightly off putting, the veterinary medicine museum on the next floor up will certainly give you the shivers.

If you’re not watching the current adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small, or haven’t seen the older versions, you might be tempted to start watching after a visit to this museum. Even a long time fan like me learned a few fun tidbits. Since it was frowned upon for a Vet to advertise, Alfred James Wight choose a pen name, the surname of a favorite Scottish footballer, James Herriot.

Rich with a statue of the author in the garden.

Strong sales in the US helped propel sales around the world.

Thirsk is a charming town with gorgeous brick buildings.

Of course, we wouldn’t be us if we didn’t lament the scourge of parked cars in the center of town. It was beyond my photography skills to get a photo of the buildings without cars marring the scene.

World of James Herriot. Definitely worth a visit.

We had a rental car during this house sit, which was in a small town without bus service. Although the train station at Darlington was only about a 20 minute cycle away, there was nowhere safe to lock our touring bikes at the station. There were bikes locked there, but our bikes would have stood out like sore thumbs, or tempting morsels, among the commuter bikes. Could we have enjoyed a day out knowing our bikes were not really safe at the train station? No. So the rental car gave us the freedom to roam Yorkshire. And we took advantage of it.

Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, in Marton-in-Cleveland.

While my bike was in the shop for a tune up we checked out the map and a museum caught my eye. Captain Cook’s birthplace! We’ve been to the big island of Hawaii a few times and kayaked to the white obelisk memorial at Kealakekua Bay where Captain Cook died. Or was killed, more correctly. The opportunity to bookend the life of the famous cartographer, explorer, and naval officer was not to be passed by. It was a good little museum, and gave us a new appreciation for how brave and talented Cook was. From the Hawaiian point of view, which is the one we’re familiar with, his arrival – the first documented European to visit the Hawaiian Islands – was the beginning of the end of the Hawaiian Kingdom. This museum gave us a more full picture of the man, rather than just the image of the man who began the destruction of native Hawaiian culture.

This urn marks the place where the Cook family cottage stood and where Cook was born in 1728. The cottage was leveled by a new landowner in 1790. The family had moved on in 1736.

A large scale map showing the three pacific voyages of Captain Cook.

And the third voyage ended for Captain Cook on the island of Hawaii.

Cook’s first voyage was to Tahiti, where he and a team of astronomers observed the transit of Venus across the sun in 1769. The transit helped astronomers to calculate the distance between the sun and the earth. The HMS Endeavor then went on to explore the uncharted, by Europeans, southern oceans.

We left the museum with a new respect for Captain Cook and empathy for his end in the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. That is a successful museum.

Our next car enabled outing was not a museum, exactly, although the Yorkshire Dales could be viewed as a timeless experience. Not a living museum, but a living and evolving region.

The village of Reeth, and a chat with a cyclist who was riding coast to coast across this part of Britain. If you check out a map, the narrow waist of Britain crosses this area.

The grey stone buildings are pleasantly uniform in color.

Public footpaths across gorgeous green countryside and along the River Swale.

The River Swale was running higher than these stepping stones could handle. Divert.

Fueled with a picnic lunch we headed out for a loop hike that quickly got rerouted due to a high running river.

Any direction you ramble and anywhere you look, beauty.

We rambled from a sunny green valley to a windy and mizzly (misty drizzle) ridge. Always under the watchful eyes of sheep.

Is this building abandoned? No, says the resident sheep.

So impressed with the dedication to keeping the foot paths passable.

The engineer appreciated this tunnel with livestock gate, or stile.

I am still in love with the greystone buildings and walls.

We rambled over bridges and through a tunnel, had a quick lunch sheltered from the wind and watched by sheep, and as we came to the last bit of our loop, we were confronted by a sign. Cattle free alternative route, with an arrow. Pointing to a sheep, of course.

I know there are folks who are frightened of cattle, it’s understandable, they are huge! But I’m not. I’m respectful of their size, but not scared of them. But the next sign gave us pause.

Oh. Bull…. I read Ferdinand the Bull enough as a child to recognize the universal nose ring and horns on the sign that means bull in the field.

Bull in field. We’ve encountered this sign before in our UK rambling, but never actually encountered a bull. So, through the stile we went. First field, empty. We continued to the second field, also empty. Then we had a choice, a divergence of paths worn in the grass. One to a marked stile, one going to the right across a tumbled rock wall. We kept on the marked path and when we reached the stile we could see the cattle at the bottom of the pasture, quite close to the stile leading out of the pasture. Any country side person would have laughed to hear us discuss the situation. “Is that a bull?” “No, I think that’s just a heifer.” We started to cross the stile and then, from behind a lovely stone out building sauntered the bull.

Photo taken from the safety of the other side of the stone wall.

Reverse course! Back to the other path, climb over the tumbled down stone wall and hope we don’t have to cross Mr. Big and Scary’s field. We did. We ended up behind the stone out building and had to cross about 30 yards of field and before we got to the end, when we had to cut left, towards the bull and heifers and calves, to exit the field. Quietly. Calmly. Discussing what to do if charged by a bull. Neither of us knew. Bear, mountain lion, those we have been taught to react to, but a charging bull? No. Well, we said, think of a bullfighter. They jump aside at the last moment and bulls can’t change direction quickly. So we’ll go with that. Thankfully the bull totally ignored us, and we exited the field with new respect for bull signs.

So, for future reference, I did look it up, and if you are charged by a bull, step to the side and run in the direction from which the bull came and run in a zig zag pattern- the bulk of a bull makes it hard for them to quickly change direction. Throw your backpack or shirt to distract the bull. While running in a zig zag pattern. Or, just pay attention to the signs and avoid the bull. I’m going with that one in the future.

Having safely negotiated the bull and his herd we went for tea, coffee, and scones. I totally give the tea award to Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Gold tea bags I love taste even better made with yummy Yorkshire water. Honestly some of the best tea I’ve ever had. And always an extra pot of hot water to make even more tea!

Sheep sweater. Like the San Francisco tourists caught out by cold wind and fog and forced to buy Alcatraz sweatshirts, I bought a wool sweater. With a sheep pattern!

With our Yorkshire/Durham County housesit wrapping up, we got ready to endure a two train day from Darlington to London, then on to Cardiff, Wales. UK trains with bikes can be stressful. But we made it. More fun museums and cats await us in Wales.

Sitting Pretty in Seattle – 2022 in Review

Happy New Year! We’re just winding down our second house sit in Seattle and after almost 2 weeks, we’ve learned a lot about life during winter in Puget Sound. As expected, it is wetter, colder, and darker than the SF Bay Area winter. No real surprise there.

The amazing Cheryl and Seward Park along Lake Washington

Fully equipped kitchens, one of house sittings many perks

But “living” in two different untouristed residential neighborhoods has allowed us the opportunity to experience a bit more realistic perspective. We’ve walked to the parks, grocery stores, and restaurants that we might use if we lived here. We have to decide to walk, take a bus, or drive as yes, life in most of Seattle would be fairly limited without a car for some trips ( We’d also have bikes of course).

Kubota Garden – a Japanese garden oasis and one of Seattle’s 485 parks!

People are very laid back compared to SF and friendly if you engage them, but sidewalk or trail greetings are not a given. Just all a bit reserved here. Nordic roots maybe play a part in this. Or maybe it’s the fact that the area draws more introverts with the weather and open space of the Northwest. Where can I hide in the wet woods? Seattle for sure.

Coal Creek Falls in Cougar Mountain Regional Wildland Park

Cougar Mountain Reserve was previously an active coal mine…ferns hide the legacy pits!

Seattle has been cool and intriguing to the nation for years, but especially since the rise of grunge and SubPop records in the late 80’s and early 90’s. We’ve been here many times, including multiple bike tours and I’ve been listening to the amazing KEXP for years on the web.

The glassy north side view of Seattle’s skyline with our friend Christine.

We always enjoy it, but how would it be in the dead of winter? Well, we still love it. The magnificent firs, cedars, and other evergreens are in frequent view and are so soothing along with the occasional spectacular Mountain View’s. But it IS cold and damp, and we’ve only had two doses of sunshine in two weeks. Other than an unusual ice storm our first few days, the rain has always been on and off.

The mighty Olympic Mountains from Queen Anne near downtown Seattle. The core and inner neighborhoods are very walkable.

But like the locals, it’s really not an issue if you have decent gear or just ignore it and run or walk in the rain. It’s just water Californians, don’t freak out like a cat in a bathtub! We haven’t freaked out.

More cute cats to keep us warm in Seattle

What’s that thing on the ground behind Cheryl? Rare winter sun in Seattle.

So we’ve surmised that cozy and warm housing is a key to happiness here as there is no fallback to walk in regenerative sunshine in winter, like SF. Oh, and Vitamin D supplements left over from our last dark winter in the UK are just what the doctor ordered. And we’d also need to scale back our pace a bit…which is good.

A rite of passage in the PNW…drive thru Espresso near Mount Vernon.

Another place we’ve been intrigued about, mostly from afar, is the City of Bellingham which is two counties and about 90 miles north of Seattle. Close, but a very separate place. We bike toured through the area during late summer many years ago and found it beautiful and it felt a bit undiscovered. It’s no longer undiscovered by any means after articles in the New York Times and appearances on endless “best places to retire” lists.

Lake Whatcom…drinking water and recreation source for Bellingham.

We only had two brief days to explore the city and environs but it is a very nice place. Funky but somewhat vibrant downtown, hills, views, forest, lakes, mountains and many parks. It’s also only about an hour by car to Vancouver, Canada, although the border crossing can slow things down.

Downtown Bellingham is funky and hip boosted by 16,000 students at Western Washington University

Could we live here? Sure, it’s very cool. But at this point in our lives, we still crave a bit more urban density, diversity, and a variety of neighborhoods to explore. Seattle has this AND access to the outdoors, although maybe not as close or as as quickly to remote wilderness as Bellingham.

Afternoon Chai and a Cortado at Makeworth Coffee Roasters – Bellingham Chic.

So the decision to live somewhere else for awhile is not easy for us and is not easy when you’ve been in the blissful bubble of San Francisco, which is so eminently walkable, very bikeable, and still full of creative people, variable cultures, and amazing food. We always compare places to these high bars.

Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham. Including a landmark WPA bridge.

A legacy logging railroad trestle in Bellingham who’s days are unfortunately numbered due to collapse and flood risk.

But SF has its problems, especially affordability, exacerbated by a lack of new housing and stagnant neighborhood planning. The financial disparities are tough and strain everything. Seattle has similar issues, but has more of a relief valve in buildable area and housing options. But we also have deep roots and hundreds of friends and family in the Bay Area. We would miss them but are convinced we could find some good friends here too…we just might need to start the conversation!

Breadfarm in the quirky artist hamlet of Bow…very picturesque but we didn’t think the bread lived up to the scene.

Enjoy your pastry and coffee by an inlet of Puget Sound

Unfortunately, the King tides and the lowlands around Samish Bay don’t always mix well.

But no need to fret about where we land yet as we have decided to wander the globe for another year. We stayed in 130 different places in 2022….yup, that is a lot, so settling down somewhere now would be a bit like hitting a travel brick wall at 100mph. Other stats for 2022 FYI: 45 days of house sitting (9 cats, 2 horses, 2 bunnies), 61 days in apartments, 146 days in hotels (apart hotels, B&Bs, Inns, and pensions), 3 nights on transport(planes, trains, and a ferry), and finally 110 days with friends and family (thank you all-:). Whew!

So tomorrow we meander a few days back to the Bay Area for final prep and friend catch up before heading on our next big adventure in Asia…first stop, Taiwan. So excited!

Happy New Year and Happy Travels. Maybe we’ll see you out there!

How to get off the tourist track.

Step 1. Bike tour. You end up staying places that are not A list, ones with no big attractions but lovely people and normal settings where you might be only tourists, and folks in the bakery will be interested in what the heck these two Americans with not great German language skills are doing here.

I should have started my series of amusing fountains in town squares earlier, but here we go.

Step 2. TrustedHousesitters.com Check it out. You meet wonderful people and pets and spend time living a bit like a local.

You get to go for walks on well signed local trails to beer gardens.

That lower right sign is the beer tour route.

My own little bottle of wine with lunch.

Rich and a yummy Keller beer, at yet another beer garden. They are the perfect pandemic place to go and we seek them out.

Our sweet little charge, thank you to her for being the best little cat and to her human companions for choosing us to keep her company.

She loves to drink out of a proper glass. I love to watch. Cat tongues are fascinating.

Two days off the bikes and we head off today to Bad Windsheim, a pretty short ride, where there is both a thermal bath, one of Rich’s favorite things, and an open air history museum- one of my favorite things.

Happy pedaling!