Soooooo…obviously it’s taken me a long time to update this—it’s been a crazy couple of weeks! (Plus, we couldn't get our internet to work for the longest time, and the wi-fi router didn't arrive till this week either.) But here I am at last... The adventure started on Thursday, June 24th, when the moving truck came and loaded up all our worldly goods. Several dear friends (you know who you are) came and brought us cookies and moral support and helped pack the last boxes, and made our last day much more pleasant than it would have been otherwise.
The poor mover guys heaved boxes into the truck all day, and they even had to load their cab to accommodate it all. It’s truly amazing how quickly you accumulate things, even though we really “downsized” immensely when we moved a year ago from Everett to Bothell! They didn’t finish until early evening, so we spent the night in Bellevue and “officially” started our road trip the next morning. I drove our Hyundai Accent, with Mom spelling me often, and Dad commandeered the minivan, with my siblings Margaret and Robert as passengers and our dog, Maggie, in a 
zip-up pen in the back. (She didn't like it.)
zip-up pen in the back. (She didn't like it.)Both vehicles were so ridiculously full that we could hardly see out the back windows, and that, plus the fact that our little car has a small engine, made it hard for me to keep up the required 75 mph speed on the highway. But it worked out fine, and was quite fun—I’d never had to do that kind of driving before, and I loved the straight, fast driving with no turns or stops. I learned that it’s a bit dangerous too, because after a few hours of straight, fast driving in sun and silence, it’s easy to get extremely drowsy. Thus the frequent, almost obsessive stops at Starbucks along the way. Also, I learned that it’s not as easy as it looks to pass huge semis on a two-lane, divided highway. My dad is a pro at this and did it easily, and I thought it couldn’t be that hard, so I attempted to pass as well one time and this nearly resulted in me hitting a truck head-on that was barreling down on me with angry headlights and loudly blaring its horn. (Ok, so I didn't mention that I apparently chose to cross a solid yellow line right then...) But thankfully God decided that wasn’t my time to go, and nothing more serious than emotional trauma occurred. :)
We drove for five days straight, passing through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin on our way to Illinois, some of which I'd never seen before. Because we had to get to Wheaton by a certain date to close on our home and mortgage (rather important), we had little time for sight-seeing along the way, and our days primarily followed a pattern of driving, rest stop, driving, rest stop, driving, lunch, driving, rest stop, driving, rest stop, driving…you get the picture. I teased my family that it was “like a summer vacation without the fun.” We did get to stop at a few places along the way, however, most significantly the site of Custer’s Last Stand and the Battle of Little Bighorn (of interest to my historian father in particular) and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I'd always wanted to see it, but supposed I never would. Never say never.
The weather was hot and sunny, with brilliant blue skies and nary a drop of rain the entire drive, and we saw many natural wonders along our route as well. God’s creation is truly spectacular, and often breath-taking. My favorite was the Badlands of South Dakota, where bleak, barren outcroppings of rock formed the primary landscape, stone banded with red, gold, and purple. Even the name is exciting, though I pity those who had to pioneer a way through years ago. The only living green apparent was clumps of sagebrush and straggly grass embedded here and there in the rock, or growing along muddy beds where I hope water runs at certain times of year. It looked like a scene from a Western, and I expected to see John Wayne riding into sight at any moment, or a band of Indian warriors appearing as silhouettes along the cliff tops rising up on either side.
Finally…after 5 days of driving and 2100 miles (whew!), we arrived at our motel in Wheaton, Illinois on Tuesday, June 29th. Mom and Dad spent 8 hours the next day in a very stressful closing process (several complications came up) but by God's grace everything worked out well eventually and by that evening, we were the owners of a new home on Stoddard Ave.
We haven’t explored much of the area yet, but so far Wheaton seems to be a nice, well-kept, lovely town. The residential streets are wide with grassy strips between the sidewalks and the road, or medians with grass and lots of trees. It’s a very green place. No pine trees like in Seattle, which I miss, but still lovely and green. Wheaton is very much a college town, and like I said, quite small. From our house on Stoddard, it’s only 1.1 miles to the campus of Wheaton College (a 15-25 minute walk, depending on how tired and/or hot I am), and from there, you only have to walk a couple more blocks down College Ave to run into Main Street, which is the heart of downtown Wheaton. It will be an interesting change to be able to walk to school and town. The train depot is on College Ave as well, and from there it’s about a 40 minute ride into Chicago. We haven’t visited the Windy City yet, but that’s on the to-do list of the near future.
Downtown Wheaton is compact and charming. There are 2 cafes that I have found so far—one Starbucks, and a local café called La Spiaza, which Mar and I visited within the first couple of days here and prefer. They have the best cinnamon lattes that I’ve ever tasted. It has signs up inside saying “Friends Don’t Let Friends Go to Starbucks”, a slogan to which I perhaps should take offense (being a former barista at “The Bucks”), but I honestly love. It reminds me of the Ugly Mug café in the U-District in Seattle which also posts such signs. There are many good places to eat dinner downtown, as well as a frozen yogurt shop called Yoyo Land in what used to be the old train station, a retro soda fountain/icecream spot, and a tiny hole-in-the-wall place that is narrower than an alleyway and only a few yards deep and sells fresh popcorn and candy. I hear it’s a favorite with the local kids. I have yet to discover a local used bookstore, and will be devastated if I do not. But I think I will eventually.
Wheaton is one of the most heavily churched areas in the country, which is cool, but we have only visited two so far—The College Church—located on the edge of campus of course, and Bethel Presbyterian, which is an OPC. They were very different but both good experiences. I know we'll be visiting many more in the weeks to come, and I hate "church-hopping" so I hope we settle on one soon. Your prayers would be appreciated in that regard!
There are tons of parks in this area as well. There are two just on Main Street, a large one with fields for sports and a playground and all that typical stuff, and a much smaller one—Historic Adams Park—which has a couple of gazebos and is very lush and shady with multitudes of flowerbeds and benches, and a fountain in the center. I like this one better, and it will be a nice, somewhat secluded place to go to get away from campus for awhile once school starts. There’s another park closer to our house, which I’ve heard has water and a place to rent canoes or kayaks, but I have yet to check it out. I hope this rumor proves true.
Wheaton College itself is like the town—small and lovely. It has only about 2500 students, which is about twice the size of the entire Chem 142 class (all sections, not just mine) that I took freshman year at UW! To put things in perspective… If you count up the number of buildings, most of them are residence halls or apartments. Almost all the students live on campus, which Mar and I plan to do as well, at least this first year, and the residences sort of ring the academic buildings. My dad's building is Blanchard Hall, the home of the history department, and probably the prettiest building on campus (besides the chapel, perhaps)--it's the one that is always shown on the front of their college brochures, etc. It houses the English and Philosophy departments as well, and the office of the President. The Billy Graham Center houses the Biblical/Theological Studies dept, so I anticipate spending a LOT of time there...it also has a museum of evangelical history on the bottom floor. I haven't really been in many buildings yet, so I will be updating a lot more about the campus once school actually starts!
It feels so surreal to be here still--like we're just tourists, really. I can't believe that all the people I love (barring my family of course) are back on the West Coast, a couple thousand miles away. Though I'm pretty lonely right now and missing everyone so much, I know this will be an adventure, and God has many good things in store for me and my family here. But fyi, I'm already setting aside the money I made this summer for a plane ticket back to Seattle! :) Love you guys!!
Take care,
Callie
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