We had a lot to do our first full day in Seattle. My parents were going to get to the house about noon so we figured we’d get up early and try to get some errands done.
As I’ve said earlier we had car trouble the week before and ended up buying a new car the day before we moved. I tried to register the car that evening but forgot about emissionssions. I didn’t have time to go do emissions and register it that day. (We didn’t own the car until about 4 or 5 pm and places were closing.) I got a 3 day temporary plate that expired on Friday which gave us just enough time to make it to Seattle. Temporary plates are to be used just for getting emissions and registering the vehicle, not driving cross country….oops. We figured the sooner we registered our car in Washington the better.
In AZ you go to the DMV, MVD, whatever, get your driving license, register your car, title your car, pretty much you do everything there. In WA getting your license is done at one location and registering/titling your car is done at a separate location. You also have to have a WA driver’s license to register your car in WA (probably in AZ too, but I don’t know for sure.) So we had to get our licenses first.
We went to the licensing place and we got a really nice helpful lady. We were able to get our licenses no problem! (Also in AZ they print your license right there on the spot. In WA they print you a copy and mail you your real license. We actually just got ours yesterday!)
Next we went to get our car titled and registered. This one was in a local grocery store. Chris went in alone this time while I hung out with the kids in the car.
Another difference in AZ and WA is the tax when you buy a car private party. (Craig’s list in our case.) In AZ there is no sales tax when buying private party. In WA there is. Since we bought our car in AZ I thought we might be off the hook. But the law is, if you buy a car out of state within the past 90 days, but want to register it in WA you still have to pay a “use” tax. We also didn’t have a bill of sale so instead of taxing us with how much we paid for it, they taxed us at the fair purchase price. (Which was more than what we paid for it.) Oh well our car is now registered in WA! We also did it all the first day we were in Seattle which is great! One less thing to worry about!
When we finished we headed straight to our house where my parents were waiting! I was so relieved to pull up to the house seeing the trailer there in one piece! We went inside and let kids run around for awhile. We gave my parents the tour and showed them our views! (My favorite part of the house.)
The morning while we were running our errands it was raining so hard. Harder than I had ever seen it rain in WA. (In the week I’d been in WA.) Luckily by the time we were unloading it cleared up and it was a beautiful sunny day!
Chris and my dad unloaded everything from the truck. My mom unloaded most of the boxes and I made sure kids stayed out of the way. We were lucky and two guys in our new church ward came to help us. One of them brought their little daughter. It was fun for my kids to have someone to play with! We were happy to have a few extra strong hands to lift the heavy stuff for us.
After the truck was unloaded we took a break and went for sandwiches at Fishermen’s Green Market and Deli and fish and chips at Little Chinnooks. Sandwiches were really good as were fish and chips. (Chris and I have been back to get more fish and chips.) The location is so cool. It’s close to the house, and its on a marina so its on the water and there are boats everywhere.
After that my dad had found a buyer for our trailer. My mom was anxious to get rid of it so they went to Tacoma to deliver it to the guy. We ended up selling it for $100.00 less than we bought it for. Not too bad considering renting a u haul would have cost us over $2000.00.
The next day my parents came back and helped us set up our furniture and unload the rest of the boxes. My mom organized everything. I kept kids out of the way. My dad and Chris set the rest beds, and other furniture. We took a small break to show my parents Discovery Park, the preschool, and our church. We came back and got back to work.
Once most things were unloaded we took my parents to eat teriyaki. There are teriyaki places everywhere and we love them! My kids love them too which is even better!
My parents went to their hotel for the night, Kids went to bed, and Chris and I finished unloading. We had put our boxes on Craig’s list so we needed to empty all of them so when the person getting them came, they could take them all!
It felt so good to have the trailer empty and gone, everything unloaded and put away, our boxes gone, and our car registered and us licensed!
Our house (the white one) with our trailer and my dad’s truck!
