“The journey itself is my home.”

To the open road!

After ten years on a quiet street in Lower Queen Anne, I moved out of my live / work apartment and client showroom. I downsized to about 100 (one-hundred!) square feet, an über-efficiency apartment on wheels if you will.  And I drove south to find the sun.

To live with less excess seems normal now.  I have solar panels and a battery bank that provide me with virtually endless power.  I’m 6’5” and I can stand up in my shower with on-demand hot water.  I spend a lot less time cleaning and I literally have all of the comforts that I had in my 1000 square foot apartment.

For some time, it has not seemed like a fit for me to be focused on getting more.  Living with less and taking time for what is most important to me feels right. As I get older, time seems to move faster and faster.  Learning to live slower, appreciate more and waste less, calls to me.

Open sky ahead

Our country is huge. Most of us have only seen little bits of it.  And there is so much to see! There are so many people to meet, so many smells to smell and so much food to taste!

It’s easy to idealize travel and  new experiences at the expense of truly seeing what is in front of our eyes right now, in this breath. I think the real accomplishment is to be right here, right where we are-wherever that may be. It is worthwhile to attempt to step into each moment, to breath it in, to meet each moment as it is, taste it, and let it go.

Most of my trip last winter was solo.  But Kathryn joined me on several occasions for a week or so at a time. Her company makes me feel at home and at rest. We have been lucky enough to take quite a few trips this summer in between photographing weddings. We even made it up to Banff. Each moment traveling together is truly precious to me.  Next week, we will be heading east to Salt Lake City and then to see fall color in Colorado.  We will be back to Seattle often for shoots and plan to spend the summer here next year to continue photographing weddings.

Lets connect!

We will be doing a lot to connect with friends and make new friends as we travel. Kathryn will also be organizing photographer meet-ups in cities we visit in conjunction with Mastin Lab. “Beer and Cameras” will be hitting the road! We will also be offering candid family and couples shoots in various cities.  But Seattle is still our home and we will be back full time in the spring, summer and fall.  We also have quite a few trips planned to visit in the winter. 🙂

I’ve been combing through the thousands of photos I have taken as I traveled over 20,000 miles.  It seems impossible to boil that experience down in images or words.  I’ve tried to select just a few of my favorites images from the past year for you.  Many more photos can be seen on our travel Instagram.

Travel – Instagram.com/Fallingintowonder
Love – Instagram.com/LucasMobley
Kathryn – Instagram.com/kathryndenellestevens

Lone Pine, CaliforniaSedona, Arizona

Sedona, Arizona

Sedona, Arizona

Sedona, Arizona

Joshua Tree, CaliforniaJoshua Tree, CaliforniaGrand Canyon, ArizonaBanff, Alberta

Banff, Alberta

Salton Sea, California

Banff, Alberta

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Seattle, Washington

Cannon Beach, Oregon

Lake Wenatchee, Washington

“Between our two lives
there is also the life of
the cherry blossom.”
-Bashō Matsuo

Continue following Lucas’ vanlife and travels here.