Aqueous ionic solutions lubricate the chemical transformations of environmental and biological systems. How water solvates ions dictates ion solubility, mobility, and bioavailability. I will discuss time resolved vibrational spectroscopy studies of ion solvation, emphasizing the dynamics and mechanism of hydrogen bond switching in aqueous NaClO4 solution and ligand exchange in aqueous Mg(NCS)2 solution. The seminar will end with a discussion of recent femtosecond resolution x-ray measurements of photo-induced spin crossover dynamics in iron(II) tris-bipyridine. [Fe(bpy)3]2+ provides a model system for demonstrating the unique ability of simultaneous x-ray fluorescence and x-ray diffraction measurements to disentangle the coupled motions of electrons and nuclei during excited state internal conversion and intersystem crossing.