Socialize
Chris and I have been talking for a long time about moving up to Oregon. It feels like half the people we know have already crossed the border to a sales-tax free life, so we’ve finally decided to make the leap, too.
For the last week we’ve been crashing on our friend’s posh, downtown couch while looking for the perfect apartment. This is the view from his 6th floor window at dusk.
The first half of our visit was a roller coaster of emotions. I was a total mess, making regular trips to the tear factory and at one point, even after we’d applied for two places, we were considering not moving at all.
Things settled down once we started treating our time there more like a vacation and less like a cut-throat apartment hunt. We saw lots of friends, explored the neighborhoods of Portland and ate a TON of amazing food.
Renee and Justin took us to the Multnomah County Library, on SW 10th. The children’s section is pretty great. And of course I somehow found myself in an aisle full of computer / blogging literature.
On Friday it felt like the whole city came together for Flicks on the Bricks in Pioneer Square. We lucked out and they were showing one of my all-time favorite movies: Anchorman!
Eventually we were approved for a place in the Northeast, which is the best neighborhood; quiet, friendly and very down to Earth. You can see some snapshots of the apartment on Flickr.
I actually saw the listing on CL before we even left for Portland, exclaiming that I wanted to live there. Ask, and ye shall receive, my friends! :)
The building manager’s office is on Mississippi Blvd, which I’m told is the Northeast’s equivalent of Hawthorne. WAY less packed, though, which I love about it, plus lots of cute, funky shops that I can’t wait to explore.
Mississippi Blvd also has an awesome nursery that has more chickens than I could count running wild.
Our last full day in Portland was spent walking literally miles and miles from downtown to Hawthorne and part of the way back for the annual Street Fair. Lots of fun stuff going on inside stores and on the streets, but mostly it just felt good to walk around and get to know Portland.
Yesterday we drove back to Redding and are making plans to move to Portland on the 1st of September. It’s going to be a long time before I see a “Welcome to California” sign again… I can’t say I’m anywhere near as happy to leave Redding as I’ve always pretended to be. I also can’t say I’m looking forward to driving 8 hours with Felix in a cat carrier. Yikes!
Wow, congratulations! I’d love to go back to Oregon, if not to live at least to visit. I lived there until I was 5. I remember liking the west coast, but I think I could appreciate it even more now.
When my family moved from Oregon to Ohio, we took our time instead of driving straight there. We brought our cat Miss Kitty along with us. How she still loved us after cooping her up in the car for two weeks and smuggling her in to hotel rooms by stuffing her into pillow cases is beyond me. I hope Felix’s trip is less stressful!
Aww, Miss Kitty had some adventure! She must’ve REALLY loved you guys :P I think we’ll end up buying a harness to let him out for small walks at rest stops. He’s too much of a ninja at getting out of a leash and collar!