7 Things I LOVE About Our Portland Neighborhood

Here are 7 MORE things I love about our new neighborhood (and the list could go on and on....):

1. The house (with its many flowering trees) two blocks away

2. This sweet (and slightly fancy-pants) grey house (with lime green trim!) in Alameda

3. The many daffodils in bloom, that make the sidewalks so warm and sunny!

4. The "Old Portland" style Bungalows and Four-Squares that are EVERYWHERE

5. Well, this house has a little windmill and aqua watering pots on the porch. I don't need any more reasons, do I?

6. This simple red house with the striking blue chairs and door, around the corner. This house isn't all that "Portland" though!

7. This cute little bungalow that is directly across the street from our house. The people seem nice too! Now that spring is finally here, we will probably meet them on the way to get groceries!

Be honest now: is it obvious that living here is making me a little itchy to buy a house? We go on very long walks, and it is ridiculous how CHARMING some of these houses and gardens are! I have to be patient though - now is not the time for us. You need money to buy, right?

Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood....We're the People that You Meet Each Day

I am excited for spring weather to come! We have seen glimpses of the sun, but winter here means rain, and don't get out of the house nearly as much as I would like (although the wet weather is such a nice opportunity to stay indoors and work on projects).

I am REALLY excited to start taking advantage of our neighborhood this spring, because it is fabulous. We have a great, design-y sewing shop a few streets over (with a fun yarn store next to it), and a couple little row of fun restaurants and bars in every direction.

Two blocks away is a hip little area with an Irish bar, a low-key beer bar, two coffee shops*, a garden store, a New Orleans-style restaurant, and a sweet wine shop (Gem Wine Cellar). A block up from that is Whole Foods.

I am really excited to be in such a hip little hood, and be able to be car-less for a little bit longer (we will likely have to get one, if Sebastien gets a job in wine country).

*If we want coffee in our neighborhood , we head the other direction to Extracto. It is delicious and super cute.

What We've Been Up To....

I certainly haven't been blogging!

A couple of weeks ago, ten WONDERFUL friends helped us make a night of moving into a truck. It was a 14 foot Uhaul, to be precise, and we (unfortunately) filled it to the hilt.

We moved our stuff into a storage unit in Portland (it is actually a MUCH longer story than that, but I don't really want to get into it....), then went for a week vacation with Sebastien's family.

We got back on Saturday, and on Tuesday my mom came to visit for a week. She was able to do a fair bit of exploring around Vancouver while we were at work. We went camping in Tofino, and had a great time (and wonderful weather!).

Three days after she left, it was suddenly (gasp) our last day of work (we stayed a little longer to make sure it was a good transition), and then our going away party to celebrate, and then a sweet and memorable dinner with our wonderful friends from university, and then we were suddenly on a bus headed to Seattle (and that was yesterday). How did that all happen SO fast!? I wish I had more time to savor it all, but that wouldn't really matter anyway; there is never really as much time as I would like.

We took a train to Portland this morning, loaded some last things into our storage unit (where we discovered a leak, and unfortunately, a moldy chair), put a deposit on a short-term rental, and then came back to Thia's house to enjoy dinner with her and Sebastien's brother, Jonas.

That brings us to right now.

Tomorrow morning we are boarding a plane to Paris, and then we shall go from there.... More to come!

Portland via Europe

I have been a little mum on here about our long-term-goals (mostly because some of my co-workers read my blog, and I didn't want any awkwardness about it), BUT now it is the time to out with it.

Sebastien and I are moving to Portland, Oregon!

I am so happy (and so nervous)! For me, it will mean "moving back" to Portland; for Sebastien, it will mean moving to two hours away from where he grew up. This decision was a long time in coming, and came about with many different factors in mind (many of them having to do with border issues). We have thought long and hard about it, and are now putting our plan into action.

When we first said, "okay, now we can start thinking about a move" (we put it off for a long time, so we could get married), we asked ourselves what some of the opportunities were, and one was that we will both be unemployed at the same time for an extended (although hopefully not too extended) period of time. We thought, how long do we have to save to have an ample cushion for moving AND be able to have a bit of fun in between?

We talked about this a bit, and decided it was very important to go see Sebastien's family in France (his grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins), but we figured we might as well do some other things, "I mean, we're in Europe and all." At the very beginning of this conversation we realized that neither one of us knew that the other person really wanted to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, from southern France across Spain. That, my dear friends is what we are going to do. We will visit his family for a few days at the beginning, go on a month-long walk (more on that, I am sure), visit Granada, and then head back to see his family again.

We are also using this time to visit my family in New York for a bit. I will finally meet my newest nephew Henry! I am very happy about that! It will be nice to have a solid chunk of time to visit them - I think we will be there around a week.

When we fly back to Portland, we will be coming back to a lot of uncertainty - at least that is how it looks now. We have our fingers crossed, and are doing everything we can to get prepared. As things progress, as I am sure they will, I will keep you up-to-date. Right now, we are happy that we have the resources to be able to do such a big move AND trip at the same time. We feel pretty lucky.