Impulse Will Have to Wait

I was hard returning to work after our really great trip to Portland. At first it was because of jet lag and utter exhaustion. Now, we find the urge to pick up and move has become more and more tempting. One of our closest set of friends found out that they will be transferring to Arkansas by June or July. Cue the back ground music maestro, "dun dun dun dun...another one bites the dust...."

However, as much as we may talk about jumping ship with the rest, Jesse and I have made a pact that we won’t even consider moving until one of us has a full-time job. Neither of us are ready to be on a grad school budget again, and I am pretty sure that I would survive about three days working at a coffee shop. No, make that two. So, for now, the impulse to abandon our studio apartment will have to wait.

This week's task: update resumes and woo our references.

Portland Rocks, Final Edition

On Sunday we hopped on the Max to pick up our rental car. That morning, I learned true meaning of the old adage "you get what you pay for." Way back in January when I booked the reservations for our trip, I was so excited to get a sweet deal on our car -- only $25 a day. When we got to the airport, we waited and waited for the shuttle to take us to the car lot. After a series of annoyed calls, I found out that the rental car company shares a shuttle with the Holiday Inn. It was clear that hotel passengers were a priority. After waiting 45 minutes for our pickup, we were dropped off in a back parking lot behind the hotel. The rental car "office" was a folding table situated next to the hotel pool with a fax machine and paper shredder. The woman at the card table was nice enough, but as Graham would say, our cheap car rental was definitely not a good value.

On the bright side, our rocky start mean that the day had nowhere to go but up! We drove down to Hawthorne Street, which was a lot more like our neighborhood in Adams Morgan than anyplace we had seen so far in Portland. By the time we got there I was starving. We stopped in at the Cup and Saucer Cafe (recommended by Eric) and had a delicious meal of eggs, bacon, and LOTS of coffee. With a nice coffee buzz and a full stomach, we set off to explore the neighborhoods. We walked, and walked, and walked, zig zagging up and down streets to scope out places that would be fun to live. Along the way we picked up flyers at houses up for sale to figure out if Portland is was place that we could afford to buy. And it is! I think I found at least a dozen houses in our price range that were cute as a button.

Once our legs felt like they might fall off, we hopped back in the $25-a-day car, and drove around some more. We finally landed at our hotel around 4pm, the Kennedy School. The hotel was converted from an old elementary school and still retains all of its charm. Needless to say, one night was not enough, but we'll back!

We had a drink and a snack at the Detention Bar and then Brian and Anna picked us up for a late dinner. We drove over to their neighborhood and had an awesome meal at Doug Fir's. After dinner they gave us an evening tour of the area and showed us a couple of houses that they have been thinking about buying. While driving around we discussed life in Portland, as Brian and Anna both made very good sales pitches as to why we should hurry up and move already. By the end of the night we had worked out a timeline for luring all of our friends to Oregon.

On Monday we did a bit more driving, but were mostly in a daze from Saturday and Sunday's epic amounts of walking. All we wanted to do was relax on a couch with a good book and read. Besides, by that point, my mind was set. Portland is the place, now all we have to do is find a job or two!

Portland Rocks, West Siiiide

After reviewing my photos from our trip, I can confidently say that my camera stayed zipped in its case for most of the visit. Usually on vacation I have my digital camera in one hand and a map in the other. I don't know why this trip was different. Maybe it was because I'd read so much about Portland beforehand that the city was already clearly mapped out in my mind. Or perhaps I didn't feel like a tourist (gasp) because it felt so comfortable being there, like it was someplace I could definitely live.

Jet lag coming to the West Coast is great. It means that you go to bed embarrassingly early, but will be up and out with the sun (and by up with the sun, I mean 8am). Saturday morning was no exception. We set out to have breakfast at Ken's Artisan Bakery (a favorite from the October Portland trip) where I was overwhelmed by the selection of baked goods. Mindlessly, I ordered an almond croissant, knowing that it would never be enough for breakfast. It was delicious, but I decided to take a nibble of Jesse's vegetable quiche and decided that it was the best in the world. I quickly got back in line for my own piece. Ken's is a hoppin' spot on a Saturday morning and it was nice sit and people watch. While Jesse polished off his quiche, a mixed berry pastry, part of my croissant, and multi grain hard roll, I took note of how many normal people (like us) were milling around the streets. When we finished, I rolled Jesse out of the bakery. We joked that when (not if) we finally get to Portland we'll need to allot additional discretionary funds to keep up with his bakery habit.

The rest of Saturday is mostly a blur now. Somehow or another, probably by the Max or Streetcar, we arrived downtown and proceeded to walk the entire city. In addition to zig zagging up and down residential and commercial streets, there were plenty of stops for snacks, coffee, CD shopping, and book hunting at Powells. By the end of the day I was ready to give my 2 weeks notice and never turn back.

By the early afternoon, I was totally dragging and we decided to stop in at Stumptown Coffee. Just as we were ordering, I heard "Hey, I know you!" I turned and looked behind me, because surely that person was talking to someone else. Nope. It was Anna behind the counter, one of only two people that I know in Portland. Her husband, Brian, is the other. Out of all the Stumptown Coffee shops we could have chosen, we managed to find her, and just in time for the tail end of her shift. She was clearly busy, so we gave her our numbers in order to meet up later. Imagine that! It's definitely a sign!

With a new burst of energy, we continued to walk. One of Portland's quirks, which I still haven't entirely digested, is its love for pink buildings. There may not actually be that many, but they left quite an impression. Now that I look back, about a quarter of the photos taken on our trip involved lovely streetscapes punctuated by really pink buildings in the background. They're the kind of photos that you don't realize you have until after they're developed, or in my case, downloaded. I vaguely remember similar photos from family vacations as a kid. The pictures always captured the four of us in front of some place of interest, in addition to a goofball wearing Mickey Mouse ears, white tube socks, and sandals. Now that I think back, they usually were a bit askew as well, due to the fact that they were taken by someone with felt-padded fingers. I managed to keep a level shot for most of the photos on our trip, but am still scratching my head over those salmon intrusions.

Really though, the pink beauties only added to the city's unique charm. They are just a small part of the story of how I fell in love with Portland's west side in just a day.

Portland Rocks, Initial Impressions

Our trip to Portland confirmed what everyone has been telling me...it's awesome. Even in the rain.

Actually, we had unusually nice weather in Portland this past weekend - freakishly nice weather according to the locals. When we arrived on Friday there was a light drizzle during the afternoon, but for the rest of the weekend, we coasted along with mostly blue skies.

What first struck me about he city (aside from the lady walking around with a freshly neutered cat on her shoulder) was that it has a downtown. A downtown with shops, and places to eat, and people! This was a definite contrast to Washington, D.C. where everything south of Dupont Circle shuts down promptly at 5:30 on Fridays and opens back up again at 8am on Monday when all of the federal workers come back from Virginia. Of course our neighborhood in Adams Morgan is a different story, but I'm talking about downtown, the heart of the city.

When making a trip to downtown D.C., you should prepare for the long haul by packing snacks. That is unless you want to chow down on greasy muffins at Au Bon Pain with the rest of the tourists, or brave hot dog cart fare along the road. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE hot dogs, but you'd have a hard time finding this on a sleepy Sunday afternoon in D.C.

I believe this may have been our second or third cup of coffee in hopes of getting a second wind after a totally exciting and exhausting weekend. I'm sad that I didn't take more photographs of all the people and places, but I have no doubt that we'll be back again in the very near future !

Scouting Trip

In October 2006, J took a trip to Portland, OR for a job conference and ended up really loving the city. It was a place that we both talked about visiting someday, but at the time, a 4-day trip all the way across the country seemed like a bit of a stretch for me. I opted instead to take a shorter weekend trip with him to Boston in early November. Boston was great (we were engaged that weekend), but I kept thinking how it would have been awesome to share the experiences of that first trip to Portland.

I the midst of extensive research to populate our "Top 5 Places to Live" list, I found that Portland looked great on paper. It has great public transit, lots of parks, a cool downtown, lots of beer.... I also found that just about every person who has visited can't get enough. Even still, I couldn't help thinking, what if they are all wrong?

My practical nature would not allow me to fall in love with a city that I had never visited (even though I desperately wanted it to be as cool as everyone said). Besides, what if we moved there and found that it really is a city of rabid granola eaters? I'd seen a lot of people in photos wearing hiking gear. Was I prepared to give up my cute black pumps for brown boots? I also heard that umbrellas are a faux pas in the Rose City. Could I handle the perpetual bad hair days caused by hats and rain?

Fast forward one year. We're right back to Portland.

This morning we catch a plane to PDX and barring any freak snowstorms we will arrive just after lunch. (Chicago O'Hare, I know we've had a rocky relationship, but I didn't really mean all those things I said. Please don't make me regret this apology.)

J and I have a full itinerary in order to absorb as much of the city as humanly possible. This is arguably the worst time of year in Portland weather wise, so if I can handle it this weekend then we're set. Hopefully we will revisit some of J's favorite spots from the 2006 trip and explore other areas for the first time together. I can't wait!

Ready to Uproot

Most of our family and friends have heard us talk about finding new jobs, packing our things, and moving somewhere new. First it was Chicago, then we thought about Austin, and of course a couple of places in California were on the top of our lists at one point or another. For at least a year, we have been wishy washy on timeframe and destination, but now it feels real. Seriously, we're moving this time!

Between our wedding in Chicago, celebrations in D.C. and Santa Cruz, bi-coastal holidays, and J's job switch, this past year has already been a blur! So, I've decided to keep this blog (mostly for selfish reasons) because I am afraid that I will forget all the little things in the whirlwind of a year to come.