i could not be more excited to type this: we have found a little home in portland to rent!!! it's super cute 1924 craftsman duplex. she's got a big basement with storage room, washer and dryer, an attached garage, built in kitchen nook. two bedrooms and just tons of charm!!
we'll be moving in on november 1st and in the mean time i'll be putting in my application everywhere so i can hopefully start making some money again. as much as i've really been enjoying getting to take some time off, i'm ready to feel productive and like i'm contributing a little bit more to my household.
as well, we now have to start considering furniture, decoration, and what not now that we have a much much larger space to fill! more posts on that to come!
xxo
well we landed about a week ago, but of course it's taken me a while to get back online (our pod not being here when we arrived also helped in my delay). portland has been awesome so far, not that we've really done too much other than buy furniture and go look at apartments.
it's hard to say what's been the most interesting or fun, but we've thoroughly been enjoying the surprisingly nice weather we're getting at the moment!!
noah has a seriously gorgeous and well curated home, we've definitely been enjoying getting to be here!!
we've really been fortunate to be able to wander around so much. it's my first fall where leaves are changing in front of my eyes so i of course cannot get enough of it! of course the rain has come a little bit, but that just meant furniture shopping and making some good food with some home grown figs! now we don't have a place to live quite yet (although keep your fingers crossed for us), but we have found a few pieces of furniture that we've just HAD to have. we're also getting quite spoiled since the prices aren't bad up here either!
here's our set up (and the husband)!
we also lucked out by getting to see our friend Marni!
we also made a big dinner for the roommates (there's 6 of us living in this big house and it's not often that we all get to together) so we decided to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving.
yesterday was a pretty big day for me, i gave notice at my work, making it 100% official that we are moving to portland, oregon!!! we've had this on the burner for a little bit, but wanted to really make sure that it was the right decision. we'll be moving back to san diego for about 3 weeks and then we'll be taking off using our honeymoon to get us there. we're really really excited, and just a little bit nervous!!
we've been looking around at all the things we want to do when we get up there and i thought i could share a few with you! laurelhurst park- we walked around here when we were up north in may. it was so incredibly gorgeous i couldn't believe it. tons of paths, dog park, kids park. total magic. the food carts- they have every kind of food you could possibly imagine with and located just about everywhere these carts were heaven! our first night we had poutine!!!
beer and a movie- we sadly didn't get a chance to do this when we visited, but it's definitely something i'm SO excited to get to do this winter. there's a few different places we've seen that offer this type experience, like this place and this place or even this one that features older movies!
vintage shopping on hawthorne- i fell in love with the vintage shops (and their incredibly reasonable prices) everywhere along hawthorne, which is guess is the more hippie yet hipster part of town? there were tons of vintage shops, neat little art shops, and everything in between on hawthorne!
lunch at lardo- we got a chance to eat at the lardo in downtown one day and it was nothing short of incredible. with a pretty basic menu of sandwiches, fries, beer/wine, and of course the best root beer (and on tap) i've ever had! photo from lardo's site
the columbia river gorge
- my first experience with the gorge was from these crazy beautiful photos that Jordan took back in 2005 when he lived in portland. we never really used to be outdoorsy people, but we find that we are definitely becoming comfortable with hanging out with nature and this place is screaming our name! photo from trip advisor's website
i leave you with this song cause it just seems really fitting (and it's one of my favorites)
jordan and i are getting excited for the next few months, and are currently trying to save some money so we're finding some new ways to have fun, hang out, plan things without spending any scratch as we're getting married in only 64 days and there's still a lot to be paid for! post wedding we're hoping to take a week to drive up north through the California coast and Oregon coasts as a "faux-moon" since we'll be waiting to save up to take a proper honeymoon! of course trying to decide where to go is an adventure in itself! here are a few possible routes we looked at:
neither of us have ever driven all the way up the coast. although we've both been to different areas up that way. we've got a small list of cities and spots we'd like to hit, but are trying to keep a pretty open mind since we don't have any definite time that we need to be up north! as well we're trying to camp most of the cities on the way up. hopefully we'll be able to find enough camp grounds and rest stops that will serve us. here's the places we'd like to see:
santa barbara & san luis obispo
cholame (where James Dean died), cambria, san simeon (for Hearst castle)
big sur for camping and hiking
carmel & monterey (jordan has never been to the aquarium up there!)
sf, berkley, & oakland
glass beach
redwoods & humboldt
camp blanco st park, or
eugene, or
astoria, or
along with all that we've been trying to look up some good car games. my best marissa is letting us borrow these auto/driving bingo cards which will be great.
do you have any fun car games that you could share with us??
photo from lardo's site
photo from trip advisor's website
