11 Years Ago: Oregon tops my list of places in the US that I'd like to visit. Got cultured…read more(CULTURally EDucated) by a Physics student from Portland while studying Billiards, Non-Profits, and Rock Concerts at Cornell. Spent four years learning about food, music, outdoor activities, film, and Oregon. Promised myself that one day I'd visit (It was second on my list after Prague).
9 Years Ago: Involuntarily left Cornell (was supposed to have been studying Engineering) and returned to Hawaii. Visited Seattle, fell in love with the Northwest...trees,mountains, and rivers everywhere!
5 Year Ago: Got married to my beautiful better half who loves to travel (and has), but had never lived off our island.
4 Years Ago: Debated moving or traveling...chose the later (finally made it to Europe...and put to rest my weird fixation with Prague)
9 Months Ago: Found out my brother (who lives in Portland) was marrying a Salem girl. Booked tickets to visit ORegon for the reception. Again began discussing leaving our comfortable island lives and maybe moving.
5 Months Ago: Decided we needed to stop talking about and stop looking at www.Johnlscott.com till we actually visited.
3 Months Ago: Finally made it to PDX. When we left HNL we were 80% staying 20% moving (liked our jobs, most of our friends and family lived there, and it's Hawaii). After a little over a week here we were sold on moving to one of the few places in the world where the grass really is greener. Loved the progressive ideas, the food, the culture, the Saturday Market, the charming hoods, and the eclectic people.Decided to wait a week to make our final decision.
A week less then 3 Months Ago: Rolled the dice and gave ourselves a two month time frame to move.
Two Weeks Ago: Had just finished leaving our jobs, selling our material possessions, and shipping what was left. Went on a Yelp hiatus (13 days is a long time for a Yelper).
A Week and a half Ago: Bid Aloha to the Aloha state and Arrrived in Seattle with Madison (our canine dogther ).
Just over a week Ago: Picked up tRAVis Blueberry (our RAV4) and drove down here.
The last few days: Visited neighborhoods, went to concerts, and spent more money then two jobless people should stocking up at New Seasons, Trader Joes, Target, Costco, Uwajimaya, Ross, and IKEA.
Right Now: Writing my first Portland Yelp which has turned into a circuitous, verbose, meandering, somewhat introspective piece that hasn't even gotten to the point yet.
Two Weeks from Now: Hopefully working for a non-profit somewhere or at least getting paid to do something fun.
Three Months from Now: Hopefully living somewhere in Sellwood, Hawthorne, Alberta, Belmont, or Mississippi (NW23rd is nice too, but too expensive). We spent an afternoon walking up and down SE 13th ave. in Sellwood and were blown away by all the affable dog-friendly outrageously cool shops, restaurants, parks, and people. This place rocks.
Anyway, who really knows what'll happen next? 3 months ago Portland was just a pipe dream. Now...we're here (and loving it...and not just cause we're unemployed with time to goof around).