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Hi all!
DH and I are from the Detroit metro area and currently live there. We will be moving to Portland next summer (late June or early July) for DH to attend law school at Lewis and Clark.
We are flying out to Portland this weekend to check out the city for the first time! We'll be getting a tour of the University, and having a realtor take us around to look at houses and neighborhoods (this is one of your husband's...so thank you SO much for giving me his contact info...so sorry but your nestie name slips my mind at the moment)
Any tips for our weekend visit this weekend? We'll be there from Friday mroning around 11:30 until Sunday night at 11:30pm...so I know we don't have a lot of time, but anything that we absolutely most do or see while we're in town? We really can't WAIT to move out there!
PS - i'm going to start posting over here more since we will soon be living in Oregon after all! Anyone else live in the Portland area?
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living
Re: Hi all!
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living
Hi Daisygirl,
Welcome to the area...or soon
This board does tend to be a little slower. I moved here (NW and TheNest) from Northern California. I love living here and the ladies are super sweet on this board. We're a little slower on the board, but we still meet up every now and then and have fun.
There is so much to do I wouldn't know where to start. With such a short amount of time I would just go and hangout in some of the cool areas of town. Do some shopping, have some coffee or tea, and grab a bite to eat. I really like the NW 21st area.
It's supposed to not rain all weekend, so you'll have great weather.
Anyways, welcome to the board. I'm sure the more ladies we get the busier it will get too.
Hi! Welcome!
This board tends to be fairly slow...I would say there are about 8-12 "regulars" that will respond to your posts... Most of us are in the Portland metro area.
You will love Portland, it's amazing. If it's not raining, on Sunday I would park your car downtown and walk the waterfront. You can park on the street or the "smart park" garages are the best value downtown...they are everywhere, just look for the red and white signs. It's a beautiful area, and it's a nice walk. Pack an umbrella, just in case. It rains here pretty much non stop from November to March.
If you were looking to shop, the "Northwest 23rd area" is a great park and walk shopping day trip.
If it's raining... Washington Square mall (in Tigard/Beaverton) or Pioneer Place Mall (downtown Portland) are fun and you can stay dry!
Let us know if you have any questions, and again, Welcome to Portland!
Welcome! I think I saw your married bio on the Wedding Recap board from the knot. Love the bright pink.
Portland is great, and I hope your husband enjoys law school at L & C. I've had a few friends go there, and they seemed to like it, there's a big emphasis on Environmental Law. Do you two plan to stay after he graduates?
You may want to check out Washington Park while you're here. It's a great place to walk around--there's a rose garden, Japanese garden, Oregon Zoo, and great views of the city (assuming it's not rainy).
A good website to check out things to do from hikes to museums to oodles of restaurants can be found at www.portlandmonthlymag.com
Welcome daisygirl! Yes, the board tends to be slow and I haven't met the ladies yet (we moved to Portland in May from Ohio). Where are you staying while you're visiting Portland? Depending on where you're staying, you may be able to just walk/use trimet to get around, it's part of the experience (although driving would be more efficient). At least you're going to get decent weather while visiting, although I actually love the dreariness outside.
Are you looking to buy before/once you move? Portland is very renter friendly and the most likely easiest way to search for a place to live would be on craigslist. Another website we frequented was www.movingtoportland.net.
Have fun and good luck!
Thanks so much everyone for the welcoming messages and advice/tips! We are so excited I can't even believe we'll be there in just 2 days!
Legallovers -- Environmental Law is the main reason DH picked L & C so that is what he is planning on going into..glad to hear that your friends like the school! We're not sure as of yet if we plan to stay after he graduates, but probably not. All of our family is out this way, so we probably want to move back East, but who knows what will happen in 3 years...oh and thanks for the comments about my bio! i didn't realize it was on the knot!
Bula -- did you have a hard time adjusting moving from Ohio? Is your family back in Ohio? My family is really worried about me being so far away, I'm ready, but know that it will be a challenge.
We're still not sure on whether we'll be buying or renting, but we are going to look at both options while we are out there. We have applied to get pre-approved and are waiting to hear back from the motgage company. Once we hear it will help us figure out what we can do. Renting is hard because we have 4 pets...2 dogs, a cat, and a rabbit so we are worried there won't be many places that accept us...and giving away our pets is absolutely not an option
Does anyone have experience with moving out there and deciding whether or not to rent or buy? Any tips that will help make our decision easier?
Oh and while we're in town, we're staying at a hotel right near the airport. It was the cheapest option when we booked with travelocity a few months back..so we'll probably be taking the car into town while we're there.
Thanks again everyone! I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better and hopefully meeting some of you once we move out!
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living
My amateur photo blog
Our families are in Chicago, we were in Ohio for my school and 7 years was way too long. So no, the adjustment to moving out of Ohio wasn't tough, we are missing family though. My brother visited in August, the ILs are coming for Thanksgiving and family is coming for Christmas so it all works out. We're pretty well adjusted to not seeing family that frequently but once or twice a year may get old, especially with my work schedule. There's tons of transplants here though, if that makes you feel any better.
We have 2 decent sized dogs (45lbs each, with breeds that most landlords don't like) so it was pretty tough finding a place. We wanted to explore Portland before buying so we can figure out where exactly we want to buy (suburbs, metro, which neighborhood..., etc) and I'm glad we didn't rush into anything because in the few months we've been here, it's been eye-opening to figure out what/where we like. Especially since Portland's market isn't really plummeting as much as the rest of the country, it's still a semi-sellers market until at some point. Plus we want to save for a hefty dp, especially since the homes in the metro area much pricier than what we were accustomed to in Ohio, don't know what its like compared to Michigan prices.
Have you looked at staying at any hostel in nob hill? There are two and they are centrally located in a great neighborhood (right near 21st/23rd, the Pearl) and easily accessible to the max and probably comparable prices or better deal than any hotel you stay at near the airport. Here are the links:
Guesthouses of Portland (we like this one better)
HI-Portland NW
They both have private rooms and we've stayed at both during our visits to Portland. From there, you can walk to Washington Park+ Japanese Garden, Saturday Market, Powells, 21st/23rd, The Pearl, awesome restaurants, to the waterfront, everywhere. Really consider it.
HTH!
I would HIGHLY suggest that you rent for a little while, just sign a 6 month lease. Some areas of Portland look nice during the day, but are "iffy" at night, and some areas that are expensive are NOT worth it, IMO. The area is huge and very different, you won't be able to see much on a 2 day trip. Housing here is very expensive, you will definetly get "more for your money" if you rent.
Portland Rental Service rents to people with big dogs. We had a 70 pound pit bull and our next door neighbor had a HUGE 140 pound dog (the breed from the movie The Sandlot??) and we had no problems renting from them a few years back. They are very pet friendly.