The past few weeks have been a bit of a blur. My good lady wife Rachel and I decided last year that we should move to Portland (PDX) from Raleigh-Durham (RDU) for several excellent reasons, to wit:
- The weather in RDU is overbearingly hot and sweaty in the Summer, a period that spans Apr-Oct, roughly.
- I’ve suffered constant flu-like allergies every year I’ve lived in the state, mostly due to ragweed pollen.
- We’d like to downsize our lives as much as possible, but that’s not really an option in a city where two cars are more or less mandatory due to sprawl and poor public transportation.
- My wife would like to start her business in a location that has a good blend of tech and a strong independent art/comics scene.
Portland really seems to fill all of our requirements, and then some – the cost of living in a high-density urban location is about the same as RDU suburbs, with lower costs for food and transportation.