Announcement:

Alright friends,

I am officially starting the campaign for everything and everybody I love to move to Portland, OR.  I had not spent any real time there since high school, but I got the chance to bookend the wedding extravaganza last month with a few days in the Rose City.  I am so much in love, lust, infatuation.

Its everything I love about the Northwest.

You know you want it....

Top Ten Things I Love About Portland

10.  It's green.  see above as evidence.  lush lush lush

9.  No sales tax.  So no one pays a penny over 499.99 for that tent at REI that I like.  In general, things were just not expensive.  Amy and I ran over the river to catch a last minute flick and I'm pretty sure we paid $4.25 for admission.  LA movie tix?  That'll be 18 bucks.  Woof.

8. It's active.  Every poster on the telephone pole is advertising cycling, road races, raft trips, etc etc.  Delicious.

7.  Foodie.  So much good, whole, food to be had there.  I spent quite a few days there, I didn't see one chain restaurant.  When you eat with me, you discover my disdain for national chains.  I just don't think eating at one is ever an event.  Run to Chipotle when I'm starved?  Yes.  But eating at a chain in a new place is like going to the pool with a skateboard.  Pointless and stupid.

6.  Portland is the perfect size.  It's big enough to have Nordstrom, small enough to not have major traffic.  Superhero Amy got me to the airport in 12 minutes.  At 1800.  Wonderful.

5.  HOW EASY IS IT TO COMMUTE THERE?!  I understood the Max rail system and buses on the first day there.  I could live there without a car quite easily.  Of course I never would, because there are too many fun places around the city to explore.  And I would have to roadtrip to Seattle a lot.

4.  Music, art, crafts.  Bohemian haven.  Saturday market happens week with tons of jewelry and tutus. My sister bought me a custom tutu there a few weeks back, I wear it to vacuum.

3.  Lifestyle.  People are laid back to a fault.  I don't mean to alarm anyone, but I was feverishly attracted to the homeless man hanging out outside of Stumptown Coffee our first day there.  Portland makes deadbeat look good.

2. A river runs through it.  Literally.  Willamette river (phew, janni!),  right through.  Isn't that delightful?!  I always loved that film, and I love bridges.  River, city, bridges, delight.

1.  Donald Miller, who wrote Blue Like Jazz, lives there.  When reading that book, I felt like he was seeing into my soul.  Any man who understands people like that, I wanna be where they are.  My Aunt Terry says that she thinks about moving to Portland just so she could go to his church.  Me too, Aunt Terry.  Me too.

Go play, people!