First Impressions (Portland, Sandy: transplants, home, neighborhoods)

[PNWhike]

Welcome to Oregon. This is not California. Portland is NOT a big city. Do not come here expecting high culture and diversity because that's not what Oregon is about. It sounds like you are in love with the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and love the great outdoors. If you love to camp, fish, hike, ski, go to the beach et. al, then you will love it here. That's what Oregon is about. Welcome.

[esya]

I don't think you have to like hiking, etc, to like Portland. I lived there and I am not an active type, and I loved it.

[tiffela74]

ya, i have to agree with Esya here, Im a lifelong Oregonian and I DETEST camping (hate hate hate it!!) dont like fishing or hiking, and i love living here. Even lived in Portland for several years and was still quite happy and content. Now long walks on the beach, THATS my joy! But I do think Portland has a lot to offer for someone who isnt into the outdoorsy deal too....like me.
Tiffany

[jiffin4java]

Yeah, I definitely am not coming to Oregon expecting what some may be looking for. I'm not looking for California. Last time I checked, that's a little south of Oregon. I'm looking for home. We've moved around an awful lot and we just want to find a place we love and can stay for a long time. I thrive around all the trees and mountains and we love to go on short hikes with the kids. We do like camping but don't get the opportunity to go as often as we'd like. I'm not a city girl so I'm not looking for big-city hype, although I AM looking forward to checking out all the things Portland has to offer. Back to the happy, excited attitudes, please!

[jiffin4java]

Well, we've been here just over a month and are settling in so I thought it was about time to give you all an update. I have to say, it's quite refreshing to live in a place where people say hello and are friendly to you in the grocery store or wherever you may be. My husband and I went out on a date to the movies on Friday and I found myself having a conversation with the woman sitting next to me about the ads on the screen! LOL! I've NEVER done that before! The owner of the pizza place we went to ended up having a nice little conversation with us as well. We've gotten to know our neighbor quite well and I have to say how nice it is to have the babysitter living right next door. LOL!!!! We're starting to get pretty connected around here and that feels good to finally be able to do that. It was so hard everywhere else we've lived and it felt like we were constantly trying to be "home" but here it's almost happening all on its own. Still looking for a church that suits us though.

There's is a lot of talk around the forum about how underfunded and bad the schools are here. I'm not finding this to be true at all! At least not in the district/school where we are. My son has some special needs that the school is more than willing to work with me in addressing. And the funding for him is there and they are really pushing to get him what he needs. I'm very impressed by that since we ran into the exact opposite in Texas. The teachers are amazing and so is the principal. I contacted him directly about a week before we moved into our house and informed him of the issues my son was dealing with and to my amazement, EVERYONE the principal introduced us to when we enrolled our son already knew who Connor was and was very eager to get to know him. How refreshing!!! He's still struggling, but they're working with him and we're in the process now of getting him evaluated for Special Education. I'm very happy with the school and their efforts.

I love the weather. The forecast changes on an hourly basis here and I find that quite hilarious. Don't trust the weatherman! It's not their fault really.....the mountains make it difficult to predict what the weather will do once it gets to us....but it is kinda funny and gives me something to joke about.

We're having more and more clear days and I have to tell you how dangerous it is to drive around here on a clear day! Mt. Hood is right there in front of your face and it's so captivating you can't help but stare at it! And it's not just me having just moved here. It's the locals too. The mountains are just so amazingly beatiful. I can't help but admire God's handiwork. I took an amazing picture of Mt. Hood and if I can ever figure out how to post a picture on this thread I'll share! Maybe one of you can help me out in that area.

Tiffany! At some point I need to take a road trip to the coast and meet you personally now that I'm finally here! Can you believe it? I'm finally here! And I LOVE it!

[tiffela74]

lol!! Im so glad to hear how happy you are here in your new home!!! Please, oh please, let me just say...."I TOLD YOU SO!!!!" LOL !
I know what you mean about the mountain...i used to work just outside where youre at now, (we've talked about that) and even living here all my life, coming around the corners, or over a hill and BOOM!! Mt Hood majestically taking up the sky...wow....I cant tell you how many times I had to pull off the side of the road and just take a minute or two to just stare safely.
And heck ya, ROAD TRIP!! lol, we oughta wait til MikeM is here in W.bay and we'll all get together and yak about this amazing experience called life. I'll even bring SunSpots w/me. Shes a good friend now.
But youre welcome here anytime! Gimmie a holler that youre on your way, and we'll plan some fun.
GThanks for the terrific post too btw! How great to hear someones positive experiences here and how terrific its all going for you!
Tiffany

[MtnSurfer]

Jiffin4java,

I have really enjoyed reading about your journey. We are also looking at moving our family out west from CO. Although I really love the mtns. here I miss the coast a lot. It sounds like you guys picked a nice place to land. May I ask how far/long your husband's commute is from where you are?

As for posting pictures it is really quite easy once you place them somewhere. Here are the basic steps if you have never done so before.
1. Post your pictures on a photo hosting site. This alone is the best thing you can do to share pictures with friends and family. It also will take the most effort, but not really that difficult since most hosting sites are drag and drop. There are free hosting sites like Flickr. Then there are reasonably priced hosting sites with unlimited storage. I recommend smugmug, zenfolio and imageevent. I have used over a dozen and prefer these three. I am currently using Smugmug for the creative flexibilty it provides. But zenfolio is probably the best for providing a very nice look out of the box with very little work to get up and running. Here is my current site.
2. Once you put your images online you simply click on the Insert Image Icon above the text box where you write your post. Then provide the URL to your image.

Since we moved to CO that has been one of the main ways we share pics with our out of state family. I highly recommend it. Plus I wuold love to see your pictures of Mt. Hood! Oh, the above assumes you have a digital camera. If not you will need to scan your images first ->then upload. I hope this helps some.

- Derek

[jiffin4java]

Awe, thanks! My husband's commute to PDX from Sandy takes about 35-45 minutes depending on traffic. It seems long, but it's really not bad at all. He used to commute to Sacramento from the Sierras about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on where the jobsite was. I know the price of gas kind of kills you, but I like raising my kids in a small town up in the mountains and we're willing to sacrifice for that. My husband left for Oklahoma this morning for his training. He'll be back in 5 weeks and the day after he gets home, they're sending him right to work. I can't believe we actually made it. It's still so surreal for me. Derek, Colorado Springs was one of the places on our list of places we could've been sent. I think I've seen your posts around the site too. How soon are you guys hoping to make your move?

[jiffin4java]

Let's see if this worked.....Here's Mt. Hood taken from Sandy a couple weeks ago.

If not, here's a link.

http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...n4java/002.jpg

[jiffin4java]

Hmm....wonder why it's not coming up?!