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I've asked this here before, but seeing as our needs/situation has changed a little, I figured I'd ask again. Basically we are a family of four. My wife is 37 and caucasian, I'm 35, and Filipino, and we have two daughters who are 11 and 6 who are obviously mixed.
Years ago, we moved to Central NY from CA to pursue a internship at a winery with the hopes of opening our own after. Well after three of the best years of my life (we made so many friends, loved the small towns, and the people, and got along with everyone as soon as we got there, as we were always small town people at heart), my mom fell deathly ill with breast cancer, and we decided as a family to move back to spend her last days with her. It broke our heart to move away from the place we came to love, but family comes first.
Well, long story short, my mom passes away, we help my dad up on his feet, and we think about moving back to NY, but by this time a couple years have passed, our friends have moved on, and we want to stay close to family in case this happens again, so we dont have to uproot our lives again. So we chose the PNW, we live in Vancouver, just over the river from Portland, OR.
We've been here three years, and gave it an honest shot. The cost of living was deceptive for people from other states, and it wasnt as cheap as it seemed. And above all, the people. I'm not a fan of people assuming images. I like people up front, and honest. And this is the wrong place for that. There are so many hipsters here, and the annoying type of "artists". I'm SO not P.C., but this is the most PC place I have ever lived. People are wayyyyy too sensitive, and honesty is out, because itll just hurt peoples feelings. I don't mind the weather as I love gloomy and cold (i'm backwards). So we are looking at another possible place.
Maine has always been at the top of my potential places to live. I am an avid outdoorsman. I love to hunt, fish, hike, camp, and be out in nature as much as possible, and ME like Alaska seemed like Mecca for outdoorsmen like me. I'm also a photographer, and I feel like I could spend a lifetime in Maine just taking pictures all day every day.
NEEDS:
Okay so now that the backstory is out of the way.
Personally, I LOVe living out in the sticks. I love as rural as you can get. Our last place in NY was on 2 acres, and skies so clear you could see every star in the sky. My kids and I chased fireflies and picked up tadpoles and all that, and I was in heaven. I would sit on my back porch with a bourbon and a joint every night, and just enjoy the sounds of the night, in pitch blackness.
BUT life has changed since then. We need a rural town, but one close enough to be convenient to a place with shopping options, and above all good medical care. My wife suffers from a number of health issues. An extreme case of Fibro, migraines, neuropathy, and COPD. So gone is the time where she could drive happily 30-45 minutes just to grocery shop. And we need some place where we dont have to drive an hour to the hospital.
I LOVE small towns, and love to be part of the community. We are so easy going and relaxed that we never have problems making friends wherever we move, and adapt well. We need a community open to mixed race families, with good schools as well.
So sorry for the long post, but figured it would be helpful for those wanting to give suggestions.
I've done everything. Basically, my steady jobs have always been in the Accounting field (not a cpa, but as a accounting tech, or assistant). I hate the work, but it's always been stable, and I've never had problems finding work, that usually includes the insurance my wife needs.
BUT as I said I have worked wineries, which many don't know is extremely hard labor, if you're not the owner. I've been a pest technician, grocery store clerk, waiter, and everything under the sun as either temporary main work, or as second jobs.
Honestly I would love nothing better than to find work on a fishing boat and just work a boat all day. I am a physical worker, stuck in cubicles, so any chance I can get to be outside the office, I jump at.
I like being outdoors and working with my hands. But I also have a family, so my wants often take the back seat to necessity. But I'm no stranger to any type of work, and no stranger to hard work.
Former Mainer here. Blue Hill is a small, scenic coastal town with a hospital and a little bit more cultural exposure than some of the other small towns in rural Maine, because there are many artists and crafts people there as well as a public but independent (semi-private) high school is mostly a day school for local kids but also is now a boarding school for international students, many from Asia. As a half Asian kid I didn't have any problems there (this was a few decades ago) and the school was not international back then as it is now. I did on occasion encounter some minor racism in other very small towns that were more agricultural/fishing based and less artsy but again it was the 80's and the world is smaller now. There is also a small hospital in the village and some grocery stores, etc. The surrounding towns will be cheaper to live in and the kids still attend the high school in Blue Hill since most of the surrounding towns don't have high schools. The kids in my class there had parents who were teachers, doctors, artists, writers, boatbuilders, chefs, janitors, store clerks, fishermen, farmers, etc. It will be harder to find an office job with insurance there though, and in winter it will be too far to commute from Blue Hill to Ellsworth or Bangor because the roads will be too icy and snowy. You could live in the very rural, coastal village of Surry and commute to work in Ellsworth and send your kids to high school in either Blue Hill or Ellsworth (at their choice). Surry is a little bit more artsy-fartsy (and therefore less provincial) than some of the other tiny towns in the area and so your family may fit in better there from a cultural perspective. Or if you want access to a bigger hospital and more jobs, look in the Bangor area. Orono is a nice suburb that is 5 minutes from the hospital but is a university town. It's more expensive perhaps than some of the neighboring suburbs but a slightly different demographic.
You definitely need to put boots on the ground here in Maine, before even dreaming about moving here. I don't think anyone here will give you grief regarding Asian or mixed Asian heritage. I'm speaking more about the type of town, available work, and the type of lifestyle you may be interested in. I would never want to be transplanted to the PNW without visiting it and seeing if it "fits" my lifestyle.
Why not plan this year's vacation around a trip to Maine? I realize that you have lived in New York state, but that is quite different from Maine. Maine has its own character, which fits many just fine, but it isn't for everyone. I have known folks who couldn't stand it for anything but vacations. It sorta has everything, but in some ways, it really doesn't. Come and see and try it out!
When we moved here we toured a couple wineries. We were told flat out that nobody produces wine grapes in Maine. We were told a list of reason for why wine grapes do not exist in Maine. All Maine wines are fruit wines. I built our house, planted an orchard, got into gardening, and we have seen a couple small vineyards that have began producing grape wines here in Maine. So it is very new here, but it does exist. [and it is growing]
We have visited one vineyard, that became a winery and then got the license to distill. So they are now marketing their own brandy even.
Assuming that you can find employment [this is a really big factor], you could draw 30-minute radius circles around each hospital and then look for 40-acre parcels where you could plant a vineyard.
While the number of farms nationwide is shrinking, here in Maine the number of farms is growing. There is a big push now for 'Local' foods. If you came here, you would be riding on the crest of that wave.
I am Caucasian. I served 20-years in the Navy, where I worked with a lot of Filipinos. There are not many Filipinos here in Maine, a few, mostly spouses at the American Legion and VFW. As a Caucasian, it could be said that I am blind to racism and would never see it, even if it were in front of me. I understand. I do believe that what ever racism is here in Maine, it would not be enough to bother you.
I think it would be cool to have a farmer here with a background in wineries. The big hurdle is getting you a job.
We visited the PNW too, but the thing in visiting (although we always visit before we move) is that you see a city at its surface. There's more that comes out over time, both good and bad, that you can only experience or see when you live there.
Im just at the beginning stages here, trying to get a list of towns to look into, so I have a more targeted group of places, to look into while we're visiting rather than having the whole large state to comb through.
When we moved here we toured a couple wineries. We were told flat out that nobody produces wine grapes in Maine. We were told a list of reason for why wine grapes do not exist in Maine. All Maine wines are fruit wines. I built our house, planted an orchard, got into gardening, and we have seen a couple small vineyards that have began producing grape wines here in Maine. So it is very new here, but it does exist. [and it is growing]
We have visited one vineyard, that became a winery and then got the license to distill. So they are now marketing their own brandy even.
Assuming that you can find employment [this is a really big factor], you could draw 30-minute radius circles around each hospital and then look for 40-acre parcels where you could plant a vineyard.
While the number of farms nationwide is shrinking, here in Maine the number of farms is growing. There is a big push now for 'Local' foods. If you came here, you would be riding on the crest of that wave.
I am Caucasian. I served 20-years in the Navy, where I worked with a lot of Filipinos. There are not many Filipinos here in Maine, a few, mostly spouses at the American Legion and VFW. As a Caucasian, it could be said that I am blind to racism and would never see it, even if it were in front of me. I understand. I do believe that what ever racism is here in Maine, it would not be enough to bother you.
I think it would be cool to have a farmer here with a background in wineries. The big hurdle is getting you a job.
LOL ya, people forget that people were growing wine grapes in some conditions we would turn our nose up at now. Grapes are pretty hardy, and suffering actually improves the quality of the wine. The short growing cycle is the main hurdle I would imagine, but there are grapes that fit in that small window.
I'm a worker always have been, and as I'm sure you know, knowing many Filipinos, you aren't worth the air you breathe unless you knew how to work, and work hard. When we move to a new place I spend about a month prior just flooding every possible job opportunity in the area with my resume and introduction letters. I ALWAYS hear back from at least a couple. When we moved to the Finger Lakes that was the main concern as well, as the area was depressed and not much stable work, but I landed a job at Cornell University. Same when we came back to LA. People had gone years without work, but I found a job within 2 weeks. And in Portland, I found a job 2 weeks before we moved. I'm not too concerned as I will do anything to provide money, I'm no stranger to working two or even three jobs, at least until I find a more stable place.
Interesting though, about the wine situation. Makes me wish we still had the money to open a winery. We used all of it, on the move back to CA.
Come to Brunswick. While it is the largest "town" (not city) in Maine, it will seem small town to you after Vancouver. And Portland, ME is much smaller than Portland, OR.
Brunswick has a large retirement community and is therefore home to two hospitals and several clinics. Portland's hospitals were recently deemed the safest in the nation, and if you truly need world class medical care, Boston is about 3 hours away.
Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, so there are lots of non-Mainers in town, lots of great arts, music, etc. Public library is fantastic and very kid friendly.
Lots of local farmers markets in the area. You won't be "in the sticks" per se, but you'll be very close to all the sticks you want, and there are lots of nature trails and such right in town. Seeing people cross-country skiing the nature trails is pretty common, right in town. The town also floods and freezes the village green each winter, so there is downtown ice skating.
Finding a good job anywhere in Maine is tough, but not impossible, especially in the financial field.
There is a winery in the town of Winterport on the outskirts of Bangor that has their wine in some grocery stores here. Also Bangor has a large hospital and many healthcare options. It is not a far drive to the coast from there and if you go farther north even just a bit there are plenty of fishing, hunting and other outdoor activities to enjoy. Bangor offers some job openings for you too. Good luck to you!
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