Portland Sucks!

Just Kidding, it totally rocked!

I'm not sure whether it was the Nora-less-ness of the trip, or the nice weather, or the fact that it is just plain an awesome city, but we're sold.

Let me begin with the most important things first.

The shopping:
1. So many, many cute and cool boutiques everywhere in these funky neighborhoods. Lovely clothes, baby stuff, cards, jewelry, and bags I was awed.
2. They have a West Elm (and a bunch of other box stores I love, like Crate and Barrel)!
3. There is a whole Newbury-like street called 23rd that we just drove by, but I can tell will take weeks of exploring.
4. Bookstores, like on every corner AND Powells.
5. They are building an IKEA, right now.
6. NO SALES TAX, seriously, does it get any better.

The houses:
1. Affordable period.
2. Lots of Craftsman style houses (in our price range)!
3. Full of beautiful period details and gorgeous woodwork that people up there seem to understand is important to keep intact.
4. There are so many parks that you house is bound to be within a mile of two or more. Many of which have water features (wading pools) and playgrounds.
5. Amazing real estate sites (okay, not particular to Portland, but I learned of one while I was there so Portland gets the credit). If you have not yet explored Zillow.com you will enter every address you can think of to get info on appreciation etc.
6. The city of Portland's website has a thing where you plug in the address and it will tell you the assessor's history (like how much the house sold for last) and the parks nearby as well as where your local sex offender is residing. Neato!

Food:
1. Eating out, well we didn't have much money to do this but the two times I ate breakfast out I was very pleased. Also there seems to be a very vibrant chef/gourmet community.
2. Eating in, can you say ORGANIC? It seems that Portland like to eat organic and local too. There is a farmer's market in every single neighborhood.

Kids:
We saw a ton of them and their parents too. It seems that families thrive here. Maybe it is the combination of jobs and affordable housing, who knows.

In short people, this is a done deal. Now all we need to do is work out the details. By the way, we took no pictures of Portland. Apparently we don't know how to take a picture in which Nora is not the subject.