This past weekend Jeremy and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Portland for our 7 year anniversary, for four fun-filled kid-free days! It was glorious! We both didn’t realize this, but we haven’t gone on a real vacation {as in scouting some apollo bay accommodation resorts, getting on a plane, staying in a nice hotel, etc.} just us two since before we had Bray! What?!!! We have gone on a bunch of trips, or family vacations, or getaways with friends, but no real vacation in almost 4 years. That is sad! So needless to say, this trip was much overdue, and much needed! Maybe we should look at getting a timeshare so we have somewhere to go each time we want a vacation? However, I have heard about how some people have been trying to get rid of theirs quickly as they don’t want to deal with them anymore, with phrases like “how best to cancel diamond timeshare?” “Which is the best way to get out of a timeshare?”, and so on, being thrown around. Maybe it isn’t the best time right now, we’ll have to pick and choose our times, let’s hope not another 4 years!
We chose Portland because I had always wanted to explore there, we wanted a place cooler than Phoenix {I guess that requirement isn’t that hard to find!}, and somewhere with a beautiful city. For a while, we even thought of going overseas to the UK or someplace, because I’d heard that there are some pretty amazing places in England to see. The Seven Sisters Cliffs London is one place that’s often recommended to me; wide open cliffs with a beautiful view of the English Channel…it does sound breathtaking. But then we decided to keep that for another time and settled on Portland. We booked this fun hotel called Hotel Rose which was right on the river, and it was so pretty. There was a massive Cinco De Mayo fair ground set up, so it kinda blocked our view of the river, so that sucked- but oh well!
We had so much fun relaxing, eating, drinking, and just getting real conversation that was uninterrupted! We slept in every morning, ate more calories at each meal than what you ‘should’ in a day, and rode bikes or walked everywhere! Almost sounds like a vacation in Britain, maybe for our next kid-free holiday we go a bit further afield and take in some quaint British sites, we can check out those half term holiday breaks in the north east if we do decide to take the kids, or… we just hop on a plane and don’t look back, well, for at least a week.
One day we were there, we crossed over the bridge to the East side and explored on our bikes. We found this amazing brunch spot called Screen Door, and put our names in to the 1 1/2 wait! The neighborhood around the restaurant was so cool so we decided to just walk around to kill the time. This area was a historic neighborhood with the most breathtaking homes. I mean, homes straight from mine and Jeremys dreams. And it was so lush, so green, and actually every other color too because of all the incredible flowers. It was like it was straight from a fairytale. And the people, the people were all so nice!
As we wandered around for awhile, we both kept saying how amazing it was, and then our thoughts turned to- ‘hey, maybe we should move here’. For about the first hour of talking like this, I had butterflies. I thought that this could be such a beautiful place to raise our boys. The idea of being able to enjoy the outdoors, to have a lush landscape, to have such history everywhere you looked. Even the thought of raising them in a city that wasn’t so much about looks and material things! It all sounded seriously dreamy. We started imagining what house we could get, and what we could do to rehab it. Talking about how long Jeremy would have to have a ‘normal’ job before we could get back in to flipping homes. Our thoughts were going a million miles a minute, and we were both giddy!
Our wait time was finally up at the restaurant and we got seated with the most freaking delicious bloody mary and shrimp and grits. I was still on a high just thinking about how our life could change, savoring every bite of that amazing meal, and then something changed. I had flashes of all the faces I love in Arizona. My family, my friends, even the places I love to go. But the relationships we have here- thats a problem. You see, the community that Jeremy and I are a part of in Phoenix is like non-other. We have the best of best friends. We have friendships that are FUN, that are DEEP, that are LOVING. We have a group of friends that rents double decker buses at Christmas to go look at lights and barhop, and the same group that the men put on a night to honor the wives with speeches and trophies. We have small groups that stretch us in our walk of faith. We have girls dinners, and guys nights. We have places to go, when were unannounced and just need shoulders to cry on. We have family that is close- both distance and relationship wise. We have cousins that get to grow-up together. We have.it.all. But that has nothing to do with Phoenix. Sure, we really like some restaurants here, and some things to do, but what has our heart is the people.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know that people move all the time, and make new community. But you know what- at least for right now- I don’t want to. I love my people.
So, I as calmly as possible, announced to Jeremy to stop thinking all moving thoughts. To put the emergency brake on. I went from enjoying my food, to having a near panic attack!!!!! I mean, I got so instantly upset that I couldn’t even eat the Praline Pecan Bacon. And that, my friends, is a love affair of mine. Jeremy totally understood, and even got it, because he feels the same way about our community.
There might come a time in our lives where moving sounds right, feels right, and is right. But now? Now is not that time. This community of ours is just too precious, not only for Jeremy and I, but for our boys…
Recommend places if ever in PDX:
Brunch/breakfast- Screen Door, Tasty N Alder, and Blue Star Donuts
Drinks- The Nines rooftop bar Departure, Deschutes Brewery, Bottle + Kitchen, Apex Brewery
Dinner- SuBe sushi {hole in the wall- but the Tokyo Tower is insane!}, VQ, Urban Farmer
I like reading your blog; it’s great! My husband and I moved to Portland about two years ago from Los Angeles. We just had our first baby two months ago. It’s a wonderful place to live and raise a family. I do miss my family in Los Angeles, but we are much more content living here. Although, I would love to have some more sunshine/warmth right about now. So glad you had fun.