We did it!!!! Kieran and I have moved to Portland, Oregon! It seems surreal to look out our Airbnb window and see mountains and greenery, opposed to the flat, concrete jungle, Chicago.
Moving out of state has been exhilarating and utterly exhausting. Exhausting doesn’t properly describe how we’re feeling right now. Kieran was offered a job in Portland, smack dab in the middle of pre-planned, out of state, travel plans!
No joke, Kieran and I traveled through 12 states in 16 days. It was a whirlwind of fun, excitement, fatigue, adventure, merriment, and stress…..loads of stress.
Kieran and I put in our two week notice at our jobs on March 9, 2015. That Saturday I had to work, then we had a baby shower to attend later that night. The following weekend, March 21, 2015, Kieran and I were driving out of town for a long weekend cabin trip with friends, which meant all of our packing and cleaning had to be done after work, in less than two weeks time.
I’m happy to say, late night after late night, and copious amounts of alcohol to relieve stress, resulted in Kieran and I getting the packing/cleaning done on schedule!
On March 20th, we hit the road for our cabin trip in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. We drove through Indianapolis, Indiana so we could see Kieran’s brother, Owen, before moving to Portland. We spent the night in Indy, had breakfast with Owen and our adorable niece Emerson, the next morning, and pushed off for the remainder of our treck. That day we traveled through Indiana and Kentucky before we reached our destination in Pigeon Forge Tennessee. I wrote a post about our cabin trip, you can read about it here.
After the cabin trip we returned home on Sunday night. Kieran had to work Monday, which gave us all day Tuesday to finalize packing/cleaning before our movers showed up on Wednesday, March 25th. Movers came late, which most movers do, and it was time to say goodbye to Chicago.
Kieran and I packed up our car with little our cat, Myron Fuzzypants, and we hit the road, Oregon bound.
The majority of our road trip took place on 80/84 West. The first leg of our trip took us through Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska……and it was a snooze fest. No offense Iowa and Nebraska, but your flat landscape is BORING to drive through. I’m from cornfield-filled Illinois so I’m well versed in what I’m talking about! Our only solace driving through those states came from the open road and weather. The traffic out of Chicago baffled me…NO traffic. That goes for Iowa and Nebraska too…no traffic bogged us down. The weather was nice too. A little gray here and there, but mostly sunny skies.
The second leg of our trip was through Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. This was my first road trip across country so I didn’t know what to expect, but as many of you know, entering Wyoming from Nebraska is night and day. Seriously, it’s like someone turned on a light switch. We went from drab and boring to beatific and exciting! As soon as we saw mountains I started to freak out….the good kind of freak out….I kept bouncing up and down in my seat…cheering, laughing, and clapping. My vocabulary regressed to the 2nd grade. Kieran laughed as I said, “WOW” a gazillion times throughout the mountain states. A few times, the view outside our car windows were so awe inspiring I teared up….which isn’t ideal if you’re the one behind the wheel. 😀
TIP: if you are moving across the country and driving through mountains, make sure to buy an extra couple of gallons of gas!!! Gas stations are few and far between in Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho. Our car had extra weight with our boxes and bicycles which is a dangerous “gas” combination when you’re driving through steep inclines. Our gas mileage dropped from 21 to 18 miles per gallon. While in Utah, we grossly miscalculated how much gas we had. The low gas light came on with no gas station in sight! Luckily, we found a gas station, in the knick of time, we were running on fumes as we pulled in, to gas up.
I want to also mention the weather remained sunny and gorgeous throughout our drive and traffic was non existent. It was glorious….absolutely glorious.
Crossing the Oregon state line was a feeling of jubilance I’ve never experienced before. Moving to Oregon took us 4 days on the road. If we weren’t traveling with our cat, we probably could have reached Oregon sooner, but it wasn’t fair to keep Myron on the road for longer than 8 hours a day.
We FINALLY pulled up to our Airbnb on Saturday, March 28, 2015. Our good Portland based friend’s, Phoebe and Eric, stopped over at our Airbnb shortly after we arrived. Their welcome to Portland present was a bottle of Bourbon from a Portland distillery. Word to the wise….if you ever have friends move across country to your town…and you want to bring them a welcome or housewarming gift…..bring a bottle of Bourbon. Kieran and I gleefully washed down our stress from the trip, slip after delicious slip.
We had 4 days to relax in Portland before we had to ship out to Austin, Texas for a wedding. But relaxation was hard to come by…Kieran and I were WAY to excited in our new surroundings. The next 4 days were filled with bicycle rides, long walks, new restaurant/food truck experiences, and exuberant amounts of bar/brewery hopping.
4 days later, we packed our suitcases and headed out to Austin for my cousin, Samantha’s, wedding.
Austin was cool, but being cramped for time meant little time to explore. Our plan landed at 12AM…..we rented a car and headed over to my cousin Sarah’s, Samantha’s sister, house. After a few beers and catching up, we headed to bed around 3AM. At this point, Kieran and I had been in every time zone nation wide, so our bodies were thrown off, we literally collapsed into bed. The next afternoon Sarah took us to a cool dive bar and an amazing taco food truck. We missed out on a ton of sightseeing, but everyone was too tired to care. That night we headed over to my other cousin’s house, Sarah’s other sister Jen, for the rehearsal dinner. I haven’t seen my cousin’s in a LONG time, and everyone flew to Texas for the wedding! Samantha (the bride to be), Billy, Jen, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Jimmy are siblings and they are a blast to be around. Once again we drank until the wee hours of the morning. The next day we drove to Gatesville, to Samantha’s ranch where her wedding was being held.
My cousin Samantha did a wonderful job planning a Texas ranch style wedding. Her style, as I coined it, was simplistic elegance. Burlap accented the flowers and the cake which is impressive. Burlap may be cheap but it’s a bitch to work with! I should know, I used the material throughout my wedding as well! Burlap frays like a son of a bitch if you’re not careful!
I LOVED the white cloth draped over the haystacks!!! I don’t live on a farm or ranch so I’m not accustom to sitting on haystacks, I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable they were! I could have sat there all day! In fact, I wish I was sitting on a haystack right now, the chair I’m currently sitting in hurts my butt. I’m about to bring some haystacks up in this Airbnb for comfort.
Anyway, enough about my butt, the lake pictured in the photo’s was in Samantha’s front lawn. Picturesque doesn’t do the ceremony justice, it was absolutely beautiful.
Samantha is a chef so she made her own cake!!! As a bride can you imagine the stress of planning your wedding AND making your own cake? I certainly couldn’t hack it. I give Samantha major props for making such a elegant, not to mention great tasting, cake on top of planning everything else.
Samantha and her husband Jay breed and sell longhorns and they have a few on their ranch. We weren’t allowed inside their roaming grounds, obviously, but we got to witness their feeding time. Cool stoic looking animals.
The fire pit was the coolest part of the wedding. Who doesn’t love a fire pit? Weddings that have fire pits are extra bad ass. It was a wonderful way for everyone to come together and share stories. Plus, Smore’s are my jam! Samantha’s Smore station was adorable and reflected on how creative she is. You get an A+ Samantha, you’re wedding was wonderful!
On Sunday, after the wedding, Kieran and I flew back to our new home in our new state.
We had a lay over in California (the 12th and final state we traveled through) and had some time to kill in LAX airport in Los Angeles. You know….for an airport that hosts majority celebrities…..LAX is a dump. I thought LAX would be a touch more glamorous….I would have even settled for a smidgen of glamor…but LAX gives you none of that. There must be a separate terminal reserved for celebrities the public isn’t privy too. A terminal that has more than 2 overpriced restaurants, and one woman’s bathroom. OK..I’m lying a little….LAX had 2 woman’s bathrooms, but one of those bathrooms only had 3 stalls so it doesn’t count. I mean, who builds a woman’s restroom with only 3 STALLS!!!!! The line to use the restroom was almost backed up to the damn plane! Our layover was 2 hours so we easily spent $100 getting some sandwiches and two drinks at the bar.
UGH!!!
Once our flight took off from LAX to Portland, the exhaustion from our travels hit me like a wall. I went from gitty to zombie in T-minus 2 seconds. As SOON as our plane landed we rushed home to hug our little Myron. After celebratory drinks and cat cuddling, Kieran and I went to bed and dozed off with dreams of Portland and new beginnings in our head <3
We’re ELATED the traveling portion of our move is over….now comes the overwhelming part…starting fresh in a new city and state! AHHHHHHHHH!!! Calm down Christina….you GOT this! 😀
Now that we’re a wee bit settled I an can start focusing on food recipes again! YAAAAAY!!
Love Your site – I am in Chicago, looking to relocate there.. how do You Guys like it??? Mo
Thanks! There are so many things I miss about Chicago (like pizza and Italian beef) but Kieran and I are smitten with Portland. The food here….omg..the food is incredible. The beer….OMFG…the beer is amazing. Also, Portland has so many outdoor activities it will make your head swim! We’re trying to make friends and get a better feel for our neighborhood, but so far we’re in love. I highly recommend coming this way if you’re thinking about. It’s better to come and find out you don’t like it, rather than never coming, and regretting it! If you do move, let me know 🙂
Hey! I’m in the same situation. I just graduated college and got a job offer in Chicago (I have always lived here and I went to school here) right away. I’m here for at least the next three years because I finally had the insurance for braces and decided to bite the bullet. I don’t want to move across country until I get my braces off, and I want the work experience to be able to get a decent starting salary once I decide to move anyway. I’m happy you’re liking it. When I studied abroad, there was a lot I missed about the accessibility of everything in Chicago at all hours of the day, but the scenery and experience as a whole were more than worth it. I’ve never been to Portland, but I have friends who have lived there and tell me how much I’d like it. I think I am going to use a few vacation days to have a weekend out there in the spring to see if it is love at first sight. (: Side note: We were in Pigeon Forge at the same time. I left Chicago on March 20th and was there until the 26th. Crazy!
That’s awesome!!! Good for you! I love and miss Chicago in so many ways, however, I have so many new activities/adventures in Portland occupying my time right now I’m fully enjoying the transition! Hahahaha
Yeah, I agree about the experience as a whole being worth the risk of moving out of state. I knew I would rather risk moving to Portland than not risking it at all. I thought, “If I hate Portland, then OK, I can move back, but at LEAST I tried.” I knew I would regret NOT taking the risk more than moving to Portland only to find out I didn’t like it. But luckily for me, I’m smitten with Portland, it’s fantastic here!
YES!! Totally come to Portland in the Spring! It’s soooooo beautiful here. Plus, the crazy forest fires will be out by then!!! Hahahaha!
You were in Pigeon Forge the same time as us?? That’s crazy cool! I love the Smokey Mountains, I wish we had more time to explore. Our vacation was a whirlwind of travel. Where did you stay at? A hotel or a cabin?
You’ll have to let me know if you decide to vacation out here!!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting 😀