Life update

The news is out.  We are moving.

So, Bryce applied to a bunch of jobs.  He interviewed in Portland, Dallas, and Los Angeles.  All of these jobs were great opportunities.  Each of them were in regulatory affairs, doing the same type of work he did for the FDA a few years ago.  When he worked for FDA, he reviewed medical devices for big companies that wanted to get their devices approved so they could sell them to the public.  These jobs are doing the same regulatory work, but working for the actual companies, getting new devices through the FDA approval process.

For a long time, he thought he would stay in academia, do postdoctoral research work after his Ph.D., and then apply for a professor job at a university.  As time went by, he started questioning whether that was where he wanted to go in his career.  When he started applying to jobs, he explored other opportunities and it seemed like he would really enjoy some of the industry jobs in regulatory affairs.

He ended up getting offered all three jobs (praise God!), so it came down to where we wanted to move our family and which would be the best career move.  If you know Bryce at all, this is an obvious answer.  Mountains, hiking, camping, fishing.  Hello, Portland, Oregon.

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Things I knew about Portland when he decided to accept the job:

• A lot of coffee drinking.
• A lot of cool, young hipsters who are into indie music, coffee drinking, and the environment.

Things I have recently found out about Portland:

• There is a huge food culture.  Awesome restaurants and foodies abound.
• Beer and brew pubs are big.
• Plenty of food carts to try out around the city.
• Mt. Hood year-round skiing, surfing on the coast, and wine country all within a couple hours.
• Famous Powell's bookstore that covers an entire city block downtown.
• Just about 3 hours from Seattle, Washington.
• I like how this one article starts out, "If you live in Portland, chances are you’re a bike loving, tree hugging, raincoat wearing, beer guzzling pale faced greenie."
• But really, Portland has more bike commuters than any other U.S. city.  
• Nike is headquartered just outside of Portland.
• It rains a lot.
• Portland has a Chinatown.
• It is a city, but feels more like a big town (or so I hear).

The city has a river going through it and Mt. Hood is just over an hour away.

If you are debating about whether to come visit us, probably thinking that it's too far or too expensive, read this and then buy a ticket!  We will miss our friends and family so much.  Despite the whole missing people thing, it will be a big fun adventure for our little family of three.

Now that Bryce will have a full time, real, all day, limited vacation day job, Madison and I can do some exploring together during our free time.  So glad I have a new little buddy to hang out with once we get there and I am friendless for awhile.  I'm a little excited for the well known farmer's market and Saturday market.

A lot of things to learn about the area.  I would also love to go to this festival for people who love food.  I think I know someone who would like to go...Dad?

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Excited to check out more of the beautiful state.

Are you excited to come visit us yet?

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