Living here, in a nutshell

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The geography.  We are about 3 hours from Seattle, 1.5 hours to the coast, about 10 hours to San Francisco, and 6.5 hours to Boise.



The weather.  Okay, it rains, but really, it's more like a mist.  The rain/mist gives the entire area this amazing lush green everywhere year around.  The climate is perfect for gardening.  Surprisingly, Portland doesn't even make the top ten U.S. cities with the highest annual rainfall.  It does rank high on the list of cities with the most rainy days.  In North Carolina, it can rain 2 inches in a few hours, in Portland, it can take days or weeks to rain 2 inches.  So it doesn't get a lot of rain, it just rains often, hence, mist.  We have four months of very rainy weather, four months of 50/50 rainy days, and four months of very dry weather.  November through February are the very rainy months, and we also get some in March, April, May, and October.  In June, July, August, and September, it's absolutely beautiful with sunshine every day.  Being on the west coast, there's hardly any humidity and the nights are generally cool.

The culture.  Coming from the Southeast, people here are more laid back and dress much more casual here.  Generally speaking, it's more liberal here.  It doesn't seem as liberal to us because of our community and area where we live (we live in the suburbs or Portland).  It seems like almost everyone enjoys the outdoors and compared to the Southeast, people are more active (and there are less overweight).  There's definitely not a sports/football culture here like there is in the Southeast.  You wouldn't really know it if you visited, but there's a big anti-Californian sentiment.  It's not uncommon to hear that the Californians are "raising home prices", "bad drivers", or "artifical".  In Portland, there is a booming beer, coffee, and food culture.  As far as religious culture, it's definitely different than the Southeast.  It seems like you can almost assume most people go to church unless told otherwise, but here, it's the opposite.  Of course, there are amazing churches and even mega churches just like anywhere.  But it's not part of the culture to go to church just because it's "what you do" or you've grown up that way.

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The sights.  There's so much to do within just a couple hours.  We don't live in the city limits of Portland, we live about 20 minutes outside of downtown.  The Columbia River Gorge, about 45 minutes away, has tons of hiking and other outdoor activities.  There's more hiking near Mt. Hood area, just 1.5 hours from Portland.  Plus, if you want to drive just 20 minutes, you have Forest Park and Tryon State Park.  Forest Park is one of the country's largest urban forests with 5,200 acres in the city of Portland.  Mt. Hood has great skiing, as well, all year around since there's a glacier.  Just three hours away, you can be over the mountain range into eastern Oregon with sunshine almost year around and a ton more outdoor activities with all the big state peaks.  Willamette Valley is Oregon wine country at just 30 minutes away.  The Oregon coast is beautiful and completely different than east coast beaches.  Our favorites are Cannon Beach and Manzanita.  This is all not to mention all the good fishing rivers and waterfalls to see.

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Downtown Portland is a mid-sized city.  It has everything you could want, good shopping, good dining, right on a river with a waterfront park, tons of green space throughout the city, and it never feels too busy.  Every time we go down there, we always comment on how it doesn't feel super crowded.  Portland is heaven for "foodies" or people who like beer, coffee, and good food.  There's a nice zoo, a children's museum, an entire block of food trucks, lots of farm-to-fork dining, tax free shopping, and lots of hipsters.  There's also quite a large homeless population.  Lots of tent cities and people living on the streets in downtown.

One funny thing to note-the show, Portlandia, was hilarious and seemed completely outlandish, but in many ways, it actually proved somewhat accurate.

One thing is for sure, it's a very fun, young city, definitely worth a visit.  Especially with a place to stay ;-)