The for sale sign is in the front yard. The house is listed online. The time has come.
After almost 10 years of residing in Oregon, my wife and I are packing up and moving back to California. I am starting a new job with a wonderful nonprofit organization dedicated to the scientific study of the Pacific Ocean and the California coast. My wife’s company is transferring her to a new site in Northern California. Thus, our time in Cascadia is coming to a close.
When we moved to Eugene, Oregon in February 2013, we were taking a real chance. I had accepted a new job at a struggling nonprofit group and my wife had quit her job without another position lined up. We were beginning a new life, away from family and friends, in an unknown land. Our boldness was rewarded. We advanced in our careers, bought a home and cars, got to know people, and settled in to a rainy, sun-starved landscape.
But the Golden State is calling. We miss seeing our family and friends on a regular basis. We desire to progress in our careers. We desire a more diverse community. And we desire a more interesting lifestyle.
For all of its benefits, Oregon does fall short in some areas. Portland is the state’s only major metropolitan area where significant career advancement is a real possibility and where shopping, dining, and pursuits beyond outdoor recreation are available. Unfortunately, Portland is also on a serious downward trajectory at the moment with numerous social ills and struggles, making it a less than attractive place to call home. Bend, Ashland, Astoria, Hood River and the like are all lovely places, but they are also small, devoid of ample employment opportunities, lack a diversity of culture, and keep us far away from friends and family. In the realm of Cascadia, Seattle is a wonderful city in many ways, but it is also heading in the same direction as Portland in terms of quality of life and puts us even further away from the people we know and love.
While Northern California shares some of the same adversity facing Portland and Seattle—namely, deteriorating social structure and a high cost of living—it is also much closer to our families, offers ample career opportunities, and provides a bounty of culture, events, shopping, and dining. For example, my wife mentioned to me the other evening that there was an Indian street food festival taking place in the area we are seeking to move to in California. The simple fact is that such an event would never take place in Eugene. Not bashing Eugene, just stating facts.
All that said, there are many things I will miss about Oregon: visiting the beautiful coast, attending Ducks football games and Beavers baseball games, the trees, the greenness of it all, the friendly people, the relative safety, the ease of parking in the lot at the grocery store, the relatively low cost of living, not paying sales tax, and so much else. But all of those positive elements are not enough to keep us in Oregon. Therefore, we are saying farewell.
What does this move mean for my blog, which focuses on the people, places, and culture of Cascadia and the Pacific Northwest? I don’t know. I still have a long list of potential blog topics to write about that focus on my experiences in Cascadia. I may decide to exhaust that list and add to it as I visit the Pacific Northwest in the future. Or I may decide to go another way and expand this blog to encapsulate my experiences in Northern California. Right now, I suspect I will continue to write about the special place that is Cascadia, but only time will tell.