After a weekend in Portland, we have a future home secured! Despite the outrageousness that is Craigslist in Portland, off of a street called Burnside, just at the north end of the Goose Hollow neighborhood, and next to the Timbers' stadium (that's Portland's professional soccer team for the uninitiated) sits our wonderful new apartment. Though we still have nearly a month before moving in to the place, I can already tell July will be gone in no time. Trips, visitors, and packing will rip through our remaining days in mountain paradise.
PDX was a joy as usual, though! We brought the high-altitude sunshine with us, and the grey didn't stick around for long. It was sunny and blue all of the last three days. After meeting up with Lauren's dad at the airport, we drove into town to grab some grub, explore the area around the then prospective apartment, and then proceeded to meet our new landlord. Our hesitations of losing a few square feet off the size of our old apartment evaporated after diving into the spacious closets, convenient flow, and quality materials of the space. Woohoo, housing success!
We encountered police lines barricading a crazy man in a tree prior to touring the apartment, and received a chuckle insinuating complete understanding when recounting the story to our new landlord. It seems that the 'Keep Portland Weird' mantra is taken pretty seriously ;). Unfamiliar to Lauren and I, but completely welcome however, was our visit to the arboretum at Washington Park, mere minutes from our new place! Talk about an incredible contrast...all the delights of cosmopolitan life juxtaposed against the majesty of Costal Redwood trees, whew; it takes your breath away. I don't know if we could have found a better location for the next three years! We had fun exploring more (markets, bars, restaurants, shops) and scarfing down some gnocchi for the rest of the evening, crashing hard afterwards.
Sunday brought PDX doughnuts, duh. Then we met a friend who lives in the NE side of the city for Brunch at a joint called Mother's. So killer! Mimosas and fun catching up after a few years of communication break-down. It's nice to have built-in friends moving to a new city! More strolling along the riverfront, some World Cup soccer, and a lazy afternoon nap stole the rest of our time before seeing The Fault in Our Stars at a cool Living Room Theaters place for dinner.
It was pancakes this morning at a cool downtown diner and then off to the airport. We have already started reading books to prepare for our law school journey. Can't be over prepared for an undertaking like law school, we figure! Time to start packing...