Maybe moving to Portland

I'm currently in the market for a new job to match my husband's job search, and Portland ended up pretty high on our list of possibilities.

What can you residents tell me about the area? The job I've applied for is in Hillsboro (there are a couple of businesses up that way that suit my career) and I have no idea where DH will end up.

What is the weather like (read: does it really rain from Nov to March?)?
What is the COL like?
What should we expect to pay for rent on a 2 BR apartment within biking distance to Hillsboro?
How accessible is the wilderness? (we love outdoors stuff which is partly why the PNW appeals to us)
Anything else you can tell me that I should know?

We know how bike-friendly the area is, so that's a big draw for us. :) Plus, coming to the 'mothership' that is TE is super exciting. ;)

The only other location we are seriously researching right now besides Portland is Denver. I'd love to consider No Cal, too, but DH won't hear of it.

As a little backgroud, I grew up in New England and the northern mid-west, DH is from the deep south. We were living (and married) in FL, and now we are in North Carolina. We both have travelled extensively, and we are late 30's with no kids. Will we love it in Portland? :p

You will LOVE Portland, and when you start feeling the need for sophisticated culture and worldliness, you can come on up to Seattle! ;) :D

No, seriously, the PNW is great. Lots of TE'ers, lots of multiculturalism, lots of artsy easy-going coolness, tons of bike love.

Please move here!

(yes, it rains, but a 3 hr drive gets you to the high desert and sunshine, so it's not a problem) (and the Denver area will remind you of Ohio, so if you loved the Ohio area be sure to take a look, but come to PNW anyway!)

Don't know the local area well enough to answer the specific questions, since I too am in the Seattle area, but the PNW is fabulous. Wilderness within reach everywhere you look, and close...that's why we all live here. And it doesn't rain every day in the winter. Most of us ride all year round. It's great! Come on out. I think you WILL love it in Portland.

Hillsboro is west of Portland...home of Intel...and site of lots and lots of new housing...one development of which, Orenco Station is a pretty cool experiment in old fashioned housing and retail combined...
So I don't know what a 2 BR would cost, but It will be reasonably priced out there and you'd have lots of choice.
Hillsboro used to be a pretty rural area...it's had lots of growth...but still has much beauty and great roads for cycling.

I live in Portland and teach at a college out near HIllsboro.

ahem....Portland and Seattle....think Boston & New York...Portland has retained more funky eccentric small city character:D as opposed to Seattle's super slick and ultra hip modernism --although it's changing. We have a bumper sticker here that says "Keep Portland Weird."

We are transplanted New Englanders who have lived here almost 20 years and love it. Portland can really open your heart....

Thanks for the input, all!

You know, one thing I've found when asking for opinions about the PNW - everyone who lives there LOVES it. The only disenting opinions I ever hear are from those who don't live there! That's a really good sign in my book! :D

I'm sure as we start looking more in earnest, I'll have more questions. Stay tuned! :)

My husband and i moved to Portland about a year ago ... and love it! We live in the area called 'the NorthWest'. It is just on the North-Westren outskirts of down-town and very close to Forest Park. i love that I can ride my road or mtb right out my door and into the forest or onto the amazing roads in the area.

The rain isn't that bad ... and the city is very cool. Great for outdoors people! We absolutely love it here! I'd reccomend Portland to anyone!

I live in the Hood River area which is about 1 hour inland from Portland on the Columbia River. So I can't answer a lot of the specific questions about Portland but I can say that you would be very hard pressed to find a nicer area to road bike and the wilderness access is amazing. The pacific crest trail runs north to south along the Cascades, about a half hour drive from Portland, I live between Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams, amazing recreation areas. There's world class windsurfing, kayaking and mt. biking in the Gorge. organized road season starts in April out here, but there are organized rides in the Portland area all year around I think.

I moved to the area from Canada and I love it.

Most of the locals I know plan on a trip some place sunny in the winter to break up the duldrums.

The PNW rocks. I moved here (well, to Seattle) from east Tennessee almost eight years ago, and I can hardly believe it's been that long. I'm still discovering new things to do, and see, and try. It is true that it rains a lot around here (not like a hard, driving rain...more like a steady drizzling dampness) through most of the fall and winter, but the summers are spectacular.

(The thoughts of the spectacular summers are what's getting me through possibly not being allowed to ride at all for several months.)

I PM'd you...

. . . and if you feel the need to dry out a little, Spokane is an easy days drive away. We have super great mt biking, and some awesome road riding! And more importantly, no humidity! :D bikerHen

I'm going to PM you, also.