Then a 30-Day Retreat to Portland, Oregon. Ok not a technical retreat, it was meant to be permanent but it surely didn't work out that way.
Beautiful. The trees and forest...wow. When you get up by Spokane, Washington or in Spokane, Washington, just amazingly beautiful. I took a 3-day bus trip out there and back(went a different route back)when we hit Spokane, and the northern tip of Oregon, it was so freaking beautiful. Winding down some mountains right on Thanksgiving, and the snow was on the mountains. Downtown Portland, is absolutely beautiful. I wouldn't call Portland a blue collar city but I liked what I heard it called and thought it was fair from what I experienced of it...it is small city mentality but a big city. Where I was living at, you could see downtown, and it was in an apartment complex up on a hill. Saw a beautiful waterfall. Very nice bars. That was the highlight of being out there for me, besides some 'other stuff' but the bar scene I really liked out there. I met some very cool people and the bars themselves were great. From what I hear, if you have a little liberal streak in you, Oregon is the place to be. There team beat Michigan last year...LOVED it(The Wolverines are my arch-nemesis for NCAA football).
That's about all I can say really. I didn't spend enough time out there to get to know the city and state that well, but it does count as a place that I was intending on being at as a home.