You Can Go Home Again

We went back to our old stomping grounds in the Bay Area for spring break last week.  Hoping for sunshine, but settling for dry and partly cloudy, the weather was still better than March in Portland.  And frankly it's always good to break out of everyday life and be somewhere else.

It was the first time we'd taken the kid back there that he can remember.  We stayed in a great house in the Piedmont Avenue neighborhood of Oakland, complete with a backyard with two orange trees and a lemon tree.  The neighboring houses had birds of paradise blooming, and huge robust geraniums that don't die in the winter.  While riding bikes together in the sunshine, the kid said "Why did you ever move away from here?  It's so much better than Portland!"  And for a moment I thought, "yeah, why did we?  More sunshine, big city options available, oranges in my back yard--why did we move?"

By the end of the week I remembered.  As we drove back into Oregon and Portland I felt welcomed by the scenery, the stress-free driving, the friendly interactions with random people, just how easy, uncrowded, affordable (relative to CA) and pleasant it is to live here and walk around the great neighborhoods of Portland. I'd still choose this to be my hometown all over again.