tl;dr: Portland, ME is an underrated hub of melt-in-your-mouth seafood, basement-bar scenes, art & culture - and a staple of New England! If we would have moved here, we would not have been disappointed - but it still felt too familiar for this moving experience.
No one that knows Dan or I would likely be surprised that our "where to move" decision making process was less "YOLO" and more "let's create a disgustingly complex rating system and 10-tab Excel workbook" (screenshot proof of our insanity below). Our process included a review of mass transportation efficiency and under-40 demographics, disc golf course volume, food diversity, abortion access / political climate, and my personal addition: serial killer and violent crime rates (big true crime podcast listener, ok?!). We had other considerations as well, like cost of living...but those aren't as much fun to talk about 😏.
I'm still blown away not only that we were able to make a firm decision on Seattle within a few short weeks, but also that as a byproduct of that process we accidentally reached a perfect shortlist of places for us to check out during our current travels. Part of what we're doing with staying places for a month or two at a time during our current travels is to "gather data" for any potential future moves or vacations. Up first was Portland, Maine.
After a few days of trapezing down the Blue Ridge Parkway, across the Smokeys, through Shenandoah National Park and into New England we arrived in Portland, Maine. It's a smaller city than our previous home of Grand Rapids MI - but it has the art, culture and seafood of a large city. It also just got voted the country's "coziest" city in the Fall by USA Today. We visited briefly on our Boston to Acadia road trip in 2019 and fell in love overnight with the city. It was no surprise to us when it landed on our finalist list to move to, and last month it definitively became one of our favorite places on the East Coast.
Portland, Maine - 2019
As a popular vacation spot for Bostonians (~2hrs away), Portland prices for summer lodging were through the roof. Hotels, Air BnB, or VRBO were going to result in a price tag of $10k+ for the 6 weeks we wanted to stay, so we had to get really creative and thorough to find housing. Not to mention we had to find a cat-friendly establishment (note: most Air BnBs say pet-friendly, but they're actually only dog-friendly when you ask the host. Why, we will never know... but I digress). We ended up getting a very last minute message from a new host on FurnishedFinder.com for a large house just outside of Portland, for about half the price of the other options we were seeing. We have lived our "downtown city living" experience so we were totally game for a secluded, wooded location that had ample parking and run-around space for the kitties.
In our 6 weeks in Portland, I spent most days exploring what "normal life" would be like here. I frequented a gym in the area every weekday morning, found many coffee spots and bakeries to read my books, and identified all of the Targets within driving distance 😆Charging my car was efficient and easy as Teslas were everywhere. There was a Supercharger at the grocery store 5 minutes from our house. Dan scoped out all of the local disc-golf spots and proceeded to review them. We attended the local community fair and a few markets as well, so by the end of the stay we felt like we got an accurate taste of what life in Portland would be like. We spent quite a bit of time just relaxing at the rental house as well, as it was in a beautiful location in the woods just outside of the city.
The bar and dining scene was incredible (which will likely be a common statement as we go to more cities... WE JUST LOVE GOOD FOOD.) We attended 6 or 7 bar trivia nights at local breweries and distilleries, which is one of our favorite activities and gives us a really quick glimpse into social life in the area. We also tried some of the higher rated restaurants across the city. Not a single bad experience - it was a great mix of kitschy hole-in-the-wall restaurants, hipster cocktail setups and rooftop bars, and established seafood coastal dining. Prices for dining and experiences seemed a bit inflated than what we were used to in Grand Rapids, but we couldn't determine if that was the location (fresh lobster is always expensive) or just the timing with tariffs / politics / etc. Back at the rental house I did end up grilling quite a bit, as well as attempting multiple baking challenges such as making nut-free chocolate macrons (the damn egg whites would not stiffen. 4th try is the charm?).
Maine Blueberry BBQ Chicken Pizza
Both of our families visited during our stay in Portland as well, over consecutive weekends! It was really fun to have them visit and show them all the cool parts of the city that we had discovered. We both heard a parent say "I could definitely live here" at some point during their visits, so Dan and I consider this a huge WIN. With Dan's family, we had a few fancy dinners on patios overlooking the ocean and stopped at Maine's State Botanical Gardens (where they have giant Norwegian wood trolls throughout the grounds). With both families we were able to show them around Portland's Old Port shopping district and take them to the world's most photographed lighthouse, Portland Head Light. With my family we also visited a Victorian mansion, took the Portland mailboat around Casco Bay to see the islands, had some delightful seafood on an old car-ferry-turned-restaurant, took an overnight trip up to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, and took a whale watching tour (sadly, no ocean-puppies were seen).
I could go on and on about the rest of the experiences in Portland, but I think I'll leave it for my friends and family to experience on their own. Dan and I both highly recommend Portland any time of year if you're looking for a New England / Boston vibe, without the crazy traffic and crowds. You'll have the best lobster of your life, see some ocean life, and have some great beer while doing it. Portland was the perfect first big stop on our slow move because it felt like home with its coastline (if you forget about the vastness and saltwater), flora, and fauna. You can even leave Portland and drive "up north" to find more outdoor adventure and fewer people, just like in Michigan. That familiarity ultimately is both a pro and con for us right now though, as part of the intent of picking up our lives and moving across the country is to really feel like we are changing things up. That's why we are so excited to head out West! But until then, we'll be digging our feet into the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan and Long Lake for the next few weeks while we visit our family and friends at home in the Mitten.💙
Until August,
-Corinne
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