When we set out on our Great Loop trip we kept ourselves open to living in another place other than Portland, OR. Several friends and fellow boaters hinted that we might enjoy Michigan. When we boated through Michigan we were not disappointed. When we did inland road trips through Michigan we were not disappointed. To make a long story short we found a house and will be moving to Traverse City, MI (aka TC).
Interestingly Portland and TC reside at nearly the same latitude. Summers will be similar to what we have had in Portland. Winters will obviously not be the same because the average annual snowfall is 75″ in TC. We will likely find ourselves somewhere south and warmer during some of those cold winter months that occur in “the mitten state”.
Kent has spent his entire life in the Portland area (minus 4 years while in San Diego) and I have spent over half of my lifetime in Portland. We do not know anyone (yet) in TC so this will a big change for us but we are excited. We have watched Portland change over the years and with it’s growth we talked about living in a place that offers a smaller city feel. We love Portland’s proximity to the outdoors for camping/hiking, the sailing opportunities, and of course the food/brewery/wine scene. We found that TC offers us these “must haves” plus much more.
We are grateful to have had renters in both the Portland and TC houses while we have been on our trip. We had just finished remodeling our Portland house inside and out with the expectation that we would live there a long time. Some things change but apparently our ability to find houses that need complete remodels do not. Our TC house needs a lot of work. The first two phases in our new adventure will be getting our Portland house ready for sale once our renters move out and endless trips to the home improvement store to start updating our TC house.
What will we miss the most about Portland and the west coast? That is easy, we will miss our wonderful friends. We welcome visitors and our TC house will always be open. Just make arrangements to fly directly into Traverse City Cherry Capital Airport (TVC).
Never been to Michigan or Traverse city? Check out all that the TC area has to offer here – https://www.traversecity.com/ and you will see why we decided to make it our new home.
Thank you for following along with us this past year and a half!