Finally - We Moved to the PNW

Full Stack Creator - 016

Welcome to the 16th edition of Full Stack Creator! Today I am going to take you down the journey of moving 3,210 miles from a tropical paradise to a rainforest surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. 

That's right, I am taking you from South Florida (SFL), specifically Delray Beach, to Vancouver, Washington. No, not Vancouver, BC – and no, not Washington, DC. These places confuse people, especially east coasters.

The journey actually starts 7 years ago. My wife (then fiancé) and I decided to take a vacation to the Pacific Northwest (PNW), specifically Seattle, Washington. We slept on a friend's floor who just moved there, also from SFL. We stayed about a week – taking in all the touristy sights and loved every second of it. I think it was a combination of the weather and overall temperament of the area. Mainly, it just felt right. At that time in our lives, we were doing a lot of traveling, unbeknownst to ourselves, soul searching. We were finding a place that felt more like home. We traveled to Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago, Northern California, the Carolina’s, even different parts of Florida. We always came back to our times in Washington. Years later we explored the PNW more – crossing into Canada and south to areas in Oregon. We grew to love it even more, especially as our love of nature and hiking grew.

About 4-5 years ago we really started to consider moving there. We first thought about the irresponsible route of basically saying screw it, get up and go. Then we came to our senses, assessed our lives, and realized that it was not time yet. Since then, we paid off all of our debt, saved money, and planned. We decided on moving to Vancouver, Washington due to it being the southernmost point of Washington, right above Portland, Oregon. It seems like it will be a nice mix of both states, allowing us to find an area that best suits us. You can only really tell such things in time, so we are not expecting our first place to be our forever neighborhood, rather a starting point until we find an exact location.

This letter comes out on a Saturday, which means when you receive this, we will have been on the road for about 5 hours. Saturday is the first day of our road trip. Me, my wife, and my cat are all packed into my GLI. Traveling 3,200+ miles over the period of 5 days. All of our possessions are being shipped via a U-Pack pod and are currently en route. Packing a pod is like playing a life-size game of Tetris, but worse. I am hoping it gets there on time, with nothing broken, since it was packed floor to ceiling.

Wish us luck. Our cat hates the car and the first day is a 12 hour stretch...

This move, albeit far, was surprisingly easy to plan. I used a combination of Notion and Todoist. I was able to collaborate with my wife on all things related to the move. I used Notion for information gathering and notes and even made a countdown to the important dates. I also used Todoist to track all the tasks and sub-tasks. Not only was this efficient, but so perfect for keeping each other accountable. If you want to try Todoist Premium free for a month, check out my referral link: https://doist.grsm.io/thorschroeder5034

Additionally, I am starting to gather interviewees for the mini-doc series. It is a lot to plan whilst moving cross-country, but I have no choice. The gear is ordered and slated to arrive in January, allowing time for testing and lighting mockups. It's coming together!

Other than the cross-country trek, Apple finally announced the AirPods Max. As stoked as I am for them, damn that price tag. Will that deter me from buying them? No, just delay me. I will wait for the reviews though.

See links:

https://www.apple.com/airpods-max/

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/8/21438042/apple-max-studio-noise-canceling-headphones-price-date