First Weekend in Fortland

Last weekend Dean and I spent our first weekend in Fort Wayne that did not involve looking at every possible house on the market.
 
It was rather lovely.
 
We were in town in order to close on our house Monday. The seller we worked with was nice enough to let us stay at the house during the weekend, so we were able to start to get a feel for our new home—both the city and the house.
 
Personally, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about moving out to the midwest. But, if there’s one thing I know, it’s culture shock. I mean, I went from living behind the Orange Curtain to Portland, OR. And this weekend, I started to fall in love with my new city.
 
Over the course of the weekend, Dean and I were able to connect with our new neighbors, find some really great food (I found the best thai I’ve ever had just a block from the house), and meet a lovely artist who works with media I never considered. All of this was within two days that included entirely too many trips to Target.
 
I come from Orange County with its Stepford communities full of busybodies who know everything about everyone and are always down for some good tea and shade, so when I heard folks in our neighborhood say we were moving into an area with built in community, I was a little nervous. But Dean and I spent over two hours talking with the seller of our house and had a refreshingly legit person-to-person conversation about culture and community. Hearing about the recent trends and changes made me even more excited to be in the neighborhood we selected.
 
A few fun surprises--
 
Dean and I love that we’re so close to local options. I’m writing this blog in suburban Hillsboro and the closest restaurants from the apartment include Corner Bakery, PF Chang's, Spaghetti Factory, and Red Robin. Yes, of course Portland has amazing local options, but there’s no way we could afford living that close to town and maintain any sort of decent lifestyle. And I’m not going to drive 20+minutes into town for a meal if that’s all I’m planning on doing. Also, finding plant based, gluten free options wasn’t hard at all!
 
There’s so much going on. Yes, there’s a ton going on in Portland. I’m not shocked at the idea of weekend events. My shock came because I had heard from multiple who lived in Fort Wayne as recently as three or four years ago that there’s just nothing to do. The particular weekend we were in town there was Sweetwater Sound’s GearFest, GreekFest, BuskerFest, and some really intriguing art/improv shows happening. And, I don’t mean to keep hammering in the idea of accessibility, but everything was just so close I couldn’t believe it.
 
Last, but certainly not least, people are welcoming. When Dean and I moved up to Portland, we were fascinated by the fact that people were nice. But there’s a difference between nice and welcoming. Everyone out here is over the idea of transplants (especially from California). But out there, as soon as it came up that we were moving, everyone was giving us the lowdown on the cool places in town. When we were at a furniture store, we got sidetracked from our mission of finding stuff for the house and spent 30 minutes trading travel stories with the salesperson, and she was showing us examples of her denim and packing tape art. It was absolutely lovely, and and not unique to the many experiences we had over the weekend.
 
After gallivanting around last weekend, and closing being officially done, Dean and I are even more excited for the big move!

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P.S. We didn't coin the term Fortland. You can thank Trubble Brewing for that gem. We're just running with it.