Do you see a theme here?
We are currently weighing and assessing which of three paths our future will take. Similar in some ways, each has a different ending, and the path we choose will determine how other future ideas and plans will play out. To be honest, we would be happy with any one of them.
- Path #1: Rent an apartment on the Oregon coast, sell the car soon after we arrive and lease a new car that gets better mileage, and then stay put in Oregon. This plan is dependent on finding a suitable rental in a place we want to stay – Cannon Beach, Manzanita, or Newport.
- Path #2: Rent an apartment in Portland for a couple of years, but one that is smaller and costs significantly less than we’re paying now. We’ll keep our paid-off car and continue to save, then move south to a city on California’s central coast. My home state has been calling to me and Brett would love to live there.
- Path #3: Rent in Portland for two years, again living in a nice, but smaller and less expensive rental. We keep our paid-off car and save as much as we can. Then we sell the car, store all our household goods, and move back to Kauai with just what we can carry in our suitcases. We either rent a furnished place there or buy basic household goods and lease a car.
Ending up near the ocean is the main goal. If we can’t find something that suits us out at the coast Path #1 is not going to happen. It is proving difficult anyway as there just aren’t that many apartments out there that would fit us and the ones that would are expensive. On Path #2 we could look forward to living near the ocean on California’s central coast although everything would cost more (and Oregon is pretty expensive today all on its own) and we’d pay more in state taxes. We’ve crunched all the numbers though and it’s doable.
Kauai still holds a strong, special place in our hearts, but the entire effort to move back would take a lot of work and coast the most. Once there we would face finding a rental that would accept our dogs which could take a while. Kauai seems to be (over)crawling with tourists these days and we’re not sure how we might feel about dealing with that. Locals are begging visitors to come but then please go home. This path has us wondering if our presence now would just add to the many problems locals are having to deal with as well as pushing aside another local from the housing market.
Which direction we will choose will become clearer in another couple of weeks but for now all we can do is wait and see how things shake out.
I would propose a #2a, which would involve going directly to the central California coast. Moving twice involves more wear and tear on yourselves and more expense as well. I would go where my heart lies and find a way to go there directly. But that’s me. Looking forward to seeing which option you and Brett choose!
Believe me, I would love to be able to go straight to California, but by the time we had decided on a location we were locked into the move to Portland. And, we believe it will take a bit more planning to get us down there and Portland is a comfortable spot in the meantime. We have so few things to pack these days (and I’m frankly surprised how quickly the packing is going) so another move doesn’t faze me like it once would have. And who knows? We might end up enjoying Portland this go round.
I’m like you in that I need to be near the ocean, and I would pick #3 Kauai! But that’s just me. I haven’t been there since 2019 and have no idea what the situation is there these days, plus, I’ve only been there as a tourist, not a resident. If I were you, I’d go to Portland and take it from there. You may not be interested in any of the other options by then or you may come up with some different options that aren’t even on your radar right now.
Kaua’i is still a strong contender, which is somewhat surprising to us after all this time. We feel like we should have “gotten over it” but we never have. We’re going to ue these next couple of years in Portland to ge our thoughts together about it, but California is turning out to have a pretty string pull as well. We’re just going to have to wait and see how we feel in another year or so. We’re happy though to have things narrowed down this much.
It all sounds great and exciting! I would probably lean in on 1. or 2. but I am putting the fact that having to cross an ocean and then fly across country to see your kids would be more difficult on all of us as we age. I know you love Hawaii though and I could be so wrong.
We would definitely do a move to Hawaii differently than before, that’s for sure, arriving with just the dogs and what we can get in our suitcases. We live so much more simply these days than we did in the past, but we also never want to sell all our stuff again – we lost a LOT of money doing that. Better to pay to store what we have now so it’s available if we need to return to the mainland.
We can handle the long flight if we break it up. We’d most like fly back to Seattle, stay there for a day, and then proceed back east rather than trying to do it as one long flight.
It seems you wouldn’t have to make a decision between 2 and 3 for quite a while as the first 2 years in Portland would be the same. We love our life in Ventura now but like you, I miss Kauai. We moved 2 dogs there with us so am happy to answer any questions about that. Just know the process takes 3-6 months.
That’s what we like about it – #2 and #3 give us time to think about things. Healthcare, shopping, etc. would just be easier in Portland too, but the coast really calls to us.
We do really worry about taking the dogs to Kauai, and know we will need a couple of months in a temporary rental to find a place that will take the dogs. It’s frankly what stopped us from returning this time. We’re waiting to see how the dogs do on the flight back to Portland. Tilly willingly will go into her crate; Kaipo, not so much. And with our luggage it’s going to be a struggle at the airport.