It hasn’t even been a year. Ten months to be precise, since we packed up our car, put the house on the market and hit the road. We landed in Hood River and decided not to leave. Ever.

We hadn’t intended to leave Florida. I had/have a thriving food photography business where the sun ALWAYS shines. I had a lot of friends and knew every chef and bartender in town. Florida living is EASY. There’s the pool and the ocean (swimmable mind you!) and every store/doctor’s office/fitness craze within miles.

But increasingly, my husband had become more and more unhappy in South Florida. Things had changed in the last few years. Everyone was angry all the time. But it took the Pandemic for me to open my mind to change. Like, big change.

Before we moved out here, I had never even been to Oregon. Like, nothing west of Colorado (does California count there)? And then there’s the issue of me being sad in Florida every time it rained. How the HECK was I going to handle Oregon?

But… and there’s always a but…then we found Hood River. The first week we stayed, I took our puppy for a walk down Montello and all the neighbors said hi and each house was cuter than the last and the flowers were AMAZING. We couldn’t get over how great the water tasted, straight from the tap. The food here just seemed fresher and healthier. The orchard trees were laden with fruits – ALL my favorite fruits I should add.

More than anything else, we couldn’t believe how friendly and nice everyone was. Or how many dogs were around and how they just went everywhere. Nothing about this trip across the country was particularly easy but we knew we wanted to make a change, no matter how difficult it was going to be. So we sold our pool house, I flew back to Florida to pack everything up and we started house-hunting. (Ha!)

Fast-forward nine months and we’re here. We’ve got the perfect house in Hood River with a huge garden, complete with a photography studio for me to work in. Our dog has more friends than we do and seamlessly we made the transition from bars to hikes, from concrete to forest, from hurricanes to fires, from humidity to…not.

I still fly back to Florida monthly to take care of my clients but with my own studio in Oregon, I’m able to do much of the studio work here. I get up early to work, staying on East Coast time with my clients. I have a view of Mount Adams from the studio and my dog loves to visit me and chill. In the afternoons, we shut down the computer and go on a family hike. I marvel at the birds and spend time enthusiastically weeding. I feel more connected to myself, to my family, more present and healthier. Just…happier out here.

Thanks for asking why we moved! I can’t wait to meet you!