Peter and I met in college in St. Louis, Missouri in 2001. We married, rented a home, and started our careers here. Although there is a lot to love about St. Louis, we did not plan for it to be our permanent home. We have no family here and since we are self-employed we can work from anywhere. Aside from our friends who live here, we have no ties to the city itself. And so a year or so ago, we started discussing what direction we want to go and compiled the list below.

Things in our dream city:

• great public transportation
• pedestrian friendly
• into recycling & eco-awareness
• clean air
• natural beauty (beach or mountains)
• nearby international airport
• lots of parks and free things to do
• smoking ban
• liberal
• good public schools
• few big-box stores, more independent shops
• not a lot of snow, if any
• low humidity
• diversity
• good tech industry & venture capitalists
• friendly people
• affordable cost of living

Based on this list and our following months of research, we narrowed our options down to just a few cities. Portland, Oregon wasat the top of the list. Upon visiting it in October 2008, we fell in love. It is as close to perfect as we can imagine. And while it doesn’t meet every criteria (St. Louis is definitely more affordable), we think the great qualities make it come out on top.

Since we returned we have been setting the wheels in motion to relocate to the Portland. We plan to move in June 2009.