June 2016 – We went on vacation to Oregon and Washington. You can read about the vacation itself on the The Travels page. Go ahead and check it out, I’ll wait.
Done? Okay.
So, we love to travel. And every time we travel, we think ‘Is this where we want to retire’? We have really loved our vacations. Some places we love, like Vegas or Branson, but we know we’d never want to live there. Then others, like Knoxville, Tennessee, Galena, IL, Petosky, MI, Indiana or Wisconsin we really loved, but just weren’t sure if we wanted that to be our “Forever Home”.
We really loved the east coast as well, but could not imagine ever living in that kind of traffic!
We really enjoy the Back-to-Basics approach in the Oregon/Washington area. Lots of hippies and natural food options.
So, while we were there, we found a town that we thought might just work for us. We could really see us there. A few other other towns didn’t have much food options and we are kinda foodies, but this town specifically does have LOADS of great restaurants and coffee shops. Of course, that whole are has great coffee shops. The Seattle/Portland area knows coffee.
There are beautiful mountains, the beach, a rainforest nearby, Seattle and Portland within a few hours. You can kayak, white water raft, paddleboat, fish, hike, bike, the possibilities are endless. They have salmon in Washington in all four seasons because they have so many salmon breeds that have different seasons. The fishing is out of this world, if you’re into that sort of thing…..The Fireman definitely is.
So, after we got home, we kept checking, are you still interested? Still in love with Washington? Uh, yep! So, we looked online and found the perfect property, at the perfect price. Unfortunately, it had an offer on it by the time we got up the nerve to call. BUT, we were so disappointed, we both knew that this is something we both really wanted.
I developed a business plan, did some research on cabins vs yurts. I ran numbers and made spreadsheet after spreadsheet. I called banks, and banks and banks. I cataloged everything til my brain bled.
The plan is doable. We are buying land, building vacation rentals, likely yurts, complete with plumbing and a kitchen. After we retire, we will move out there and build our own home on the property and manage from there.
We can do it! I’m entirely excited and not just a little scared, but….go big or go home, right? You can’t live large if you don’t take some risks.
JenMarie's Cafe 