Portland, Oregon

We moved to Oregon in ’91 for our first taste of America:-) Rodger was joining Chorus’s new office in Portland and Doris had decided to do a Masters in Linguistics at Portland State.

After the last couple of years in Paris, where getting out to the country for a hike was a major hassle, we revelled in the ease of access in Oregon. Within 20 minutes of downtown you could be hiking on the flanks of mount hood or in costal temperate rainforests – brilliant!

The Oregon coast is stunning, miles of wild sandy beaches with headlands and bluffs topped by temperate rain forest. We got out there as often as possible for the hiking and just hanging out on the beach.

Rodger was also working as an adjunct prof at Oregon Graduate Institute (teaching an OS course) where an old friend, Jon Walpole from Lancaster had now settled. Via John and Kirti we met a whole bunch of new friends including Richard and Jan who have remained lifelong friends.

Jude, an old friend from Lancaster, concerned that we might be missing the green grass of home, sent us a do-it-yourself farmers field kit with real grass and (sadly fake) cows which quickly sprouted in the pacific northwest sun. I’m not sure if this was the trigger but after two years we decided that we needed to refresh our roots and we headed back to europe for a brief stint in Bristol.