This past Sunday I found myself laying in Washington Park and letting my mind wander to wherever it felt compelled to go.  Lately, this seems to be happening on a much more frequent basis.  On the golf course, I would imagine there was a crystal clear ocean just beyond the tree line.  While writing this article from the garden of my office building, I was imagining I was in a cosmopolitan oasis in the South of France far away from the 100 degree weather we have been experiencing in Portland. …

In my first carnival of blogs I wrote about some of the sites and posts that have inspired me to continue down the path that I am currently on.  In this next iteration of the carnival I wanted to focus on articles that I have read that provide motivation for me personally.  Maybe someone has become successful at being location independent, or perhaps they are doing something on my list.   Either way something about their writing has motivated me enough to want to share it with you.  A few …

Have you ever had a stressful week at work? Of course you have; we all have.  Does it seem fair to you that regardless of how hard you work, or how much stress is placed on you, that nothing will change?  Sure you will get your annual review, where you can plead your case for why you should get more money, a bonus, or perhaps more time off, but for the other 51 weeks out of the year, what you leave with at the end of the day remains the …

As most of you know, one of my biggest reasons for starting this blog is to hold myself accountable for accomplishing things on “My List“.  I have realized that for being such a big part of my adventure, I have spent very little time talking about it.  The creation of this list has actually been on going for quite some time, and by the time I published it there had already been a few that were crossed off.  So this is an update on some of the things I have …

The chances are, if you are reading my blog, you have also heard of Cody McKibben’s site “Thrilling Heroics“. I just want to start out by saying that Cody is the man. A true rockstar entrepreneur in every sense of the word, Cody is doing some seriously cool stuff. So needless to say, after following his writing for the last few months, I was pretty stoked when he agreed to have a Skype conversation with me last week.
As most of you know, I am going …

There aren’t many of us who couldn’t use a little extra cash here and there.  Maybe you want to hop over to Fiji and need a plane ticket.  Maybe your computer got stolen and you need a new Macbook.  Well the good news is, there are a wide variety of things you can do to make an extra buck or two.   I will tell you how I personally made an extra $1,000 to fund my travels, and also provide a bunch of other ideas that could work as well. …

This week we are featuring another fantastic off-the-beaten-track happy hour.  The place is called Le Happy.  Located under the 405 next to Slabtown on NW 16th and Marshall, you would never guess the joys that await you inside this crepe oasis.
Le Happy features a wide variety of savory and sweet crepes, that are some of the best I have ever had.  Second best to be exact (the crepes at Chez Michou in Buzios, Brazil take the top prize).  But these are fantastic nonetheless.  During their happy hour from 5-7 you …

As I was helping my dad re-roof his house this past weekend, it made me realize how happy I was to NOT do manual labor for a living.  When I woke up this morning I could barely move.  Muscles I didn’t even know I had ached. I realized that the sunscreen I applied, really didn’t do a whole lot of good.  With that in mind I started thinking about some of the great things about being a blogger.  I might not do it for a living, but there are a …

Since I began this site at the beginning of May, this is the longest I have gone without posting. I am not happy about this. I did however have a GREAT time (I use the term great, very loosely) helping my dad reroof/reside our old house in 90 degree weather for the entirety of my holiday weekend. With that being said, I think now would be a good time to take a look at everything that was accomplished in June, as well as take a look forward and see what …

Located on a random street corner in NW Portland, Cafe Nell may very be one of the best kept secrets in Portland.  Last week I decided to go here on a bit of a whim, after driving by and getting curious.  It used to be a completely ivy covered building that housed Hurley’s restaurant.  Well now Hurley’s and the ivy is gone, and what is left is one of the best happy hours in Portland.
One of the first things you notice when you walk in is the chalkboard by the …