blackcomb1

I need to visit Cannon beach, where is it exactly? I had not heard of it before now.

blackcomb1

I meant to add to this earlier. But interesting, as I too had more contact on moving over here than we ever did back home, all in my family are highly independent and my parents are as close as ever and like to go places by themselves, my brother is the same way with his wife.

On my moving here I had emails from my Dad daily, and I'd always reply to him and not my Mum as he'd show them to her anyway. Yet interestingly I'd then get emails from my Mum asking how I was too as she'd not heard from me for a little while, and I'd say, but I thought you read the emails I sent to Dad? It was pretty nice to be honest, showed they cared after all.

I never really heard from them much when I was living in the UK, in fact I got a bit fed up with always being the one to ring them and say hello.

It's funny, as I remembered thinking, "Wow! I should have left the country sooner had I known it would have this positive effect."

Another funny thing, when I was leaving my previous job some just over 10 yrs ago, I had always back then, talked of leaving the country asap, and this worried my Mum at that time, the day I left that job she kept ringing me every 10 minutes and I was driving at the time and had to keep pulling over, all she could keep saying was, "if you get stuck come home", and my response was always, "Mum, I will not get stuck and I am not moving back home." I was independent and used to living independently at this time I might add. Well she did not stop doing this until I finally said, "It is alright Mum, I am not leaving the country." She then stopped ringing me, reassured. I swear she must have thought I would up and go and she'd never see or hear from me ever again.
I did use to joke with her a lot back then mind, and say things like, "If I wanted to get married one day, I would just do it and then let you know after, and she got really worried about that, I would observe the look on her face, and then I would say, "it's okay Mum, I am only joking." Was just a bit of fun.

I expected a similar reaction from her on my moving to Canada, but I guess she came to accept it all by then, as she never reacted that way, thankfully, in fact she said, "Great! we can come over for a holiday."

dboy

Its basically the start of the Oregon Coast. We stayed in Portland and drove over there. It was incredible although expensive to stay in the summer.

My favorite place though was the sand dunes - not far from Eugene.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=zvvw-zzEbSU


http://www.el.com/to/cannonbeach/

blackcomb1

Heh!

Was that you 'sandboarding' down the sand dunes, and on that quad bike? Couldn't really call it 'snowboarding' could I
I'd have some of that, the quad biking that is.

I think I'd much prefer that beach compared to sand dunes if I had to choose, I like being near water, especially on a hot day, and that beach from the pic I can tell is beautiful.

Long beach in Tofino is another beautiful beach, on Vancouver Island, reminds me of our beautiful South Wales beaches, I grew up with from aged 7-10.

sarahandshaun

Hi Kaye

In 1990-'91 when I was in the Gulf we only had blueys (air mail type letter) and a phone card with twenty minutes a week on it, unless we topped it up ourselves. As a twenty year old, my letter writing quickly improved. Fast forward to today, you have e-mail, web cams, skype, good rate international phone calls and old school letters but to name a few. I know these don't replace your family but the point being there are a lot of options for keeping in touch. I agree with Souvenir, try to limit the contact with your family for a set period of time, explain to them why you're doing it and get together at the end of it for a huge party to see how you all feel. As already said, none of us are moving to mars and I'm not taking the michael out of anyone the technology is there. A while ago there was a series on in the UK called "wanted down under" about families going to Aus or NZ, they went for a week and towards the end they had to watch recorded messages from family and friends in the UK. A lot of the messages were about how they would miss the kids/grandkids and so on, and the strong families that were up for going ended up not going due to the family ties, I thought a lot of it as emotional blackmail because only a couple of people actually said best of luck and go for it, it's their life to lead. But my point being here is that I probably mis-understood because they were not my family and it's the same here on BE people post and it's hard to understand exactly what they are saying because you can't see their mannerisms. This might help a little bit, we're going to NS in May for our recce/holiday and this will be the first time my wife will have stepped foot in North America,nervous? Hell yeah, bricks and the whole nine yards A recce is a must. Best of luck no matter what you decide

Shaun

Kaye.

Evening everyone

Thanks for all your advice.

We are going to get our recce booked over the next few weeks, and see how we feel after being in Canada. We might come home and think it's not for us...

If we do decide to move, it would be a 6-12 month trial at first, and we wouldn't sell our house until the 12 months were up. Plan would be to move over and live in rented accommodation for 6 months, then return home for a few weeks to see how we feel. If we decide that yes we do really want to be in Canada we would put the house on the market and ship our things over and buy a house.

I didn't speak to my mum today, not on purpose, I was busy clearing the kids wardrobes and didn't get round to phoning her. Going to cut down to every 2nd day this week, then every 3rd day next week.

Thanks again for the advice

nikki dreaming

Sounds a good plan, take one step at a time
Good luck

Devilish Dee

Hi I think you should do the recce trip and see if it is even something you seriously want to do, moving away from family is a very big thing and as you are really close you will want to be able to see how you feel being away from them.

Canada is a very lovely place to live but is not for everyone
GOOD LUCK HUN

dingbat

I rented a beach house in Rockaway (very quiet) and drove up and down the coast last July. Stunning, I would return quite happily.

fledermaus

I misread that as you have a beach house, and was very very jealous. Enough to spit tacks.
I am appeased that you only rented it.

dingbat

Lol. I could not afford to buy a blade of grass in that development....
$200/night for a three bed house, with fully equpped kitchen. Not bad for me and the brood.