Moving To Canada
Well this is blog post #1 about my families move to Ottawa Canada from Poulsbo Washington.
I am 41 and I have a wife and two little girls ten and eight and we have been given the opportunity to move to Ottawa Canada through my work. I have been working remotely out of my home here in the Seattle area for the last two plus years reporting to Ottawa.
I feel very lucky to be given the opportunity to move up there. I have been wanting to move out of the US for a few years now. Over the years I have become more and more frustrated with the policys and culture here in the US.
The rest of my extended family thinks I am a little nuts. They always have thought I was nuts so thats nothing new. So far I have heard the following bad things about my move to Canada.
The taxes are too high
The medical system is terrible and you have to wait forever
Its too cold in the winter
You will miss the seasons ( they think its all winter )
Socialism is bad and from one relative I heard it referred to as Communism
What is funny is that I remember hearing all sorts of terrible things about Seattle when we told everyone we were coming up here to the PNW.
This blog posting is meant to help me document my families adventure and to provide helpful information to other people that maybe doing the same move or ponder doing so.
Some background on my family
I am from the West coast of the US. I grew up on the I80 corridor in Northern California. Then after I got married we moved to the Seattle area and have been up here for 11 years now. My mother in law lives 4 miles from our home and all of our extended family still live in the northern california area. I am a computer scientist. I have worked for the last 20 years in the tech industry and for myself in my own startups.
My wife has an environmental science degree and a teaching certification. She currently runs an online store where she sells her artwork. Given the demise of the education system she has been unable to land a full time teaching postion over the last 5 years. She grew up in northern california living also.
We have two kids. One is 10 and the other one is 8 years old. They have lived all of their lives in the Seattle area.
So we now have 18 days until the move. Let the count down begin.
