PDX. Portland, my second home. I was excited to take Jess with me to meet my brother, sister-in-law, nieces, and now extended family of their friends and kids who are quickly growing up. 

A rocky start as Jess wasn’t feeling well… our day started with a scavenger hunt for Tamiflu. Two pharmacies later and a quick stop at a few of my Portland favorites (heart coffee, blue star donuts, the food trucks for some spicy thai soup to cure anything ailing Jess) and we were back at the hotel room where he could rest and I could work from a very comfortable bed. I think we spent a day and a half like that! The next day Jess’ fever was down to normal and was feeling much better… both of us had taken the Tamiflu out of an abundance of precaution, two days until we got on a plane to Asia and it seemed too risky not to.

We did get out of the hotel room later that evening, a short trip to climb with Caroline and Kathy, Jess wore his mask around my mom just in case of any errant virus as she was on an ever-changing cycle of chemotherapy and we didn’t want to challenge her immune system in any way. Climbing at Planet Granite in Portland was super-fun, big walls in a beautiful downtown Pearl District building. Surrounded by great restaurants and beer options for post-climbing refueling.