The Terrific3 travel blog

It’s now been 5 full days that we’ve been back to portland and it’s time for this post. I’m not sure if it’ll be my last for this trip…we’ll see.

We moved to Portland 8.5 years ago from San Francisco. Z was born here and S was a toddler. I love Portland, but for a long time, part of it has never quite felt like home. SF is really where a piece of my soul will always live. It is just MY city. Portland is amazing—lots of nature, family friendly, great food, good work life balance—exactly what I need. But the lack of diversity and it’s whiteness has always bothered me (and still does).

However, returning to Portland after 9 weeks away and getting COVID right away has really hit one point home for me. Portland IS home. Because just like I had “people” in SF, I have people in Portland. Having COVID and jet lag and 2 little kids who have COVID and no childcare and being exhausted and sick and worried about your 1 kid who was sicker has left me in tears many days this week, And it has been heartening to see the support—the friends who have come by for porch hellos or medicine and good drop offs, checked on me via phone and text, and lifted us up. In some ways it was inevitable we would get COVID on such a long trip. I’m glad the place we did it in was HOME.

One of the hardest things has been the jet lag, especially for Z, who seems the most affected out of our family each time. He has gotten up between 1-3 am almost every night, and gotten me up, and then I can’t fall asleep. Last night, with some coaching, encouragement, double dose of melatonin, and a reiki treatment, I put him to bed. And thankfully today we all woke around 6am, and I even did my first post COVID run, which felt great. I made the kids pancakes to celebrate.

It has been amazing being at home and having access to my kitchen with all the spices and foods I love to cook, and I’ve been cooking every day despite COVID, as that’s how I believe we all heal. And frankly, I’m tired after 9 weeks of eating out every day. S opened the fridge the other day to find hummus and said to me with a nostalgic tone, “Mommy, our fridge looks like it used to look before. Really full and I can’t find anything!” It was pretty sweet.

So my takeaway so far from our epic trip is the following bullet points:

1. I am so glad we took this incredible adventure together.

2. It was unforgettably amazing AND challenging at the same time. All good things in life are.

3. I learned that my kids and I are more flexible than we all imagined.

4. No matter where we are, it is possible to find a little piece of home in every place.

5. No matter where you are, it is possible to find pizza and pasta in every place.

6. So much family time together makes it easier to have the more difficult conversations with my kids and hand them engage since they already have my trust and attention.

7. This is just the beginning of many adventures together. I would do this again, and we have plans to travel internationally again soon.

8. I am a bad ass. (I am not trying to be self complimentary, but I also realize that traveling for 9 weeks in Asia with 2 kids as a single mom is something only 1% of people would even consider). I can do hard things.

9. Portland is home. We love our people here and are grateful for our village.

Signing off, until our next adventure, which I hope is soon!