Most of you know how we met, but I’ll rehash it here just in case. My brother introduced Chris and I when I first moved to Portland in 2015. Cameron was having a get together with some work friends before he changed jobs and invited me along. Chris and I really hit it off...until he mentioned his girlfriend. I think Cameron’s exact words were, “oops.” Fast forward one year. Portland has this great event called First Thursday on, you guessed it, the first Thursday of the month. The art galleries stay open late, and most provide free beer and wine. I was leaving in a few weeks for Europe, so I was trying to soak in as much Portland culture as I could. However, when Cameron told me it would be all couples, minus myself, I told him he needed to invite a friend for me. After some convincing, Chris agreed to join us. We talked the whole night, long after the others had left, and both of us knew this was different than anything we’d experienced before. We spent the next three weeks in each other’s company as much as possible. Chris even drove me to Seattle the night before my flight, and spent the day with me until I took off. The six months following were difficult for both of us, but we spent them talking and getting to know each other. Thank goodness for FaceTime. I sent Chris a postcard from every city I visited, and he sent me a few letters when I was staying in one place for a while. Somehow we made it work until it was time for me to come home. I had planned on flying into New York and taking a train across the US. There were some cities I hadn’t seen yet, and I still had some vacation money. When I told Chris my idea he said a road trip sounded better. A few days later he called to let me know his boss was allowing him to work remotely for an entire month. I flew in to Portland, and two days later we were off. Those five weeks around the country were only the beginning, and we hope you can join us as we celebrate our next big adventure together!