canada 2014

This summer, John and I took a long weekend trip to Canada. It was a mixture of good things and hard things...and rain. But man do we match each other on the travel bug, because I love how up for trips this man is. And he never rolls his eyes at the amount of photos I take, which is always a plus. 

We learned a lot about patience and focus on this trip. We had patience with the weather [rain most days] and focus when trouble strikes [getting in a fender bender with a rental car and constantly reminding each other to enjoy the moment and not worry about what happened].

 

So many awesome parts about this weekend. First off, all the ferries, oh wow do I LOVE ferries. We had 2, 2 hour rides and the weather was perfect for each of them. I loved hanging out on the top in the wind and sunshine. First we drove from Seattle to Anacortes. Slept the night in an Airbnb. Woke up early to take the ferry from Anacortes to Vancouver Island/Victoria. We spent some time in the adorable little city, had the best burgers of our lives at Pink Bicycle (I had the black bean burger, and I could eat 10 of them right now it was so delicious), and then headed north. TO OUR TREE HOUSE. John gave me a night stay in a treehouse for my birthday, how incredible is that?! Let me tell you, it was incredible. Of course it still rained, but somehow that made the stay even more incredible! Free Spirit Spheres was also just a magical place in general. Super nice guy, that built a tree house in 5 years (actually the one we stayed in, Eve!) for fun. Now he has three on the property. They are so cool. Basically like a tiny little camper in the trees. He also had an awesome treat basket waiting for us, and birthday treats for me! I wasn't a huge fan of using the bathroom on the forest floor during the night, when the owner has warned us of cougars and bears-but hey, totally worth it!!! A quote from the weekend describes my paranoia "What's that sound. It sounds like a goose." [pause] "It must be a cougar."

 

The next day we took a ferry to Vancouver, had dinner with Johns mom who was there for business! She gave us the awesome gift of an incredible harbor view hotel room. So wonderful. We had dinner at Tavola, which was super good. We ate great food, took a bike ride around Stanley Park, and walked a lot. We also drove 2 hours to Whistler and hiked Garibaldi lake-just incredible. Even in the pouring rain:) I'm so happy i realized I like hiking. I never knew what a place it had in my heart. Now I just could do it all the time. I just love exploring new places!

It didn't take long for us to plan our next trip. Mexico January 2015...here we come!

^We also stopped in Seattle on our way home, since crossing the boarder with our car took much less time than anticipated. Weekday mornings must be the time to do it. And on that note, if someone randomly finds themself with that same scenario, and is just stopping in Seattle, park at the Target downtown, because it's "free" parking if you spend $20 at target. I think I could spend $20 in my sleep at target. Definitely worth the parking.