Labor Day: Beautiful British Columbia
About a month ago now, we journeyed over to our beautiful northern neighbor and spent the Labor Day long weekend in British Columbia. It happened to be J’s first visit to Canada as well, so I was excited to show him how beautiful it was.
We made it to Vancouver early Saturday morning and met up with J’s friend at a lovely restaurant which had the best chicken tortilla soup I’ve ever tasted (and inspired me to whip up my own once we got home – more on that later).
After walking around the city for a bit after brunch, we decided to head further north in search for the perfect lake and campsite. Of course, no trip to Canada is complete without a pit stop at a Tim Hortons for some coffee and TimBits for me, so we made sure to make a stop before we got too far removed from civilization.
A few hours later we found ourselves a bit past Pemberton and Whistler at Birkenhead Lake. It was overcast, drizzling, and getting dark, but still, this was the most breathtaking lake either of us had ever seen. It was even more beautiful when the sun came out the following morning and the water was so perfectly still and clear that the reflections seemed unreal.
It was hard to leave this place but seeing as we needed to make our way back stateside by Monday afternoon, we spent the better part of Sunday driving around, making a loop back south, taking in the view of the mountains and enjoying our time off.
Alaska 2016
J and I were fortunate enough to be able to experience an exciting and wonderful trip to Alaska back in June! We were there for four days and four nights and had no solid plans when we embarked besides the flights to and from Anchorage and the Airbnb booked for our first evening.
Our flight to Anchorage was super delayed and we checked in bleary-eyed to our Airbnb in Anchorage. Our host at the Airbnb was kind enough to recommend a few things for us to do, one of which ended up becoming a highlight of our trip.
Day 1: Our first morning there, we decided to make the drive from Anchorage to Homer, which is about a 5-6 hour drive, but we also wanted to make a stop in Seward on the way. The journey from Anchorage to Seward was absolutely beautiful. It was a bit overcast that day but the views of the water, mountains, clouds, and railroads were breathtaking.
We stopped in Seward where we hunted down an old diner that J’s friend had spent time at 30-some-odd years ago. The original diner no longer exists but we were happy to find the location anyways and send a photo.
We stopped at Chinooks (which was highly recommended by the blogger of Gal Meets Glam when she went on her Alaska trip last summer) along the harbor for a bite to eat. It definitely lived up to the rave reviews and we had a dreamy view of the outside.
We made it to Homer pretty late in the evening, but because during the summer there is almost 24 hours of daylight, it still felt quite early. We stayed at the most adorable Airbnb there. It was a tiny little cottage tucked away in a greenhouse, perfectly simple and dreamy.
Day 2: We woke up in our cute greenhouse Airbnb, had a little breakfast and then headed out towards the Homer Spit. The Spit wasn’t much but walking on the shores was beautiful and calming in the early morning. We didn’t spend much time there as we were headed towards Palmer for the evening.
We went to Anchorage and walked around town for a bit before heading to Palmer where we stayed in the guest rooms above the horse stables at a beautiful ranch with a view of the mountains.
Day 3: We headed on a fun excursion today for a glacier hike on the Matanuska Glacier as well as a rafting trip. I ended up going over twice during the rafting trip, but successfully got back in. The hike was super fun and it was awesome seeing all the beauty Alaska had to offer.
Day 4: We headed from Palmer back to Anchorage to catch our flight after stopping by a lake for one last swim on the trip.
Weekend Getaway: Salt Spring Island, BC
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of having a short getaway to the lovely Salt Spring Island. The weather was perfectly sunny and warm and the company was pleasant and remarkably good-looking.
I initially flew into Vancouver and we took a seaplane to get over to the island. It was our first time in a seaplane and the experience was so much fun! I felt like a child at Christmas. We took Seair Seaplanes. They have a simple booking system, great rates and customer service, and were extremely punctual. It took about 15 minutes to get from Richmond over to Ganges Harbor.
The interesting thing about this island is that hitchhiking is a perfectly normal way to get around the island if you find yourself without a car, and everyone we met along the way was extremely friendly!
We opted for a lazy, relaxing weekend and took the canoe out to Vesuvius Bay a couple of times during the two days there. There are great places along the beach to sunbathe and soak up the last rays of summer and a nice row of charming houses right along the water to paddle by. It was even warm enough to jump in the water and attempt to fish for some crabs this time of year!
On Saturday mornings there is a market that is open in Ganges that is incredibly fun to go to. There is live music, local crafts and locally sourced foods and was such a lighthearted experience.
Wonderful place for a relaxing weekend getaway with a great change of pace from the regular 9 to 5.
Venice, Italy
Venice was not originally in my Europe travel plans but my flight to Budapest from Rome ended up being cancelled so I took the train from Rome to Venice to experience the magic of the floating city.
The city has an intriguing way of slowing down time and my perception of it. With the maze of streets and the slow-moving water taxis, I was finally forced to slow down and allow myself to enjoy getting lost and finding my way back through intuition and luck.
