The Canadian adventures.
Remember the Canadian I met my first day in Bali? We were instantly drawn to each other being the only white people in the hotel we were stuck at. It was the Balinease "silent day" holiday and neither he (Alain) or I were supposed to end up at that hotel. We both had reservations at other hotels but our taxi drivers didn't take us to them. So Alain and I met and we traveled off and on together for a month before parting ways.
I flew to Thailand at the end of April and he headed to Hong Kong.
Eventually I ended up back in Oregon and he had already made it back to Canada.
We were messaging one day over FB and it notified him of my current location so he knew I was back in Tigard, OR. and the conversation quickly changed to him asking when I wanted to come visit Canada. He suggested I fly up for a week or 2 and then I could catch a ride back with him to Oregon. He had never been to my state and was eager to explore!
I wasn't ready to leave Oregon just yet, I was enjoying the weather and my family/friends to much so I declined the offer to go to Vancouver BC. I told him I'd think about traveling to see him in the fall.
Regardless of my plans, Alain came to Oregon on July 27th. He drove thru some of the worst Friday traffic taking him 14 hours! It normally only takes 5.
I told him I was going camping that weekend with friends and he was welcome to join otherwise id catch up with him after the weekend.
Camping of course was the way to go! He drove from Vancouver BC straight to Detroit Lake, OR. arriving around midnight.
It was so good to see him! It wasn't Bali but it was close enough.
He stayed for 13 days and had the best Oregon tour guide ever! Me!
We camped 2 weekends in a row at Detroit lake, he went to Crossfit with me, became good friends with a few of my people, had a whirlwind tour of all parts of Portland, we took a drive out to yamhill county (oregon's wine country) where we did some wine tasting, olive oil, salts and vinegar tasting too! We stopped at Red Hills market on our way back for some delicious sandwiches and drinks.
We also ventured into the bend, Redmond, and Powell butte area. We mountain biked, visited with family friends of mine, saw an artist friend, hit up a brewery and biked the trails along the Deschutes river. We hiked smith rock and tested the terrain for bouldering.
On our way back to Portland we went over my. Hood so he could check out timberline lodge and see our famous mountain up close and personal. He was fascinated by it. It's not like the mountains they have in Canada. And he experienced his first American 4th of July with me at the lake.
Wed July 9th came and I found myself in Alain's truck heading back to Canada with him.
My travels continue...
I have been to whistler once about 12 years ago or more and it was a whirlwind of a weekend trip! Within that trip I drove thru Vancouver BC but that was it, a quick drive thru.
This time around I'd have a local tour guide and a place to stay.
However on the day we left our plans changed a bit. Alain had a family emergency come up and he was going to have to drive to Calgary the next day (thur.), leaving me to travel alone until he returned on Sunday evening. I wasn't expecting to travel alone again, so soon. I also didn't realize traveling alone was something I personally needed to wrap my head around before doing. I had done it and enjoyed it so well not long ago. I think I was just really looking forward to the set plan with Alain and bummed he was leaving.
Originally the first weekend was going to be spent on Vancouver island. He has a friend or 2 there that we would have stayed with. There was a concert series happening and we had free tickets to it, The Naked and Famous was one of the many bands playing. Victoria was another location on the island that we would have seen and I was looking forward to.
I was still able to go there on my own and now looking back on it maybe I should have tried to put things together to do so. I could have couch surfed but many people told me the transportation to get there and back would be a pain and expensive and I was a little discouraged by hearing that.
I don't regret kicking it around North Van. though.
The condo is for sale and was going to have an open house on Saturday. Some light cleaning was needed and as Alain didn't have time, it was the least I could do.
I finally left the house around 5 and half way down the hill one of my sandals broke! Awesome! Those suckers only lasted me 3 months! I bought them in Bali but they weren't even knock offs! They cost more then my cheap Hawaiian sandals that have lasted forever!
Sad face!
Once I was back out on the road again, this time wearing my Tom's, I started meeting people. First I met a girl (Lexi) working at a store upstairs in the market near the waterfront. She's around my age and she told me how she met a guy in Belize whose from North Dakota and they have been seeing each other since January. She told me this after hearing I was from Oregon and visiting a Canadian I had met in Bali.
We had similar stories I suppose.
Then I had an interesting run in, turning into a much to long conversation with a 56 yr old musician/homeless man who insisted on walking with me for a bit. That was okay at first but got awkward real fast when he asked if he could give me a hug and a kiss!
WTF!? Umm NO!
He was a nice guy but got way to comfortable with our conversation! He also told me what a sweet heart I was and then he said, I'm even kind of looking at your heart right now. As I caught him trying to look down my shirt! I wrapped that conversation up real fast and walked off.
I wondered by the waterfront board walk catching the end of a free outdoor yoga class.
I stopped in at cafe Tao on the corner of Rodgers and Esplanade just to see what they had. It's an organic and raw foods cafe and market that used to be a Starbucks. One of the girls working there chatted it up with me, filling me in on all the good things to try on the menu. I told her id come back and try the crepes that she and a customer highly recommended but before I left she insisted I take 4 different little raw food deserts out of their case to take home and try. Super nice of her!
She told me there's another smaller grocery store up from the IGA that I could shop at but I couldn't find it.
I kind of made it a mission to seek out all the grocery stores in my area and find the cheapest prices. I'm wired like that, yes! But, Canadian grocery prices are definitely higher then Oregon's prices! Noticeably different and as I find myself craving some greens, I see the price of spinach and think, heck no! I'll wait tell I'm home!
I did end up finding other grocery stores but really the prices didn't vary by much. Something I did kind of like was how the store described the chickens living situation on the tags for eggs.
It could make you feel guilty for which eggs you chose to buy, real easy! Or you could have the outlook my dad has and read those tags and think, "who cares! Their job is to lay eggs!" This coming from the man who has farm fresh eggs on a daily basis from his pretty lil hens.
It could make you feel guilty for which eggs you chose to buy, real easy! Or you could have the outlook my dad has and read those tags and think, "who cares! Their job is to lay eggs!" This coming from the man who has farm fresh eggs on a daily basis from his pretty lil hens.
I found a Crossfit box within walking distance from the condo. About a 45min walk. It was CF Lions and I decided I needed to get outside and in a gym, around people. So I went on that Friday night.
When the WOD (workout of the day) was over Chris, the owner and his wife offered me a ride back to the condo. They live a street away from where I was staying.
Chris told me about some event going on in what sounded like a park up from a beach, on Saturday. Something "days" but I asked him 3 times to repeat the name of it and I still couldn't retain the information. So I went back to the condo and tried to research it. No luck.
Saturday morning came and I ran the vacume thru the condo one more time, showered and decided to skip cf and head across the ocean to downtown Vancouver.
I was determined to find the event I was told about.