Hello friends! It’s been a little quiet over here, hasn’t it? Don’t worry – it’s a good sign! I’ve been keeping myself busy, so I guess I’ve collected plenty of things to write about! Here’s how life has been in Vancouver since I last wrote.
exploring the ubc vancouver campus
The UBC campus is an incredible place with so many beautiful gems! I took Tom there to walk around and see some of the spots my colleagues introduced me to. After working there for five months, I am still only familiar with a particular part of the grounds. It’s kind of bizarre that there’s so much more to see here. Multiple beaches, several gardens, museums, and so many places to enjoy food. Two highlights to mention here.
- Wreck Beach is a beautiful spot; getting there involves a steep 500-step trail but it’s totally worth it. When at work and you want to get a little bit of exercise in, this is a nice lunch walk! Apparently, it’s a clothing-optional beach and a popular spot to swim. Haven’t seen any sign of either, but then again, the warm summer months haven’t fully arrived yet.
- Nitobe Memorial Garden is a traditional Japanese garden. In the cherry blossom season, this place is extra special, so in April I definitely took advantage of my UBC card and the free admission it grants me. The picture below is already gorgeous, but imagine those trees fully blooming!
seattle & northern washington
Vancouver is very close to the United States border, so we drove over there with a rental car one day to check out Washington State. The drive was lovely – a great introduction to Washington State as a place we could see ourselves return for trips! Seattle itself was okay, but coming from Vancouver I didn’t think it was super special. Vancouver is definitely a nicer city in my (biased?) opinion. Tom has some relatives on the US side of the border, so of course we went to visit them on our way back home. It was such a lovely evening!
We did learn that getting past the border can take quite some time. It was our first time, and if we wanted to go over there regularly, we’d have to go through that process every 3 months to renew our ‘permission’ to cross the border. We also learned that we should consider ourselves lucky that we had ‘only’ a 2 hour wait. Ooooki. Noted.
easter weekend
The long weekend in April was a great opportunity to see family in Ontario. For Easter, we flew out to Toronto to spend time with Toms several gazillion (second) cousins. As you can see, he was quite content surrounded by all of them (and/or all the dogs, chickens, and cows). On the last day, we did a quick downtown Toronto visit to walk around and have dinner before our flight back. Gosh, I know Canada is big, but Vancouver-Toronto is such a long flight and the time difference is enough for a jetlag. Coming from such a small country, it’s still an odd thing to wrap my head around!
the vancouver rain run
The Vancouver Sun (a local newspaper) organized the Sun Run. I have ran many running events in various seasons and various distances, but this must be the wettest 10K I ever ran. Nonetheless, it was great seeing Vancouver from the middle of the road, and getting soaking wet did help motivate to finish this thing as fast as my legs (and the crowds) would let me.
amigas de holanda
The absolute April favourite: my dear friend came to visit from the Netherlands. And she brought a friend of hers too as a bonus! It was a great chance to catch up, show her some of BC’s highlights, and cross some stuff off my own bucket list too.
We went to Squamish and took the Sea to Sky Gondola up the mountain to find great views, a suspension bridge, a restaurant, and several trail options. Squamish itself was also lovely to explore. We found a nice spot for coffee and strolled over a local market. For food, we drove out a bit further north of Squamish to find the bar/restaurant known as Jack’s Bar in the Netflix series Virgin River. Always so fun to see a film location in real life!
For city activities, we took the ferry to Granville Island and Olympic Village. Got some donuts, some cocktails, and what not! Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and dreary, so the beauty of the mountains surrounding the city was mostly invisible…
Escaping the rain, I took a Monday off so we could plan a weekend trip out further into BC where the sun is more likely to shine… That would be the Okanagan Valley! It was a lovely road trip to West Kelowna. We enjoyed a Wine Tour with stops at 4 different wineries in the area. And thankfully, the sun shined over there indeed.
The way back from Okanagan Valley is even more beautiful if you take the southern route, so that’s exactly what we did. Stopping in Cathedral Provincial Park was not what we expected – the hike we wanted to do required reserved transport up the mountain, so we did a short bit of a different walk instead to see a bit of the area.
chilliwack tulip festival
Out of nowhere, a weekend with 30 degrees heat presented itself… I went to the Chilliwack Tulip Festival with a group of colleagues and our +1s. It was an amazing first glimpse of summer!
Coming from the Netherlands and having been to the Keukenhof, it was not as spectacular as other things I’ve seen, but definitely a super nice visit. The tulips were gorgeous, there were some food trucks, and they had some cute props on the fields for people to take photos.
We picked up food on the way back to the city and enjoyed dinner at one of my colleagues’ place.
And with that, April came to an end super fast! You can tell that summer is on its way, and we have lots of plans, so I can’t wait to share more with you guys! In the meantime, follow me on @vandirabc 🙂
