Beyond the Trail: How Vancouver Reignited My Travel Bug, Career Goals, and Inner Balance
As I sit here on the plane writing this, I am filled with gratitude reflecting on everything that happened this weekend in Vancouver, Canada.
Before I jump into the details, let me rewind a bit. Every year, a few of my close friends and I take a girls' trip. Over the years, we’ve explored Utah, New Mexico, Portland, and even backpacked Pikes Peak. Now, we can add Vancouver to that list. I have loved each and every one of these trips. They’ve given me incredible memories that I know I’ll look back on for years and share with my future kids and grandkids. And we are looking to add more trips especially international trips to the list.
I’m planning to write a few posts here to share my experiences from this trip to Canada. This trip just inspired me so much. While this blog is typically dedicated to running, hiking, and the outdoors, life is way too short to limit myself to a single box or niche! I do plan to continuing to write about running, hiking and the outdoors, but it would so be fun to add travel to that list.
Now, this first post is going to be a broader reflection on how this trip inspired me, impacted my spirituality, and sparked new ideas for my future, and an overview of the first day. So I won’t be going to much into detail on the entireaty of the trip and what we did over the whole trip. That would be to long of a first post. So there will be for later posts for each of the other consecutive days.
Rediscovering the Travel Bug
I’ve traveled both domestically and internationally in the past, but between school-year schedules, budgets, and grad school, I haven't been able to travel internationally as much as I’d like. And that honestly, that really dos bum me out. I love to travel, especially internationally, so much. With only three semesters of grad school left, I’m already planning to save up for a big graduation trip once I finish. I am not really sure where or what I want to do, but hearing my friends share stories of their own international adventures and this short quick trip fully reignited my travel itch. And it is an itch I definately need to scratch. If you have any fun places that you would suggest, let me know.
Evolving Professional Goals
This trip also gave me space to reflect on my career. I still deeply love teaching and working in education, but I’m feeling ready to transition outside the traditional classroom. My goal is to work as an educational advocate or consultant for Deaf+ learners. There is such a critical need for this work, and shifting in this direction would give me the flexibility to pursue my passion for travel. Whether that transition happens next year or the year after, I feel confident it’s the right next step.
Podcast & Blog Updates
Being away also got me excited about the trajectory of the podcast my friend and I are currently planning. It made me realize how incredible it would be to eventually travel internationally to create content for the show! I’m keeping the topic under wraps for now, but stay tuned, details are coming soon. As for this blog, my main focus will always be hiking and running, but I’m excited to expand it to include travel experiences as well.
Smooth Takeoffs & Indigenous Art
Now I wanted to go into our first day in Vancouver which did include a good amount of sleep deprivation and travel. When we were booking our flights, we wanted to make sure we landed early enough in Vancouver to get as much of a full first day in the city that we could. We booked a 7:51 AM flight out on United, which meant a bright and early 4:30 AM departure from Colorado Springs. I am very fortunate that my boyfriend was an absolute gem and drove us to the airport, and we are so appreciative of him!
We were lucky enought to breeze through security and boarded the plane completely giddy and excited for another adventure. During the 2.5 to 3-hour flight, I got to knock out some grad school homework so I wouldn't have to worry about assignments for the rest of the weekend. Future me is so glad I did that! All I had to do is post it and then show up to the zoom class.
Surprisingly, we actually landed about 26 minutes early which was awesome because it gave us 26 more minutes in Vancouver. One of my very first thoughts while walking through Vancouver International Airport was just how cool it was. The terminal was filled with stunning Indigenous art and traditional carvings. It was such a welcoming and culturally rich introduction to British Columbia. All I could really think about was how cool it would be if US airports could do more like this.
Navigating Vancouver Traffic (and Rental Vans)
Getting to our rental car was a bit of a mini-adventure in itself. We walked all the way to the far end of the rental car zone before realizing our company was off-site and required us to call for a shuttle pick-up! It was an easy fix though. We turned around, made the call, waited five minutes, and were off in the shuttle. It really was not a big deal. My friend did bravely volunteer to be our sole driver for the trip (though we've already decided we'll rotate drivers next time!).
Once we hit the road, our immediate observation: Vancouver drivers are super impatient, and the traffic and road layouts are wild! Between narrow neighborhood streets, rare turn lanes, and unusual intersections where one direction has a full traffic light while the cross-street has a stop sign, driving was an experience. But we figured it out and made it work. And all of those reasons are why we want to make sure that we have at least a second driver for next trip out of state. We hated watching our friend get drained and stressed.
Croffles & A "Fighter Chicken"
Since we had about three hours before our Airbnb check-in, our first order of business was food. We stopped by a charming spot called AT Cafe, and man, it was incredible.
I ordered the Hearty Man's Combo which included, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, sliced breakfast potatoes, and... two croffles.
If you’ve never had a croffle before and dang was it so good. A croffle is a croissant pressed inside a waffle maker, and it was so freaking good. It had that flaky, buttery croissant texture with the crisp edges of a waffle. I dipped mine in maple syrup, because when in Canada, right? Though it was honestly delicious enough to eat plain. I am definitely going to hunt down some recipes to make these at home! Because I would love to have that again without having to go to a restaraunt.
(Side note: Across the street from the cafe, there was a fried chicken joint called "A Fighter Chicken" in a building that used to be a McDonald's, which gave us a good laugh while we ate).
VanDusen Botanical Garden
After getting fueled up and ready to explore, we spent our afternoon wandering the VanDusen Botanical Garden. This place was unlike any botanical garden I’ve visited in the U.S. You feel completely immersed in nature rather than just looking at manicured plants brought into a city setting. It was so beautiful. We got to hug trees, frolic in the open lawns, and just soak in the lush beauty. We even stumbled across two different weddings being set up; it truly is a dream venue.
During our walk, my friend and I wandered into a small garden nook where a local woman was enjoying her lunch on a bench. We stopped to look at this hilarious plant with fuzzy, spherical seed pods, and the woman looked up and told us its actual common name: "Fuzzy Balls" (or Hairy Balls!). We couldn't stop laughing.
If you are ever in Vancouver, I would 10/10 recommend spending a few hours at VanDusen.
After the garden, we made a quick grocery run to Safeway to grab snacks and a pre-made dinner so we could unpack and relax at the Airbnb for the evening. We just knew that once we got back to the AirBnB we would NOT want to leave. I picked up a pre-made Greek chicken salad, which tasted great at the time, but my stomach and intestons definitely paid for it later that night. I'm pretty sure I ended up with a minor case of food poisoning. This all lead to quite a few emergency bathroom trips throughout the night... I did not feel crampy or quezzy in any way. Just had to poop multiple times through the night. But hey, that's all part of the travel experience, right? Good memories!
Despite the chaotic driving and the late-night stomach mishap, Day 1 was an absolute blast and set the perfect tone for our weekend away.
What’s Next
Over the next few days, I’ll be sharing follow-up posts one for each of the next following days of the trip breaking down everything we did and my personal takeaways. (A quick shoutout to my friend who planned the entire itinerary so I could just show up and enjoy the ride!)
Thank you for joining me on this quick journey. I hope you enjoy reading about this trip and the ways it refreshed my perspective!
