O Canada!

The past five days, Aaron and I have been on a roadtrip to Vancouver, BC, Canada. I must say, this week has been quite the adventure for me.

I knew beforehand that I would be alone for most of the day everyday because Aaron would be at the field and Emily wouldn't be making this road trip. I knew I wouldn't be able to make phone calls or text. I knew I would be paying with Canadian money (I should call them looneys and tooneys) instead of our money. I knew that I would have to drive and handle directions in kilometers and not miles... but what I didn't know was that my GPS wouldn't work outside the States! I had ALL these plans to go exploring and see all different parts of the city, to do this and that, without a care in the world because there was no way I could get lost if I had my GPS... I was scared... Scared that I might just have to get out a map and FIGURE IT OUT like they did in the old-n-days as in like a few years ago... So, what did I decide to do about my predicament?

I put my big girl panties on and dealt with it!


There was no way I was going to let the lack of a cell phone and GPS and other American normalities ruin my first experience of Vancouver, CANADA.  Have I ever mentioned that I have never been out of the country? (Besides a cruise of course). Yes my friends, it is true. Now I will say that I have traveled ALL OVER this country and lived in a lot of different states, but I have never spent time in another country.  I would say Canada was a pretty simple introduction into globe trotting... (not that I'll be doing that anytime soon).  So instead of me doing all this babbling, would you like to see some pictures?? Here they go...

I guess I better show you the reason we were visiting Vancouver in the first place. We loved being somewhere GREEN! We played against the "Vancouver Canadians"... how original.



As you all know, Vancouver hosted the Winter 2010 Olympics and this is the practice pool they built for the swimmers. It was right next to the field.



After getting lost twice, I finally found Granville Island. With gorgeous views of the water, a bustling market, live music, and artsy little shops, it was worth all the trouble of finding it.









These seagulls need to cut out the french fries and potato chips.





Now let me just stop for a minute and tell you about this market. I stepped one foot in the door and I was in heaven... and needless to say, inspired by everything. The seafood, the produce, the artisan cheeses, the flowers, the FRENCH pastries and basically anything and everything that was french inspired made my heart go pitter pat. I had so much fun just looking at everything! Can you tell I am easily amused?







This is my favorite picture. #1 because it's {heirloom} tomatoes (my favorite thing to eat on this earth) #2 the colors (all my favorites!)











I apologize in advance if this blog post makes you hungry! I think I'm about to have to go make some cinnamon toast just looking at all these pictures! And yes I did have to spend a few Loonies and Toonies on a couple of these because after all, "what was I going to eat for breakfast in the mornings?"









There were gelato stands everywhere so of course I had to indulge!



So there you have it, that was the market! Now since we're still on the subject of food I will show you this neat little sushi place we ate at for supper one night. It was all you can eat and you get to cook your own meat on the grill at your table!



Now speaking of Asians, I wondered to myself as we arrived in Vancouver if perhaps we drove to the wrong country? Y'all, Caucasians and every other ethnic group seemed to be the minority. I have never seen so many chinese symbols, asian restaurants, and asian people- accept maybe in New York, in my life. I definitely wasn't disappointed because their food was divine, most spoke perfect English, and they very cordial and friendly... oh, and they give great directions!

After sushi, we toured the town.







Considering the fact that I was EXTREMELY outnumbered with our guy to girl ratio, I made plans to come back downtown the next day alone and SHOP! And of course, I woke up to rain... But I had the "big girl panties" mantra playing in my head and I decided to buy an umbrella and deal with it!





So the next night, which turned out to be clear and beautiful, we took a drive along Stanley Park. Picturesque is the perfect word to describe the views.











Vancouver was a beautiful and busy city that I thoroughly enjoyed exploring but after a week of being out of our country, it felt wonderful to be back on U.S. soil. I almost got out and kissed the ground! (Because you see, being out of the country {even it was only Canada} was a big deal for this first-timer ;) Hello iPhone, Garmin, dollar bills, and mph!! Yep, I'm just an All-American girl I guess!