Back to Back to Van
its about time...We have been stateside for over 3 months and have been itching to get to Vancouver to see our friends north of the border. Most of that time was spent without a vehicle however and while the train is an attractive option, going without karma just didn’t seem right. Kitsfest (and the accompanying volleyball tournament) was the tipping point we needed to finally book a weekend and make the drive north. As it happens, our friends Chad and Jess beat us to the punch and came down to portland the weekend just before. Double the Vancouver, and twice the fun. Perfect.
Always fun to show good friends around Portand. Its such an easy town to love.
Chad and Jess are also crazy similar to us, so showing them a good time couldn’t be easier, just live life as per normal. Technically, we've only known this crazy couple for about two months. They moved to VAN just before we left for our trip, but we knew almost immediately it was something special. Almost every afternoon in the 2 month period following we sat on their back porch talking about life, love and dreams.
As if we didn’t love them enough before they now have a puppy thats uber adorable. Winston is a golden doodle that basically looks like a muppet. Add to that the fact he loves to sit in your lap while you play with his legs like a puppet, and he fits the bill in spades. Karma absolutely loves him, and while she rallyied to act like a puppy, she’s still sleeping off the tired from the weekends...
We did try to ensure they had a good time, and may have even gone a bit over the top trying to convince then that they should consider becoming portland residents...but thats only because we're greedy.
We made sure to cover the highlights: the portland farmers market, voodoo doughnuts, a few of portland’s newest microbreweries for some beer tasting, and an amazing mexican dinner feast at nuestra cocina. Mostly however, we spent our days sitting on the front stoop catching up over cocktails and games of cornhole.
Watching them drive away was way easier knowing we were heading north the following weekend.
Our week got out of hand so we missed our intended friday departure, but headed out early saturday. Jen was sweet enough to drive so i could mock up design ideas for the PBR art show (i got the call that i was selected for the show only the day before and being gone for 4 days out of the remaining 7 made things a bit rushed).
It was amazing to be back in VAN and walking around our old hood. Seems so long ago and so recent all at the same time. We certainly don't miss living in the tiny damp underground apartment where we crashed while saving money for the trip, but the neighborhood of Kitsilano and the whole city of Vancouver has maybe the most beautiful backdrop on the planet. It's hard not to be simply blown away visually no matter where you might be walking. If only we could afford to live in this town (and get all of other friends to move here, of course)...
Josh and Allison (and Jess) rallied from a half marathon the day we arrived to play volleyball and bbq with us and Bailey pretty much cancelled her entire weekend to entertain the Dangerz... Thanks guys, we feel the love!
Eddie and Meghan rallied to reunite our old volleyball team, and somehow we took 3rd place in A pool. A great showing for a team that had never tried playing outside of B pool. I wouldn't say our skills were on par with the teams we were playing, but we showed a lot of heart and were definitely scrappy!
The trip was way too quick, but we had an amazing time and it reminded us that its really not a long trip up the freeway (even quicker when we arent driving the bus!). Looking forward to the next trip...hopefully with teardrop in tow =)
