July has been a busy month for me, I’ve been lead producer on 5 events and ran a photography studio for another. Just last week I worked 16 hours on Thursday for an event, 12 for Playland Nights on Friday and then 8 more for Deighton Cup on Saturday and let me tell you I slept for two straight days. Because I’ve been so busy, I haven’t done a lot of extra excursions recently, but I can catch you up on some from earlier this summer.
Anna and I are 2 of 5 UC students here this summer so we planned a quick day trip to Seattle the second weekend of July. I rented a Car2go since they just recently allowed trips across the border for the summer. It’s about a 3-hour drive so we started the morning off early and headed towards the border. Once we crossed into Washington, we started our journey down the pacific northwest. Our first stop in Seattle was the classic Pike Place Market. One of my friends lives there now so she gave us some recommendations to hit. We checked out the market and got a couple souvenirs, then went to a Ginger Beer Café recommended by my friend, Sara, for lunch. They made unique Moscow Mules and we picked up various food items from around the market to pair. Before we left to meet up with Sara for dinner, we explored this little map store on the outskirts of the market. Lydia dragged us in there but I’m glad she did, it was an awesome store with really unique and graphically appealing maps and prints. We all ended up buying something. We then met Sara for dinner at a Mexican restaurant by her house. We hung out with her and some of her work friends before they headed out to a concert for the night. She was a graphic design major at UC and is now working for Gensler Seattle. It was great catching up with her for a while before we headed back home. It was a fun day trip and great to explore a new city even if just for a day. Another excursion we got to go on was with AIC and Toyoshi to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. In North Vancouver, this was about an hour bus ride with a couple of switches on the journey. We went with our entire AIC group so the 5 students from UC and then one student from Australia, Loise. She’s living with Anna and I for the 6 weeks of her program over their winter break. The Capilano Bridge is a network of rope bridges and overlooks but to access them you must cross over this massive suspended bridge. I’m not afraid of heights but this thing scared me, there’s so many people on it at once and as you journey to the center you can feel it shaking. If you are scared of heights, I would not recommend, but the other overlooks were amazing if you can get through it. This month I produced the Ruben’s Open which was a charity golf outing in Surrey, BC. Surrey is a town south of Vancouver, about an hour drive which I did pretty frequently in the weeks leading up. The drive, while long, is beautiful, green and lush. The views from Morgan Creek golf course did not disappoint and the golf outing ended up being my favorite event so far this summer. Looking forward to more travel and events, my brother and cousins are coming in this week and I can’t wait to show them around! Update: feeling more confident and comfortable than ever in my new home, missing Cincinnati a little but not ready to go home yet! Cheers, CB
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Now that it’s been almost two months, I have started to adjust to life here in Vancouver. I’m obsessed with this town, the people, the scenery. You can sit at the beach and look at a beautiful skyline, next to snowcapped mountains, all while enjoying the boats cruising by. I am on a car-sharing program called Car2go for work, so I’ve started to get very comfortable with the city and getting around has become very easy for me. I’ve fallen in love with Yaletown, an area in Downtown Vancouver which is about a 15-minute drive from my house across the bridge. There’s a lot of great shops, a really cool thrift store, and some delicious coffee. I love going to sit at George Wainborn Park and stopping at Matchstick coffee for the best Americano. Something cool about Vancouver is their attention to sustainability and the environment. Most coffee shops, including Matchstick, charge an extra $0.50 for to go cups. Every restaurant and business will have some type of recycling and compost in addition to their trash cans. It’s oddly very difficult to find trash cans in this city.
Since Anna and I don’t have cars, and renting them all the time can become expensive, we usually walk to places nearby to grocery shop and eat out. We recently discovered this cute market called Athena. It’s only about a 15 minute walk from our house and cheaper than the local Safeway (Kroger equivalent), so we go there for some specialty goodies and their Mediterranean deli options which has been satisfying my Greek food cravings ever since my trip at the beginning of the summer. On our way back we stop at a Chinese produce market that has cheap groceries and their produce lasts long enough for it to be worth it. Since July has started, I usually eat out and about at work or only when I have time to come home so we make our shopping trips rare and purposeful. I’ve been trying to experiment a lot here; the food scene is incredible and very diverse so I’m not big on repeating restaurants. My office loves a place called Railtown Café, it’s a 15-minute walk from the office and they have the best salads, so we order that for a lot of working lunches. The McDonald’s here though… SO GOOD. The have BLT versions of anything, I love getting the breakfast bagel BLT. They also have fish and chips and great smoothies. There’s poutine at all restaurants in some capacity, including all fast-food restaurants. Poutine is French fries with a brown gravy and cheese curds, but every restaurant does it different. There’s an A&W everywhere you turn and funnily enough, their poutine is one of my favorites. There’s a lot of beaches in Vancouver so Anna and I are trying to get to them as often as possible. We frequent Kits beach which is a quick walk or bus 5 down the road. We also visited Wreck Beach which is a clothing optional beach near UBC. Fair warning with this one, there’s a massive tower of stairs leading down to it through what looks like a thick forest. The hike back up takes a lot of mental preparation but it’s worth it to see the views. Because of the forest surrounding it on all ends it’s very quiet and feels remote, there’s usually a couple of clothing “shops” set up and some food vendors with occasional live music. On Canada Day (7/1), we celebrated by going to Jericho Beach, which is a 15-minute bus to the west of Kits beach. Much more secluded, it was a relaxing way to spend celebrating our new home. Still exploring and finding inexpensive things to do… check-in soon! Cheers, CB |