.nyc solo trip .10.13.16.

The morning of my 23rd birthday I landed in New York; well technically I actually landed in Newark, sooo same-same, but different! I roamed around the airport for a while trying to find the "express bus" that I had read about online. After roaming around for about half an hour dragging my suitcases behind me in a "train"; I decided to make a Dunkin Doughnuts pit stop and stock up on some pumpkin spiced goods for my journey to Manhattan. I noticed a girl about my age making the same circles around the airport as me, we teamed up together and found a train that would take us straight to Madison square garden! Score! Ironically it was right next to the gate that I had flown into. We visited while waiting for the train to come, she was also travelling to New York alone for the first time to meet up with some friends! We made plans to try to meet up later on but nothing panned out.

I'd tried out some new curlers before leaving to the airport, but sadly my hair didn't stay curly. I tossed my hair up into a very greasy looking 90's inspired half pony for the duration of the train ride. 

When I made it to Manhatten I headed straight for Schwartz Luggage Storage. My airbnb host wasn't able to let me into the apartment until later in the evening so storing my luggage was my best option. The storage place was about 5 blocks away from the train station, 7 if you count all the wrong turns I made. By time I had drug my suitcases all that way my feet were on FIRE! Another thing I overlooked when planning this trip was the temperature; I was planning for crisp fall air and what I got was humid, sweltering warm ocean air. I ditched my uggs with my suitcases for the day and headed out (in sock feet) to find the nearest shoe store.

4 stores, a pair of new shoes, and a selfie stick later I was on my way to the south side of the island. I bought a 7 day long unlimited subway "metro card" scanned myself through the gate and was on my way! On the adgenda; Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 memorial and the One World Observatory.

I hopped on the train and began to people watch, There is no phone service when you're on the train so it gets quite boring after a while. There was a family with 3 small sons, who looked like they could be triplets, and a older daughter; they were also heading to the ferry. I watched from a far while the boys played airplanes and climbed all over their mom chattering about how excited they were to go on a ferry! The older sister menacingly would tassel her brother(s) hair, or jump in on the airplane game playing the "terrorist plane" that made her brothers crash -- how american of them.

I had made my first trip on the subway successfully!! I walked out of the station into the street, naively thinking that the ferry would be right outside. Alas it wasn't. I started walking towards the ocean when a man selling tickets for the Water Taxi approached me, being the gullible young woman I am I fell straight into their marketing. I am not very good at telling people no, it makes me very uncomfortable especially when face to face with them. I got my ticket to the taxi and walked up the harbor to get in line for the next boat, as I walked up I recognized the family I had been people watching on the train. Surprisingly the mom from the train recognized me and immediately started chatting with me when I walked up!!

The water taxi ended up being a much better choice, it circled more of the classic New York sites; plus you could hop on and off as you please! I chose to stay on the boat and ride around the loop twice, this way I got enough time to truly take in the beautiful sights along the way. Lady Liberty seemed so much smaller then I had expected, next to the city skyline she looked tiny!! It wasn't until I was right in front of the statue that the magnitude of it really showed. I would have loved to go on the tour where you can walk up inside the statue but alas it was booked for months in advance. Next time!!

 **** I look away from the camera in pictures because I don't often like my face in pictures. Instead of bothering people to take a million pictures till I'm happy with how I look, I face away from the camera. It's more mysterious that way anyways****

While on the Water Taxi I realized that my selfie stick wasn't working. I fumbled with it trying to take some pictures but it wouldn't work. I leaned over and asked the ladies sitting next to me if they wouldn't mind trying the selfie stick on their phone to see if it was just a problem with my own phone. Unfortunately my selfie stick was junk. As I was putting my selfie stick in the garbage one of the ladies offered me her old selfie stick, how kind!! The boat was pretty crowded so I opted to have my picture taken rather then trying to take a good picture with my selfie stick.

**My Selfie-stick Ladies**

Next I was off to the 9/11 memorial. I slowly strolled along the streets, taking in the sight of the beautiful buildings with the warm, sunset lighting. The 9/11 memorial was absolutely stunning.

Since the sun was beginning to set I decided to go up to the
"One World Observatory"

The elevator up to the observatory had TV screens for the walls, while you traveled up they showed a time-lapse of the Manhattan skyline. It was incredible to see the transformation of the city over the years. I strolled around the deck watching the sun slowly set and the street lights begin to glow. There was a musician playing that night, I sat down to listen to him play while watching the city start to come alive as the darkness set in.

I absolutely loved the city lights. I love the way they light up the dark sky, twinkling with the stars above. I facetimed my family to show them the incredible view. When it was time to go I rode the elevator up and down one more time before leaving, that way I could watch the building of Manhattan once more. After picking up my luggage I walked a few blocks over to the train station, I drug my suitcases down the steps of the subway entrance only to realize I was on the wrong side of the platform. Back up the stairs I went, up to the street to look around for the "uptown" entrance to the train. For being my first time using the NYC subway system I'd say only making 1 mistake the entire day is pretty darn good!

My airbnb for the first 3 nights was a quaint little apartment on West 55th and 8 ave. It was perfect!! My host gave me the rundown of the rules and handed me the keys. I was pretty much starving at this point so I decided to head back towards times square to go to Junior's. My mom had heard about their famous cheesecake and insisted that I go there for my "Solo Birthday Dinner". When I got there the place was absolutely packed!! Luckily I got a spot at the bar right away and quickly ordered--- as you can tell I dove in on the cheesecake before remembering to take a picture for my mom! ...Whoops!

While I was sitting enjoying my dinner a couple came and sat beside me at the bar. The gentlemen turned to me and asked if the cheesecake was any good, my cheeks were completely full of cheesecake so I gave them a big thumbs up and smiled. I probably had cheesecake all over my teeth because the couple immediately started giggling. We ended up visiting for almost 2 hours, they were so sweet and friendly; they even offered to pay for my meal since it was my birthday! Before saying goodbye we snapped a quick selfie, I do so love meeting friendly strangers.

It was about 1 am at this point, but I wanted to see times square at night so I decided to take the long way home and roam around the bright lights. Times square is incredible at night, the screens are so bright that it looks like daylight, it's so amazing.

I went to the iconic TKTS booth to see where I would need to get in line for Broadway tickets the next day when I was approached by many strange people. The first lady who approached me had a baby in a stroller, she was clearly on drugs and asking for money while her husband was walking around asking other people for money. In an effort to not seem rude and upset her I changed the subject to her daughter, who had just began to wake up. The woman quickly swiped up her little girl and walked away angrily calling me a selfish *beep* and spitting at me. At this point I was starting to get nervous, so I began walking away. I looking at my phone to figure out how to get home, when I was approached by another pedestrian. He had seen the woman lash out at me and came to see if I was alright. He was carrying a bible so I assumed he was probably a decent person who wasn't going to mug me. He asked if he could walk me to my train station and tell me a little about god, I obliged hoping that the station was close and I could get home to the safety of my airbnb. He started to tell me that he was a man called of god to preach to the TKTS stairs, they were his "congregation", I politely nodded and smiled as he went on. Then I noticed that he was leading me away from the main square, away from the lights... I immediately stopped and told him I needed to go when he grabbed my arms. He started to tell me that he believed that god had sent me to him, to be his wife. I laughed, and tried to wiggle my arms out of his grasp. He squeezed just a little tighter and pulled me closer to him, I was starting to panic now and desperately wanted to be anywhere else. I lightly tried to push him away when suddenly he started leaning in!! I turned my head right at the last second, his mouth hit my cheek completely open, tongue wiggling. I screamed as loud as I could and with all my might pushed him away. I started running back to the lights when I looked back someone was running after me, yelling at me to wait. It was another pedestrian who had followed me (and the creepy pastor), he supposedly wanted to see if I was okay, to see if the man had hurt me. I quickly told him I was fine and I slipped down the nearest subway entrance. I waited until I was sure both of those creeps were gone then I quickly walked up the stairs put my hood up and walked as fast as I could back to my airbnb.

Needless to say I needed a shower. I scrubbed my face until it was almost raw, then wrapped my hair in my new Curlformers before collapsing into bed.

It wasn't a very comfortable sleep...

**** Step count 27,701 ****

New York

2016 has been a particularly reckless... or, umm spontaneous(?) year for me. This new found spontaneousness (it is a word, I googled it) has been good and bad; it has brought me many many great memories, but it has also brought me heartache, stress and left me with 2 camper vans. 

I had toyed with the idea of going to New York off and on throughout the year, the main reason I kept shying away from going was that I didn't have anyone to go with. I was feeling stuck, like my life was on hold because my friends and family didn't have the time or money to travel with me. There is so many places I want to see in the world but no one to see them with. Now, I'd like to tell you that I thought long and hard about the pro's and con's of traveling alone, but I didn't. I made up my mind that I wanted to see Central Park in the fall (my favorite season) and I booked my flights. In hind sight I should have done a little bit of research about when the leaves change colors in New York, I was about a month too early. I would leave the day before my 23rd birthday and return home 5 days later, I was so excited I immediately called my mom to tell her my wonderful news. She was less excited then I expected, in fact she wasn't very excited at all, she was worried. 

I had never noticed before but the first question people ask when you tell them you're going on a trip is "who are you going with?". The look of bewilderment on people's faces when I would tell them I was going alone was entertaining to say the least. Everyone I spoke to about my trip seemed to have the same concerns my mother did. Nevertheless I was not changing my mind, I was determined to travel on my own and explore New York completely solo. Keeping with the spontaneous travel style I have developed this year, I planned almost nothing ahead of time. In fact I actually only had one activity planned for the entire trip. I researched a general list of things to do your first time in New York and used it as a base guideline for what I wanted to do each day. Luckily a week before I left I realized that I messed up my airbnb booking and needed to find a place to stay my last night in New York! I quickly booked another airbnb just up the street. Whew! 

The month flew by quickly and before I knew it I was standing in line on my way to New York! I was taking the red eye so the security line was over in a flash, I sat down at BP's for a quick bite to eat before I caught the plane. I'm not used to eating in restaurants alone, so I called K to chat while I waited for my food.

 Apparently the speakers in this airport didn't announce in the restaurant because when I walked up to my gate the gentlemen at the desk called me by name. Apparently I had confused my boarding and take-off times, and the plane was just about to leave the gate! Luckily the gentlemen called somebody and they allowed me to board the plane, I ran as fast as I could down the ramp and on to the plane. My seat just so happened to be at the very back of the plane in between two large gentlemen. The gentlemen's arms filled up both of my arm rests, I felt very "tucked in" sitting between them. I wrapped my self up in a blanket put on my neck pillow and "eye bra" and quickly drifted off to sleep. I'm off to a great start!

.action video

Sorry for the delay on this action video. Turns out video editing is pretty time consuming! Enjoy this video of the trip M and I took this summer!

Click here to read about the day's featured in this very long action video!

.martha trip part 4 .08.20.16.

.martha trip part 5 .08.21.16.

.martha trip part 6 .08.22.16.

.shenanigans part 1

Earlier this year I bought a quad! I used to go quadding with friends a lot when I was in high school but my family never had one growing up. I found the exact quad I wanted for a great deal, and I knew the owner so I knew how it had been treated!

The first few months of owning the quad I went on multiple rides with family members. We'd ride (quite quickly) through the trails and explore many twists and turns that we hadn't been down before. One of my favorite things to do is pump the throttle a little bit making my passenger fall backwards shooting their legs up in the air, it's especially fun to do to my mom and dad. I usually get a smack across the helmet from Dad and a loud squeal of laughter from mom. I do it mostly for my own entertainment but also to teach people to hold on since there isn't a seat on the back.

 Dad didn't have a quad helmet yet so I made him wear his ski helmet. Safety first dad. He protested saying "I don't need one, I never wore a helmet growing up and look how I turned out!!" "Look how you turned out, I rest my case put on the helmet and lets go!!" 

As you can tell from the look on his face he wasn't all that impressed with me! 

 We were off! I drove first, flying down the trails going 40-50km/h.  I pumped the throttle making him fly backwards legs in the air, then I would immediately hit the breaks making him lunge forwards; all the while I was laughing at his expense. The whole time he was yelling in my ear "slow down!!", "I have a family, please don't kill me!!", "you're such a jerk to me" followed by a smack across the helmet! I finally stopped and hopped off for him to drive, he declined saying "no, no, I don't want to break it. You drive!". With a little coaxing he took the reigns, I was so excited to see what he'd do and where he'd take me; after all dad grew up in these fields. I hopped on behind him, wrapping my arms around him with a "bear hug" grip; when he took off..... very very slowly. 10km/h to be exact. I heckled him tying to get him to go faster but he wouldn't, so we puttered along down the trail while he told me stories about his childhood. --- To this day dad tells people not to go quadding with me because I'm too "dangerous"

The first time I got stuck I was with M. We were driving around by our favorite hill "Look out point" and decided to go down some trails we had never been down before. We got slightly lost and picked a direction which looked like it lead to a road. It was spring time so the ground was very wet and sloppy; the seemingly normal field we had driven on to turned out to be a swamp.. a swamp which had very tall dry grass, how deceiving! I hit the throttle hard trying to make it across to the other side. We got about halfway when we suddenly sank. The wheels spun and spun with no hope of moving us anywhere. I was about ready to abandon the quad in place and treat it as a lesson learned when I remembered I had a winch! The only problem was there was only small little poplar trees and willows around us, and they were pretty far away from where the quad was stuck. Luckily I was wearing rubber boots, holding onto the winch like a life line I trudged across the swamp to the nearest tree. The tree was about the thickness of a water bottle, it was our only option and it wasn't looking so good. I was at the very end of the winch line and only had enough slack to wrap it around the tree once, not exactly a good grip. I hollered back to M to start reelin' her in, when suddenly the tree snapped in half!! Getting desperate I called Mom and Dad to warn them that they may need to bring the Jeep out to come rescue us. I wrapped the winch line around the trunk of the poor tree which we had just mangled and went back to the quad to make one last attempt at pulling us out. I floored the throttle and reeled in the winch at the same time, the mud went flying raining down on M and I; when suddenly I started moving!! I wiggled back and forth trying to get the quad to grip onto anything it possibly could before our little stump was pulled out of the ground. Finally the quad lunged forward out of the mud pit just in time for the poor little tree to snap again; sending what little amount of tree was left flying through the air. WE DID IT! We made it safely home, covered in mud and drenched in sweat with a good story to tell.

.goodbye Martha

I loved the amazing trip I went on with Martha and M. When I was looking at types of camper vans, I had leaned toward the "Shabby Chic" vans. The "instagram" vans, with beds in the back and cute little lights hanging around the door. The crisp white cupboards and modern patterned seat cushions add such a "home-y, cozy" atmosphere to the van life.

Martha was far from the picture I had in my mind, but there was potential to renovate the interior to be what I had dreamed of. That potential unfortunately would be a lot of work, it would mean painting the cupboards, removing the flooring and installing an A/C unit. The cost of renovating quickly was beginning to pile up. I could envision what I wanted the interior to look like, but it would take a lot of time and hard work. With my work schedule lately I don't have a lot of time at home, and I certainly don't want to spend that time at home doing hard work!

So I began looking for a camper van that closer matched my vision, and I found one!! --more on that later---- I put a deposit down on the new van and immediately listed Martha for sale.

\

A few things I learned about camper van's that I had wished I knew before hand.

-Storage space is important. As you can see there is not a lot for cupboard space below the sinks. There is above the sink but it was very limited due to the curved roof of the van.

-Air conditioning is extremely important.

-Internal space makes it much easier for two people to move around the van. It's hard to see in the picture above, but there isn't much space between the table and the sink. This makes it especially difficult if one person is by the bathroom and the other is by the sink and they want to switch places.

And most importantly, having a fridge that works.

So long Martha and thank you for the great memories!! (Sorry I broke your microwave plate and lost your fridge access cover)

Martha has finally been sold to a lovely couple from Calgary; my fleet has been reduced to one camper van!

Enjoy these outtakes from our "goodbye Martha" photo shoot!

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.23.16.

Our last morning in Montana has come. After a nice warm shower we began to make our way home. 

Before we crossed the border we decided to stop and go for a little stroll to a waterfall. Just as we pulled up it started to rain!! We were used to the rain at this point so we put on our jackets and walked over to the waterfall.

There was more green and purple rocks so I hopped over the bridge to get some for my dads "Rock Garden"

After we were thoroughly soaked to the core,  we went back to the van to carry on our road trip; and change into dry clothes. The drive was absolutely gorgeous!! The fall colors with the backdrop of the mountains, it was truly stunning. K adores the mountains and I adore fall, it was the perfect way for us to end off our trip!

The whole drive I had been scoping out the perfect backdrop for a "debut" Picture for Bea!! Just as we were approaching the border I saw the perfect spot! We pulled over and K took a ton of pictures for me! 

And that concludes Beatrice's first trip! I must say that I really enjoy the new van. All the interior storage makes a huge difference, and the exterior storage drawer is fantastic for campfire/outdoor accessories.

The white interior of the van makes it feel much more spacious inside! I would like to begin remodeling a few things on the interior and will be posting all about it once I get around to doing it!! Sadly the camping season in Canada has come to a close and Beatrice has been winterized and parked for the bitter cold winter months. Only 8 short months from now the snow will hopefully be gone and I will be free to roam!