.nyc solo trip .10.17.16.

For the first time this trip I woke up before 11am!! Mostly because I only had the morning left in New York!! I drug my suitcases down 10 blocks to the luggage storage place I used previously, and then hopped on the train to go walking around Central Park. It was my last chance to enjoy a bit of sunshine before heading back to the snow storm that awaited me back home.

 When I sat down on the train my stomach immediately began to rumble. Instead of grabbing my usual pumpkin muffin from Starbucks, I decided to stop in at "The Brooklyn Diner". I sat at the bar and watched Good Morning America while sipping my orange juice. I had cinnamon raisin pecan French toast and it was absolutely amazing!! Good thing too because it was extremely expensive, 19.50 USD for 3 pieces of toast! Yeesh!

  

The Diner had a interesting complimentary mouthwash dispenser. Some how I couldn't bring myself to use it.

Dad was disappointed in me for not going to the restaurant from Seinfeld for breakfast. Luckily it was on the north side of the Central Park so I decided I would go snap a few pictures of it to send to dad before heading over to the park. 

Before walking into the park I stopped to get a pumpkin spice for my stroll. While I was waiting for my drink I asked the barista where he got his "I  PSL" button, then he took it off and gave it to me!!! How sweet!!

I walked around Central Park for hours exploring all the beautiful nature. It's amazing how much wild life actually lives in the park, including turtles and raccoons!  It's a interesting phenomenon to cross a street and be in a the concrete jungle after just being in a nature wonderland. 

One thing you might not know about me is that my all time favorite TV Show is Friends, which was based in New York! Fun fact: None of the episodes were filmed in New York, they were all filmed in L.A. but the building that central perk is in is an actual building in Manhattan. Being a huge fan of the show I couldn't come to New York and not go see it!! 

Just down the street was the building that Phoebe lived in, so I strolled over there to see it as well.

Here are some other beautiful apartments that I saw along the way.

As I walked back to my train station I realized that I hadn't bought any souvenirs the entire time I was there!! So I decided to go to Times Square one last time to get some T-shirts. When I picked up my suitcases I was already cutting it short on time, so I quickly ran as fast as I could with my "Suitcase Train" to the 42nd street port authority train station. I ran around the train station desperately  looking for the "New Jersey Express Train" when suddenly I realized that I was in the wrong station. I actually needed to be at Madison Square Garden station! Luckily I was able to quickly hop on a train to take me to the proper station, as I ran off the train I scanned the screens for the next train to Newark Airport; there was one leaving in 5 minutes! I bolted to the kiosk and made it to the train with 2 minutes to spare! 

When I finally made it back to Canada it was around 2 am. It was freezing cold! I hailed a taxi to take me to my snow covered car, and he sped off without letting me pay.. It was extremely out of character for taxi drivers, but oh well. I shoveled my car out of the deep snow and started my 3 hour drive home.

Turns out they opened a new section of the highway, so of course I missed my exit ramp. Instead of being patient and driving to the next exit a few km's down the road, I instead decided that I would just make a quick cut through the ditch onto the other side of the divided highway. My car immediately sank into the dirt as I drove off the highway, but it was too late to turn back, I was determined to make it to the other side. 

Obviously I was unsuccessful. A few civilians stopped to check if I was okay and to try to help me get out, but after assessing the damages they decided it best that I just call a tow-truck. Just as I sat back down in my car to dial a tow-truck 2 cop cars pulled up...

Four husky men hopped out and immediately came to talk to me. Instead of scolding me for going off the road they immediately asked what they could do to help. I told them I was about to call a tow-truck but they insisted that that try to push the car out before calling in an expensive tow company. With two officers pushing on the back, one stationed at the passenger window, and the remaining officer directing me, I managed to get the car unstuck and back on to the other side of the highway. Unfortunately for the officer pushing on the passenger side, the front tires sent mud flying as I floored the engine in an effort to make it to the other side. He was completely soaked in mud. 

I thanked the officers for their tremendous help then began my long drive home. When I finally got to my parents house I slipped off the driveway and got stuck AGAIN!

 It was 6:30 am at this point so I just abandoned the car in place and went inside to cuddle with Tia and Mia before drifting off to sleep.

.beatrice goes to Montana .09.22.16.

The next morning we went to Flathead lake, where we were originally were supposed to be camping the night before. The sun was shinning, but unfortunately the wind was blowing!  We cooked some delicious breakfast, and then strolled around Wayfarers State Park. We took loads of pictures and enjoyed the sunshine, oh and the wind.

When we finally got bored of walking around, we decided to go back up to whitefish mountain resort to go on the adventure park. I turned out of Wayfarers State Park and we drove along Flathead lake enjoying the beautiful views. About 15 minutes later I realized we were driving in the wrong direction!! We turned around and got to see the beautiful views all over again! My bad... 

The adventure park was loads of fun! I did every single course, including the kids ones. You gotta start somewhere right? 

K did the first few with me and then got distracted by another handsome mountain man. To be fair the man had on a bright orange toque, so he was pretty hard to miss. I went on a few more of the courses while K gabbed with her new man.

Finally I got her to come on the intermediate course when suddenly she became scared of heights. I'm gonna chalk that one up to a coincidence, considering the mountain man was watching from below.(just kidding, she was originally scared of heights)

After the horror of the intermediate course K and I did an easy one to increase her confidence in heights once more. Mission failed, we stood on the platform for the final zipline for about 15 minutes waiting for her fears to tame themselves. To be fair the cute mountain men below heckling her wasn't helping. 

 

There was only one course left, the black diamond. K was out, she didn't want to do the black diamond. I don't blame her really, it was extremely tough and painful to complete. K videoed me and laughed at my expense as I slowly made my way through the obstacles, each one harder then the last! 

One particular obstacle was especially difficult. It was a ladder, made out of logs with tiny spaces between them. Sort of like those chains of hotdogs you get at the local sobey's. About the only way I could figure out how to get down was to straddle the log and slowly slide down to the next opening between logs. It was EXTREMELY PAINFUL and I was probably doing it completely wrong, but I made it down and that's what matters!

The second last obstacle was by far the worst. You had to hold on to the rope for dear life and jump your feet over to the platform circle at the bottom of each rope. I was exhausted. I clung to the rope and jumped my feet over the best I could. What seemed like an hour later I finally made it to the end!

 The last obstacle was a "trust fall" similar to the one I went on in chase BC. With the two adventure park guides and K heckling me I opted to go for the actual trust fall instead of just stepping off the platform and gracefully drifting down to the ground. Instead I fell backwards and flopped around like a rag doll. Peer pressure, it's a real thing; don't give in!! 

We were off, on route to find the perfect mountain setting campground. We drove through Glacier National park until the sun set, we picked the first campground we saw and pulled in. 

It turned out to be a little diamond in the rough! Nice clean bathrooms, spaced out campsites and a fire pit. Finally I'd be able to make my campfire meals I'd planned!! 

K made some Mac and Cheese in the van while I messed around trying to get the fire started. I got slightly sidetracked by another campfire activity I had planned, glow stick bubbles. 

Once I realized the bubbles weren't going to work, I moved along to trying to get the campfire food ready!I wrapped the tinfoil around my creation and tossed them in the fire! Once again I was distracted by glowsticks. I cut them open and flung them around,this created a nice "starlight" glow around the campfire. By time K had finished cooking the Mac and Cheese I had used up most of the glowsticks and broke out the sparklers---or sprinklers as I kept calling them. (They sprinkle you with fire, DUH)

After I got our "Campfire Feast" loaded in the fire, we sat and enjoyed the roaring fire; eating our delicious M&C and admiring the stars in the sky (and the fake  glowstick stars on the ground, and all over me). I even started to serenade K with one of our old girls-camp songs "Like the stars" by Jenny Phillips. 

Once the campfire food had finally cooled off we were ready to feast on my "pinsperation dinner/dessert" I slowly unwrapped the pigs in a blanket and this is what I got.....

Thank goodness we had decided to have back-up food!!!

Turns out I suck at almost everything there is to do with campfires. I can barely get a good campfire started without going through mass amounts of matches and fire-starter. I suck at cooking campfire food, and my campfire activity of "glow in the dark bubbles" was also a huge disappointment! Better luck next time I suppose! 

.martha trip part 6 .08.22.16.

This morning we woke up to quite the mess. The storm from the previous night had ripped a ton of branches off the trees!! I'm so glad we were safe and warm inside the van. 😅 

The weather was quite glum and chilly. The clouds scattered the sky and the wild had a nice cool bite to it! So we layered up and headed to Pegasus Stables

One of my goals for the summer was to go on a horse back ride, either through the mountains or through the Forrest! Needless to say I was super excited when a co-worker mentioned these stables to me! The price was fair and the ride was so much fun! We had a great guide, she was super friendly and even let us "Trot" down some paths a few times!! It was so fun, and the views of Kelowna we're really pretty! We stopped to take a few pictures before heading back to the stables. 

The weather was still pretty crappy and cold so the beach was out of the question for the day. We had planned on visiting a friend of mine who recently moved to Vernon, and what better day to do this then a rainy crappy day. 

Visiting with friends is one of my favorite pastimes. Don't get me wrong, I really like doing adventurous stuff and exploring new places; but sometimes it's just nice to sit down with friends and visit! Plus it doesn't hurt when your friends happen to have adorable children!



By supper time the weather had cleared up significantly! So we headed to our new campground to enjoy the sunset relaxing by swan lake.

The last trip we went on we didn't have any fires! Not one!! So tonight we decided it was the best way to spend the evening. We scampered around town rounding up supplies for smores and then spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to get the fire lit! 

The gentleman camping next to us came out to visit. He had seen Tia and Mia playing around in the grass and came out to ask me the same round of typical questions strangers ask about the girls. Turned out he was from the same city I live in. He chatted with me for a bit till he noticed the difficult time I was having with getting the fire lit! He suggested using rubbing alcohol to light the fire. I hadn't even considered using rubbing alcohol, but from my movie watching experiences I determined that this could turn south very quickly. I swiped up Tia and Mia and put them in the van for safe keeping, when I turned back the fire was lit!! We thanked the kind (slightly creepy) gentleman and sat down to enjoy our roaring fire. 

It was at this point that I realized that our "kind" neighbor could very well be a murderer for all I knew. After all, it was strange that he mentioned he was from the same city before I had told him where I was from.. even more strange that he had BC plates.. 

Then my mind began to wander. He had immediately warmed up to the dogs. A cleaver tactic if you didn't want them to bark at you while you hid in the camper van waiting to strike. 

Being the calm collected older sister I am, I slowly slumped away to the van to retrieve the dogs. It was getting dark so I was moving a little faster then intended. I locked the doors and took my guard dogs back to the fire. Just then our friendly neighbor/murderer emerged from his RV. My heart began to pound in my chest, this was the end. He shot us a wave and jumped on his scooter riding away into the night. 

After barely escaping with our lives we tidied up the campfire snacks and crawled up into bed. With guard dogs ready to defend; M and I drifted off to sleep. 

Moral of the story: I watch too many horror movies.

.excation part 3 .07.22.16.

The next morning we woke up and went to the Kalmalka Lake lookout, we chatted about how badly we both wanted to live there. The lake is abosolutely gorgeous and the summer heat 😍. We spent most of the day talking about the benefits of moving to beautiful Vernon, and planning how we could make that dream a reality!

Something you should know about me is that I LOVE heritage towns, so naturally I wanted to visit the Heritage ranch in Vernon! M and I got to go on a horseback tour of the O'Keefe Ranch! We had both been talking about how we wanted to get back in to horse back riding,and this was the perfect opportunity!

It was a cute morning! We strolled around the grounds admiring the buildings and the history. They had tons of livestock around the ranch, our personal favorite was a 3 month old baby goat! He was jumping and flipping all over the place, putting on a show no doubt! 

Later that afternoon we met up with some friends who just recently moved to Vernon! We went down to the beach and played in the waves (it wasn't the best weather for the beach, but the company was fantastic). It was nice seeing a friendly face in Vernon, and I've always admired this couple for their determination to do what they want to do; not just dream about what they want to do! We chatted about life, and how much they loved Vernon so far. I'll admit I'm a little jealous of them! I want to live there too; maybe one day! 

They gave me some much needed advise about how things always get better, this hard time I was going through was just a stepping stone. This couple is a real inspiration in my life, they are very strong in the church and have a very loving family. I hope one day my life is a lot like theirs. 

After visiting for a few hours we headed back to our campsite to take a dip in the pool! Relaxing nights at the campsite are my personal favorite part of Adventures! There is just something so "warm and fuzzy" feeling about being with your friends and family in the woods!

This night proved to be less relaxing though, we decided to watch a scary movie called "The Forrest". It's a horror movie predominately about being in a tent, in the forest. Which is what M and I were sleeping in! I maintained my tough exterior but I will admit I was a little scared at a few parts! (It also didn't help that I had a friend texting me and warning me about traveling alone, and the dangers of being raped and killed)

Relaxing hey??