A VISIT TO MAGNOLIA + MY FAVORITE PICKS

At the end of 2019 I made a bucket list… when I made the list I put 3 things on it, haha! 2019 was a tough year and it was difficult for me to think past some of the pain we experienced… and to be completely honest I didn’t want to hope for too many things either. One of the things on that list was going to Magnolia Market. When we were in the states for Christmas we had to make a quick trip to Texas for a wedding, you can read more about that here. We initially considered flying from Missouri, but between the cost of tickets and the actual travel time, we decided to drive. Once we figured out we were driving Tyler reminded me that we would drive right through Waco and I was over the moon excited.

We knew we wouldn’t have a long time there, just a few hours, but it was worth it for me. We decided to stop by on our way back to give us more time if we wanted. Tyler tried to get me to stop on the way there, but I said no. I didn’t want to drive by and halfway see it. I wanted to really experience it. To give our selves enough time at Magnolia we left Kerrville, TX at 6:00am. We made a small detour to drop someone off at the airport and we were to Magnolia by about 10:00am.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Usually, when I write these types of posts, I usually include a lot of different tips, like where to park, etc. But you can find everything you need to know on their website. We parked on their 8th street lot, which is currently closed due to construction, but check out their site for updates. We also arrived at a pretty good time too. Their operating hours start at 9:00am and we arrived at 10:00am. There were still plenty of spots in their free lot and it wasn’t too crowded.

A few things that stuck out to us the most… They really did create a place of community. I’ve seen plenty of pictures online, but I didn’t really get it until we visited in person. There were kids and families hanging out on the lawn playing games. There were plenty of food trucks (we bought food from three different ones.) There are plenty of places to sit and eat and there is lots of shade too. Their operations are also on point. Even though there were plenty of people visiting the Silos we rarely waited in line.

PICKING UP A LITTLE HOPE

When we walked through the Market, I wasn’t really sure if I was going to buy anything. We’re in such a weird season right now, buying something didn’t really make a lot of sense, because we wouldn’t be taking it to Canada, it would go into storage. Something I’ve been working through and letting go of is the idea that we might not ever have a normal life with a house to call our own. That might sound dramatic, but Tyler and I have worked really hard to hold everything really loosely and hold to Jesus tightly. If I never have a place that’s ours that I get to call home, that’s okay, because we have Jesus and that’s all we need. Now I’m not saying I don’t want or desire those things, but I need to be okay if we don’t. So, back to walking through the Market, I was standing in an aisle looking at some throws and Tyler asked me, “what are you looking at?” My reply, “I was thinking about whether I should buy this throw for a house we don’t have.” His response, “YES.” He didn’t even flinch, he picked it up… he didn’t even ask the price. 😭 Most things that we buy like that these days feels like hope. So I ended up with a throw and mirror for a house we don’t have, but with the hope of one we may have.

For fun, I put together some of my favorite things from the Market below! Including the throw we picked up and the mirror too.

MY FAVORITE MAGNOLIA PICKS

MAGNOLIA TABLE WAS PACKED

Before we actually made it to the Silos, we stopped at Magnolia Table. This place was busy! This is the one place I would suggest going and having lots of time. We would have loved to eat here, but we just didn’t have time. They do have a Magnolia Table food truck at the Silos, so even if you don’t eat at the restaurant, you can try some of the food at the Silos. That’s what we did. We had heard good things about the biscuits, so that’s what we got with strawberry butter and they were worth it!

Lastly, the Bakery was amazing! This was one place with a line, but while you are waiting you fill out a card for your order, so you’re ready once you get to check out. They get you in super fast. We actually got a bunch of cupcakes and cookies to take home for New Years Eve and they were so good! We tried 4 or 5 different cup cakes, but the Strawberries & Cream and the Lemon Lavender were our favorites! xo. Samantha

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A WEEKEND GETAWAY IN TEXAS

I’m 100% writing this post because the Airbnb we stayed in Texas at was so cool. Over our Christmas holiday, we took a road trip to Texas for a friend’s wedding. Tyler went to school with this friend and I’ve known them just as long too. Tyler and he were roommates in California and they both worked together at BlueSky. The wedding ended up in Texas because that’s where our friend’s family was. They decided on a small intimate wedding and found an Airbnb to house their family and guests.

Tyler and I have always dreamed of renting a super big house to put all of our family in for a family vacation, this Airbnb gave us a taste of that. This Airbnb included 2 riverfront houses connected by a deck and breezeway. It housed 12 people and had lots of outdoor space. Check out everything here.

This road trip ended up being a really sweet weekend getaway for Tyler and I. We weren’t apart of the wedding party, so we weren’t in charge of a lot of things. We were just able to enjoy our time and relax. We were literally only there for about 24 hours too, but it was still super nice. Because we were only going for a few days, I almost didn’t pack enough clothes… I’m always under packing. Last minute I threw in my leggings (pictured above,) which was good, otherwise I would have ended up wearing shorts to the wedding.

Short and sweet, but just a look into a quick weekend away in Texas. xo. Samantha

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ON LIFE IN VANCOUVER

Hmmmmm, so we’ve been in Vancouver for a little over 2 months now... going on 3 months. We stayed in an Airbnb for the first month and we moved into our current place at the beginning of November. We found a place with a 5 month lease which is exactly what we needed. We live downtown, but near the sea wall, which we love. That is actually why we picked our current place. In just a few steps we can walk the sea wall and not to much further we can walk along English Bay. The great thing about downtown Vancouver is that everything is within walking distance, so we can easily walk to Stanley Park too.

Our time here as been relatively quiet, we haven’t done a lot of crazy exploring. Tyler works a lot and his injury has kept us from venturing too far out of downtown, we have found fun stuff to do though. On a regular bases we walk the sea wall and one weekend we walked all the way to Stanley park. So far Stanley park is one of our favorite places.

While hanging out in Stanley park we found the Totem poles which Tyler loved. I thought they were cool too, but as an artist Tyler loved them. Stanley park is super cool because you can experience so many different things. We walked by the water and I always find it super fascinating to see the city right up against the ocean. And then we walked through the park with paved walk ways and leafing trees. There is also an aquarium in Stanley park, but we haven’t checked it out yet.

We walk every where, which I really love and the photo below was fun. This is English Bay where Tyler found the accessible beach mat. He has a whole new appreciation for handicap access.

In regards to Tyler’s injury. He’s doing a lot better. He’s still in his boot, but he’s allowed to put weight on it and starting next week he can start weening off his boot. He also started physical therapy, which is really helping and hopefully he’ll be out of his boot by the time we leave for Christmas.

One weekend we went to Olympic village and saw Jojo Rabbit, which was so good. Taika Waititi is one of our favorite directors, he also directed Hunt for the Wilderpeople… you should just go watch all of Tiaka’s films, they’re good. We also walked back to our apartment from Olympic village which was really pretty. It was about a 2 mile walk, which seems pretty normal to us now. I walk about 3 to 4 miles a day.

We’ve also checked out Granville Island, which we really enjoy. There’s a market there with tons of fresh produce, fish and a bunch of different places to eat. We like to frequent Granville often to try different types of food. That is one thing that’s really fun about Vancouver, all the food. There are so many different places to eat and so many different things to try.

We also recently drove to Washington which was fun. I really wanted to go to Sierra Trading Post for my birthday and the closest one is in Bellingham, which is only an hour a way, wahoo! There are a lot of other things we would love to do… like lots of hiking, but with Tyler’s injury those things aren’t really an option and now it’s getting cold. Vancouver also has lots of winter options, like snowboarding, but we probably won’t be doing that either, haha. Our time here is actually passing faster than I expected, which doesn’t really bother me. It will be fun to figure out what’s next for us. It’s always a little tough feeling unsettled, but I always try to remind myself that Jesus is the constant. Okay, that’s it for today!

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SO WE LIVE IN CANADA NOW...

Three weeks ago we moved to Vancouver, Canada. It was a bit of a surprise opportunity in regards to the fact that it wasn’t necessarily on our radar. What brought the move on was that one of Tyler’s favorite directors is directing a movie with Sony. So long story short, we moved here for work. To expand on that, neither Tyler or I had it in our minds to move to Canada, it hasn’t necessarily been a dream or anything like that, but the specific project that we moved for was very much a dream project.

Prior to moving to Vancouver, we were in New York. We technically moved out of New York… like the third weekend in September. From New York we drove to Nashville, then from there, we drove to Joplin. We did all this prior to our move so we could see family. The logistics of our move went kind of like this.

• Sell furniture and nearly everything we own (which our landlords brought, thank you, Jesus.)

• Schedule/reserve Ubox (the same thing has pods, but through Uhaul.)

• Pack the remainder of our belongings. (clothes, books, DVDs, not a lot, haha)

• Make sure all paperwork is in order that is needed for immigration.

• Tax convo with our accountant.

I feel like our moving list was way longer than that, you know lots of little things, but those were the major things. After we spent some time with family we flew to Vancouver, but before that actually happened, we had to take Tyler to the E.R.

The night before we were supposed to fly to Vancouver, Tyler was playing a game outside with our niece and he tore his achilles tendon. That was super stressful especially since we had to fly the very next day, but we made it and we’re alive and well. 😉

Before we jump ahead and I start talking your ear off about everyday life things, let’s talk about immigration really quick. A part of our relocation process was that our immigration and work permit paperwork was handled by a third party company. Basically Sony hires this third party company to take care of immigration paperwork. That made the process very easy for us. They simply let us know what documents they needed from us to put together our paperwork. Even though as a U.S. citizen we can enter Canada without a visa, it was important for us to go through immigration upon our arrival to have all the proper paperwork we needed for Tyler to start work.

Because we flew into Vancouver, which served as our point of entry and it was at this time that we were processed through immigration. We arrived with all the necessary paperwork and simply had to wait in line. We were in the immigration office for about 3 hours. There wasn’t anything specifically stressful about this process, there was just a lot of people there, so it took time for everyone to be processed.

QUICK TIP: This is maybe a no-brainer for most people, but before you leave the immigration office with your documents, double-check the spelling of everything. Once we received our paperwork we just left. The following day when I was going over our work permits, getting them ready for the next day (they are needed for SINs,) I noticed our lasts names were spelled wrong. Because our names were spelled wrong, we had to return to the immigration office and have them correct our documents. This wasn’t a super big deal, because once we got there they just fixed it, but we did have to take a taxi back to the airport and then back to our Airbnb which was $60 round trip.

EVERYDAY THINGS

… This is the longest post I’ve written in a long time… you’re welcome. 😉 Okay, so let’s hit on some of the major things of everyday life here in Canada. First, let’s talk about Tyler’s injury. One of the first things we had to do when we arrived was to find a doctor for Tyler’s leg… which was kind of tricky. Also, if you’re thinking to yourself, “hey, Canada has universal health care,” you’re right… for citizens and permanent residents, not for us, haha.

Back to Tyler’s leg, even though we went to the E.R. our cousin suggested we see a sports medicine doctor to have them confirm that his injury was recovering properly (back story: the ER said he sprained his calf, he actually tore his achilles tendon, thank goodness for going to the sports doctor.) Once we saw the sports doc she had Tyler start wearing a boot and ordered an ultrasound to confirm the tear. Tyler will wear a boot for something like 12 weeks and he’s currently not able to put any weight on it, so we ordered him one of those knee scooters. The photo above is the boxed knee scooter that shipped to Tyler’s work that I carried down the streets of Vancouver back to our Airbnb... it was humors and I got a good workout, haha. Tyler will be able to put weight on his boot/foot in November, so he’ll be a bit more mobile at that point.

Living arrangements… we booked an Airbnb for the month of October to allow us to check out Vancouver before picking a place to live for the time we are here. We are so glad we did this. First, it was kind of tricky trying to manage finding a place from New York. And once we arrived and stayed in our Airbnb for a bit (which is located downtown,) we learned that downtown is pretty noisy, probs not compared to NYC, but for us, it’s a bit noisy, so we were interested in finding a place a bit quieter. Overall, we have really loved our Airbnb, it’s a 10-minute walk to Tyler’s work, super-nice, and has been great for us during this transition.

So, our first free weekend in Vancouver I scheduled a few apartment viewings, which were all close enough that we could walk to each one (for real, downtown Vancouver is really small, you can walk everywhere.) We looked at one near the Sea Wall and a few on the West End. By the end of the weekend we had a place picked out, so now we’re all set to move into our new place at the end of this month.

…. More everyday things below… jump ahead where I answer lots of y’ alls questions.

ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS

WHAT IS CANADA LIKE?

I can only talk about Vancouver specifically, but for the most part, it’s kind of like the USA. I will say it’s incredibly beautiful and the people are so nice. We love that the culture is more easy-going than the East coast, because New York was stressful, like for real.

WHAT ARE THE GROCERY STORES LIKE?

There are lots of Canada specific grocery stores… For the first week we shopped at a grocery store called IGA, but it’s pretty pricey. And they have a store called No-Frills, which I think is probably similar to Aldi or Trader Joes, which neither of those are here. There is, however, Walmart and Cosco. And I was over the moon when we found out there was a WalMart and that we could have groceries delivered. This was huge for us since we didn’t bring a car. I will add that meats and cheeses are more expensive here.

HAS THE AIRBNB BEEN A GOOD EXPERIENCE FOR RENTING?

Yes, it has been great! It was a really great option for us because it allowed us to have a place to stay for a solid month at a reasonable price, which meant we didn’t have to stress about finding a place right away. We were able to take our time.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER?

Everything is within walking distance. I feel like nothing is further than a mile or more apart. It’s also so really pretty and the culture is very relaxed. It’s also not crazy busy. We’ve grabbed lunch after church twice and both places were super quiet and not busy at all… which is so different than NYC, where everywhere is busy, haha.

DO PEOPLE REALLY SAY “EH” ALL THE TIME?

I think the thing I have really noticed is that the population is incredibly diverse, so I feel like I hear more accents from different places, then an accent specific to Canada.

WHAT ARE SOME DIFFERENCES… USA LIFE VS VANCOUVER LIFE?

Currency has been the biggest adjustments, I’m not sure why this has been an adjustment, but we think it’s funny. The other thing that sticks out is that everywhere we go there are trash bins, recycle bins, and compost bins. So when we go to restaurants, you throw your trash away, put your recycling away, and put your food (compost) away. It’s like that in our apartment building too. When I take the trash down, I take our recycling and compost too.

Super random, but Vudu doesn’t work here, not sure why but it doesn’t… (not cool Walmart, not cool.) Um, another thing that was super helpful was that we were able to maintain our cell phone plans… they just switched us over to a plan that included Canada.

So, it was super hard to remember all the things… so maybe I’ll do more posts that are shorter, haha.

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