THE ARCHIVE
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.
A WEEKEND TRAVEL GUIDE {PORTLAND, OR}
Weekend trips to Portland are totally do able. Both times we visited Portland we did weekend trips. Portland has a lot going for it, and one of those things is that it’s incredibility easy to get around. It’s not like trying to get around in L.A. where traffic is the worst and it takes hours to go 8 miles, ha! Today I’m bring you our favorite Portland spots, so pick out your favorites and put them on your list for you Portland trip.
EATS
TAMALE BOY
We went to Tamale Boy right after we landed and it’s so good. Read more about our experience here. If you’re into clean, delicious, healthy Mexican food, then you will love this place. There a two different locations to check out, easy street parking, and indoor and outdoor seating.
PINE STATE BISCUITS
Another one of our favorite places in Portland is Pine State Biscuits and they are worth the wait in line. It’s easy to peruse the menu while you wait and the line moves pretty quickly. I needed something light the morning we arrived so I actually ordered the Green Salad and a biscuit. Tyler ordered the Double Down (I think, haha.) I’m pretty sure you could order anything on their menu and it would be amazing.
SCREENDOOR
Another amazing find was the Screen Door, the food was amazing, so so good. A little pricey, so Tyler and I shared our main dish, but so good and great portion sizes because we both left satisfied.
TREATS
STUMPTOWN COFFEE & BLACK ROCK COFFEE
This one is for the coffee lovers. I’m not a big coffee person, but Tyler is and he’s always interested in checking out new places. We tried both Stumptown Coffee and Black Rock Coffee and Black Rock Coffee won us over. The coffee we tried at Stumpdown was super strong and bitter… and intense, ha! I think the consensus of Black Rock was that it was smoother. Give them both a try, but I recommend Black Rock Coffee.
VOODOO DOUGHNUTS & BLUE STAR DOUGHNUTS
This one is for all the doughnut lovers. If your into novelty doughnuts then Voodoo is your first choice. Think bacon covered doughnuts, cereal covered doughnuts, candy covered doughnuts, the list goes on and on. However, locals kept recommending Blue Star Donuts for the classic fresh baked doughnuts. I say try them both, because you can never have too many doughnuts.
MADE HERE
Made Here has more then just treats… it’s more like they have treats of all kind. When we were in Portland we were looking for goodies to pick up and take home for friends and Made Here is the perfect place. Everything is from local artisans, so you know you’re getting something specifically from Portland. I found really amazing chocolate and picked up some “everything season.” They have amazing leather goods, soaps, accessories… so many fun things.
PLACES
MT TABOR PARK
Mt Tabor Park is this amazing park in the middle of Portland. It’s super easy to get too and it’s a great place to walk around and see the city from up high. Because of it’s location it’s easy to stop by/check out on the way to another location. You can easily drive to the top of the mountain and walk around the trails. Absolutely worth it.
POWELL BOOKS
Powell City of Books is such a Portland thing to do, right? We checked out 2 different locations and I recommend you do the same. We checked out their most popular location in Old Town Portland, but then we also found a smaller Powell books on Hawthorne (near Mt. Tabor Park) and it has that small book store feel. So yes, absolutely go.
LAN SU GARDEN
Even if you’re not super into gardens I recommend stopping by Lan Su Chinese Garden. Admission is super reasonable, you can walk through the garden in about an hour (or less) and it’s really beautiful and peaceful. We visited Lan Su Garden and then went a few blocks and visited Powell Books and Made Here. It’s a perfect place to stop by while in Old Town Portland. Read more about our experience here.
MULTNOMAH FALLS
This is a must, MUST, see. Multnomah Falls is one of the largest water falls in America. It’s so easy to get to, parking is a breeze, you can easily walk to two different viewing decks, and on good day you can hike to the top. Put this on your list for sure. Read more about our experience here.
WAHKEENA FALLS
Wahkeena Falls is right down the road from Multnomah Falls, so again, you might as well check it out, because it’s amazing. You can take a quick hike to a bridge that sits right in front of the falls and it’s a quick visit too. Check out more of our experience here.
E HISTORIC COLUMBIA RIVER HWY
It’s easy to get to Mutlnomah Falls by taking I-84, but when you drive back you should definitely take E Historic Columbia River Hwy. There are even more water falls to see and then you can stop at the Vista House. It does take longer to get back, but the drive is beautiful.
HIKING MAJOR WELCH TRAIL {BEAR MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, NY}
There are so many great things about hiking at Bear Mountain; multiple trails to hike (some easier then others,) clean bathrooms, easy parking, well maintained trails, walking trails, a lake, a pool, a gift shop, and even a place to eat. You could easily spend all day at Bear Mountain, whether you are hiking or not. On Memorial and Labor day lots of families show up at 9:00am with picnic supplies and BBQ supplies in hand and they stay all day.
Today, I’m sharing one of our favorite hikes and it’s definitely on the more difficult side. This particular hike includes hiking up Major Welch Trail and down the Appalachian Trail. The Major Welch Trail is not good for families or strollers. However, lots of families hike up the Appalachian trail and some with strollers, but be prepared to carry that stroller at times.
WHEN TO VISIT
The park fills up fast on the weekends. Visiting any day during the week is great, but if you go on the weekend, make sure to go early. When we visit we almost always arrive by 8:30am or 9:00am. The park and parking areas fill up fast, easily by 12:00pm. Bear Mountain is close enough to NYC and is surrounded by multiple communities that it can get very busy. If you’re visiting in the summer visiting early in the morning is great too, because it will be cooler. Bear Mountain gets very hot and humid.
WHERE TO PARK
If you arrive early enough on a weekend and any time during the week there is parking at Bear Mountain Inn. It’s $10 to park during peak season, which is May through October. If you arrive later in the day it’s likely that the parking lot will be full. There is also a possibility that if the park get’s too full they will close the parking area and the roads that lead to the Inn. This has happened to us before, so going early is ideal.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The Major Welch Trail is a 1.5 mile hike up to Perkins Memorial Tower which is the top of Bear Mountain and the trail head is off Hessian Lake which is behind Bear Mountain Inn. This is a difficult hike, has a steady incline, and includes some scrambling. You don’t have to be in tip-top shape to do this hike, but you do have to be willing to work. It’s important to wear hiking shoes on this trail, it will make the hike so much easier, because the sturdy grip on hiking shoes make it easy to scramble up a few rock faces.
Once you get to the top at Perkins Memorial Tower you can rest and take in the view. An ideal trail to take down is the Appalachian trail. This trail is very well maintained with lots of steps. It’s an easy hike down compared to hiking up. We do not recommend hiking down the Major Welch trail. It’s possible, but very difficult because of a few steep rock faces. If you’re up for the challenge you can always try it, but it will be very difficult.
This hike totals a 3 mile loop and on average takes about 3 hours.
Almost forgot, you can use the restroom at the Inn before beginning your hike and there are porta-potties at the top of the mountain.
HIKING CHECKLIST
Backpack (these mini mules are my favorite. This Lowepro is perfect for hikes and camera gear.)
Hiking shoes (I love these Keen voyagers.)
Water bottle (Nalgene bottles are our first choice for light water water containers.)
Moisture wicking apparel (check out what’s in my gym bag for my favorite moisture wicking items.)
Insect repellent
Sunscreen (we use this one all the time.)
Food/snacks (we love taking tuna packets, cliffbars, and trail mix.
Sunglasses
Start your hike off on the right foot! Download your FREE hiking checklist below!
WHEN YOU REACH THE TOP
If this is your first time hiking Major Welch you may reach an overlook and think it’s the top, but keep going. There are so many beautiful views when hiking this side of the mountain, take your time and enjoy them. Once you do reach the top, you’;; see Perkins Tower and be able to take a rest and take in the view. On a clear day you can actually see the NYC skyline, it’s amazing.
REMEMBER YOUR WATER AND SNACKS
Snacking at the Perkins Tower is ideal too, don’t forget your snacks. It’s the perfect time to recharge and prepare for the hike down. Protein bars, trail mix, cuties, grapes, even peanut butter and jelly are great snacks for your hike.
We always remind our friends to bring plenty of water, because you’ll need plenty. Bring a small backpack, water bottle or two, and your snacks. Remember, you’ll be hiking for about 3 hours and sweating a lot, so you’ll need plenty of water.
Remember the water rule; drink of you body weight in ounces a day.
LAN SU CHINESE GARDEN {PORTLAND, OR}
Who knew there was a Chinese garden in Old Town Portland, but for sure there is and it’s really amazing and crazy cool. I’m not even sure how we learned about Lan Su Chinese Garden… probably our Portland book, because we’re all about going to the library. The great thing about Lan Su Garden is that you can visit for about 30 minutes to an hour and still check out other amazing places in Old Town Portland. We visited mid-morning, walked the garden, then went to Made Here, Powell’s Books and then lunch! It’s a great place to squeeze in and totally worth it. By the way, Made Here is one of my favorite shops, you’re able to check out locally made artisan goods in one place… I wanted to buy everything, haha. They also have Portland specific curated gift boxes… man oh man, curated gift boxes are my favorite. Go check it out, it’s the best.
PRICE
For only $11 a person I would absolutely recommend visiting Lan Su Garden. It’s really peaceful and beautiful and they often have activities which are free with your admission. So yeah, put it on your list.
WHERE TO PARK
We passed a handful of parking lots (paid parking lots) in Old Town and ended up parking a block or so away from the garden not knowing where the best place to park was. BUT, there is a parking lot right across the street, so check that lot first before finding something else. We visited on a Sunday afternoon, so it was pretty quiet and easy to find parking. Keep in mind that you’ll have to pay for parking, whether it’s a lot or street parking.
WHEN TO VISIT
We visited on a Sunday afternoon which was great. It wasn’t busy or crowded at all. The one thing to consider is that if your making a trip to Old Town on a Sunday, not every place will be open. We walked by a few places we would have loved to go in but they were closed. It was also a little rainy when we visited, but it didn’t bother us at all, it was still really nice.
