Vancouver!

Well, we made it to Van!  I’m a little behind with blogging; it’s been a busy first few days, but let’s backtrack a week or so, first.

From Jasper we drove to Kamloops where we crashed for the night before heading to our final destination: Vancouver.  The drive from Jasper – through the Rockies and Mount Robson – was a drive we were both a little (a lot) nervous for, given the recent snow/ice storm in Jasper.  But, we totally lucked out, the roads were bone dry (no snow or ice in sight) and we spent the drive winding through the mountains, the sun shining down the entire time.  It was the perfect drive for the last leg of the journey and a good omen for things to come in a new city.

Once in Van, we drove straight to Second Beach in Stanley Park, experiencing our first taste of Vancouver traffic and the sparkle of the city lights at night.  It was a beautiful, albeit chilly, welcome to the city.  It was certainly somewhat surreal to be standing on a beach in Vancouver after 19 days on the road, the result of a half-baked conversation had on a curbside at 2AM a few weeks prior (“Wouldn’t it be crazy…”).  Nonetheless, we are here, and it’s certainly real.

Our first few days were spent hopping from hotel-hotel and apartment hunting; we managed to find an apartment our first day here (here’s to hoping that, by some miracle, the job hunt happens to be just as straightforward).  Consequently, our days of late have been filled with grown-up things like looking up internet packages, furniture shopping, and getting excited about kitchen utensils ;)

So far, we’ve been loving Vancouver, though we haven’t had much time to fully explore quite yet (aside from a few beaches, a lot of spectacular food, and a bit of longboarding).  We’re definitely excited to get settled and start exploring properly, although we have been doing some exploring around the neighbourhood and so far, so good!  We inadvertently found an apartment that’s close to Kitsilano Beach (yes!) and Kerrisdale, one of the wealthiest neighbourhoods in Canada…you know, to strike a balance.  It’ll be fun to get to know the area better and discover the hidden gems.  I especially can’t wait to discover all of the markets (farmer’s and other) in Van.

Anyways, that’s it for now, just a quick recap of the past few days– photos, videos, and further updates to come soon.  For now, I have some more Craigslist furniture scouring to do.