What I did in July: Fourth of July travel, Roadtrip in Canada, Sprained My Ankle.

This month has been a mixed bag as far as months go. I began the month with family, spending the week of the fourth of July working and watching the neighbors put on an impossibly long, loud and undoubtedly expensive fireworks show.

Week one: Fourth of July

There's something about the Fourth of July that always sneaks up on me. I am usually still in that early-summer haze, where I can scarcely believe that I can actually go outside without wearing a jacket, when suddenly, boom! (literally, boom, bang, crack), it's Independence Day, and everyone is setting off fireworks and roasting s'mores and boating on the lake. I spent a long weekend with my family on the coast of Lake Michigan, walking to the beach every day after I finished work and generally being lazy, enjoying the flowers and the tall grass and the smell of pine trees all around me. Too quickly, the week was over.

Week two: Canadian Road Trip

At the end of the second week of July, I already needed another mini break. I jumped in my VW convertible and hit the pavement, logging a few hours' drive into Canada, my husband's home and native land. There, I explored a garden of lavender, a quaint 1940s inn on a small lake (and a delicious smoked salmon eggs benny for brunch), and visited a quartz mine with enthusiastic owners who gave an animated tour (in French) about both the physical and metaphysical properties of quartz and the process of getting them out of a mine and into my eager hands (I bought a small piece in the nice gift shop!)
I also vlogged about the idyllic adventure:

Week three: Sprained ankle

So, PSA time. Don't text and walk and carry three bags of groceries and not watch where you are going, so you step off the side of an uneven sidewalk and collapse upon your foot, spraining it so badly that you can't really walk for a handful of days (and, 11 days later, it still hurts). This little incident cost me a weekend... although sitting on my two balconies enjoying the fruits of my labor (my flowers were in full bloom and I am harvesting cherry tomatoes pretty much nonstop) was not exactly the worst activity.

Week four: Wait, it's almost August?!

We've had a relatively rainy summer so far, so it was a big relief that this weekend was gorgeously sunny and cloudless. I am still somewhat limited in my choice of activities thanks to aforementioned ankle that is struggling to heal, but I am able to put more weight on it when I walk so I took advantage of the return of my freedom to drive around, feel the wind in my hair, and step out (in short spurts) to get some errands done. I also had a birthday party to attend on Saturday night in a cheerfully decorated backyard (the party - decor, food, location - would put most of Pinterest to shame). I also got to go to the market to see what mid-summer has to offer, and I found the first of our local peaches, gorgeous summer fresh-cut flowers from my favorite vendor, and live music. I'm trying to soak up the summer because it's relatively short lived where I live. #yolo to the next few weeks, I need to get it alllllll done! P.S. Happy Birthday to Harry Potter tomorrow - July 31st - and I can't believe that this summer it's already been 10 years since "Deathly Hallows" came out!

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Fall in Vancouver

Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Steveston, B.C.

Last month, I took a trip to Vancouver. It was my first time on Canada's west coast (I'd been to California a couple of times, but never further north than San Francisco).

What I found in Vancouver was lovely in every way: after a nearly 6 hour flight from Montreal (it's about as far from Montreal to Vancouver as Montreal to Paris!) we landed late at night, and went to our hotel in the city's downtown. What struck me most in the city was all of the new construction: the city, though population-wise is supposed to be smaller than Montreal, felt rather massive and new and shiny.

Porteau Cove (on a very rainy day)

We landed at 10pm the night before my 30th birthday, which I gleefully realized meant I actually got 3 extra hours of being in my 20s thanks to the time zone change.

Over the week, I visited with a good friend, who took my husband and I to Granville Island, a charming market that we rode a little ferry to get to. Then, I drove north on a white-knuckle highway filled with twists and turns on a high cliff to Porteau Cove (towards Brittania Beach), south to the historic fishing village of Steveston, and of course wandered all around downtown (including its picturesque historical Gastown) and in the massive and beautiful Sanley Park.

Stanley Park in downtown Vancouver

Vancouver has a slightly different feel than Eastern Canada (I've only ever been to various cities in Ontario and Quebec, and Halifax), a vibe that is almost like California but still true to its Canadian roots. It felt a little more relaxed and laid back, in a way that all Pacific Coast towns feel (in my opinion, having been in cities in Chile all the way north up the coast).

I loved that, like many other Canadian cities, the British-influenced roots of the city are visible in the old architecture of the city, such as in the historic Gastown district and in beautiful old buildings such as the Fairmount Vancouver (which looks ever-so-slightly like a castle in the middle of downtown).

When I went to the fishing village of Steveston, the harbour was a bit like something out of history: the Gulf of Georgia Cannery is, in fact, a National Historical Site of Canada. Built in 1894, when the region was an important producer of canned salmon in Canada. Although many of the ships in the harbour are modern, the scene of the fishing boats bobbing in the blue water echoes the days when fishing was an important part of the local economy. Today, some of the boats still sell fresh fish daily right on the water in a little "fish market."

I'd definitely travel back to Vancouver (hopefully soon; preferably sometime during the harsh winter back here in Montreal!) to see some good friends who live there, enjoy the city's mild climate and the imbued into the city's life, and of course, the beautiful views of the ocean that I can never get enough of.

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Welcome!

A photograph I took in Cordoba, Argentina in 2013. ©AJG

Until a few months ago, I had been keeping a weekly blog of my travels. 2010-2013 were whirlwind years that took me on trips involving planes, trains, busses, micro-busses, automobiles, even horses, covering tens of thousands of miles, sometimes in a single month. My life spanned two continents, four countries, and three different languages. The more I was on the move and my life up in the air, the more I craved that continuous movement. I felt like I’d stop changing, learning and evolving if I ever stopped going.

And then I crashed.

I had to return to Canada for some reasons involving paperwork, and for months I stayed put in my old (second) home of Montreal. Now I’ve been more or less back in Canada (except for a few trips to the U.S.) for nearly a year. And you know what? I like it. I like the stability and the steadiness. And when my husband mentioned we’d have to travel again this year, I was really upset. Because I liked my calm life that rarely relies on having a passport and suitcase at arm’s length. For the first time in years, I felt “normal” during most of 2013. Getting back into a harried, unpredictable, travel-plagued life haunted and terrified me, because I know how difficult it is in so many ways. And I simply do not want to do it again, because it’s exhausting.

Anyways. Whether or not I’ll travel this year is still up for debate. We’ll see.

In the meantime, what I want to say is that there were a few side effects of staying put, one of which was the months seemed to fly by without any real way of measuring them. I found that tweeting and micro-blogging on Tumblr were the only real documented moments of my life this past year. I kind of missed having something that documented the passing days, my interests and my evolving thoughts and tastes. As difficult as it was sometimes to continue to blog about my travels, my weekly blog posts provided some measure of progress in my life from mid-2011 to early 2013.

So, with the goal of saving some snapshots of my life in some form, I’m attempting to re-boot my blogging life. I actually do write a lot, so I’d rather not write the 1,000+ word posts I used to on my travel blog. I’m going to try to keep them shorter, and maybe more visual. Art is a big part of my life, and I’d love to show off some things that I’m working on, as well as the art that I see and enjoy in my every day life. I’ll also talk about my work as a writer and editor and, simply, life as me, on the cusp of turning 30.

Thanks for visiting a cheers to a new blog!

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