Weekend Reading #116

Happy Friday friends! It’s been far too long since we last chatted. June was an absolute whirlwind with the busyness of wrapping up the school year – writing report cards, planning all of the end of the year fun and of course, packing up my classroom, I honestly don’t know how we made it through it all. And then, we took off for BC the very next day after school finished up for the year – hitting the road for 17 days and taking advantage of everything the mountains have to offer along the way. Carson had a ski camp in Whistler with his Jasper ski team for a few days and we decided to plan our vacation around that, taking advantage of being in one of our favourite mountain biking destinations and adding a few new ones to that list as well.

We started our trip off with a couple of nights in Revelstoke, BC, spending our days mountain biking at the ski hill and our afternoons and evenings soaking up the sunshine at the hotel pool. Brady always says that Revelstoke is such a hidden gem of a place – it offers up some of the best mountain biking (and skiing in the Winter) without all of the busyness and crowds that take over so many of the other mountain towns we love to visit. It was a great breath of fresh air for us all and the perfect, low-key way to kick off our Summer vacation.

From there, we made our way to the Sunshine Coast, staying in a beautiful Airbnb in Sechelt, BC for four nights. Thanks to some heavy construction on BC’s main hi-way, we had a pretty long trek getting there – finding ourselves stuck in a long line of traffic for hours on end, not once, but TWICE, we arrived just in time to catch the very last ferry of the day over to the island and did’t pull into the driveway of our home-away-from-home until after 1:00am. What should have been a 6 hour drive, turned into more than 13.

Luckily, it was worth it. We spent the next four days exploring everything the Sunshine Coast had to offer – from paddling the Inlet with Sea Lions to hiking & biking and everything in between – we truly fell in love with this beautiful area of BC.

After Sechelt, we made our way to Whistler, BC. Carson spent the first three days in Whistler taking part in a ski camp, spending his mornings skiing the glacier on Blackcomb Mountain and his afternoons jumping the water ramps into a pool of water. This was his first camp skiing snow and water in the same day and, aside from Brady and I having to dry all of his gear each night with blow dryers in our hotel room (we’ll definitely be sure to bring two sets of everything next time!), it was a super fun experience.

Whistler has long been one of our very favourite places to visit, so we were sure to leave ourselves with several extra days after Carson’s ski camp for some other adventures around Whistler too. While we spent the majority of our time on our bikes (including two days biking the ski hill), we also managed to squeeze in some golf, a surprisingly adventurous paddle board down the River of Golden Dreams, some of the most scenic runs I’ve ever had and of course, a whole lot of amazing food along the way.

After ten action packed days in Whistler, it was time to start making our way back to Alberta, although Brady couldn’t resist stopping in one last epic bike destination along the way. We decided to break up the long, twelve hour drive home with a night in Valemount, BC, giving us a chance to rest for the night and more importantly, explore the new bike park the next morning. It turned out to be the perfect way to end our adventure before heading back home.

Obviously, we packed A LOT into our days away in the mountains and, while it was a ton of fun and we made so many happy memories together, it was also absolutely exhausting (honestly, I’m getting tired just typing this all out!). While I absolutely love traveling, exploring and adventuring, it always feels so good to come home.

And now, we have a brand new adventure stretching out ahead of us. It’s a big one my friends and I cannot wait to share it with you. Watch for all the details coming to the blog next week (and probably a few sneak peeks before that over on Instagram). In the mean time, here’s this week’s Weekend Reading…