Monthly Musings – June 2019

With June coming to a close we are now half way done with 2019 and only 6 months away from 2020 (let that sink in for a moment). June is always a big month for me; not only is it my birthday but also my brother (we actually have the same birthday 5 years apart!) and Steve to celebrate as well. I’ve always been one to value experiences over things and far prefer a good meal with family and friends over material gifts. I also like to celebrate with a trip, whether that’s with a quick weekend getaway in Virginia (Walden Hall was a relaxing and romantic retreat just 3 hours from Virginia Beach) or a longer more adventurous trip like Iceland. So where did we go to celebrate this year?

The Canadian Rockies!

Banff National Park has long been on our list and with a coin flip (our other choice was the Azores) we headed back up to Canada. We spent just under a week getting a taste of some of the most gorgeous scenery on the plant and I will have a ton of blog posts on Banff in the coming months (in fact, if there’s something you’d really like me to write about please let me know in the comments!).

A few days before my trip I posted on Twitter asking for Banff recommendations and a friend pointed me towards Calgary-based blogger Winds of Jane. I immediately read all of her Banff posts and later that day she messaged me with tons of recommendations. After messaging back and forth for a day she said she and her husband Rick were heading up to Banff for some hiking that weekend and that they would love to show us around.

Conversation with Steve the night before our trip:

Me: “We’re going hiking with people I just met on Twitter, they’re going to pick us up at 5 am.”

Steve: “Cool.”

While I had not met Jane previously we did have some mutual friends and I was pretty certain we were not heading out in the wilderness with Canadian serial killers. In fact, we hit it off with Jane and Rick and they could not have been more gracious hosts. They picked us up at 5am sharp for a whirlwind tour of some of Banff’s most famous sites and we even popped over to Yoho National Park just over the border in British Colombia. Aside from a fantastic introduction to Banff we now have a couple of great friends in Jane and Rick and this is number one reason I love the travel community so much. It just goes to show that when you open yourself up to other people and opportunities good things happen.

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I’m a fairly adventurous person and with another birthday under my belt I wanted a little challenge so I signed up for the Banff Via Ferrata, a mountain climbing experience with iron footholds and tie-ins built into the mountain. Now I’ve hiked glaciers in Iceland and trekked through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco so I’m not new to the tops of mountains or hiking over unusual terrain but on this day my body had different ideas. After getting geared up, taking the chair lift above the tree line and starting the steep hike up I looked out toward the valley and got height induced vertigo. If this was happening at the beginning of the climb it wouldn’t be pretty later on when I was fatigued so I made the decision to come back down. Sometimes your body has different ideas that you do and that’s ok.

Things I’m loving

The Icefield Parkway from Banff to Jasper is one of the best drives in the world and Jane’s guide to the Icefield Parkway is indispensable.

This recipe for Carne Asada from Damn Delicious has been on regular rotation in my house this summer.

These beautiful handmade espadrilles from Viscata are a favorite of the British royals and are on sale for 25% off.