Walking My Way Through Vancouver

Granville Island

First of all, it’s not actually an island. So it should be Granville Peninsula. If we are being geographically correct here.

Despite it being grounded, we took a water taxi across the bay/inlet/small body of water separating it from us. This was a neat experience, and easy way to get therefrom Yaletown in just a few minutes. Our captain – are you still a captain if you boat is less than twenty feet long? probably not– our driver was very nice and pointed out a few cool buildings to us*, and gave us a very useful map of the city.

Emma Takes Vancouver, BC

Other than the occasional whiff of urine, Vancouver is a beautiful city in every way. The wrap-around coastline means it’s always just a short walk to the water. Despite being something like the third largest city on the west coast, Vancouver is compact: all of the big-name brand stores are within a few block radius, and then it’s right into the old part of the city (well I assume it’s the older part, because the roads were brick). You can walk everywhere. And if you want to get off your feet, you can hop on a bike and ride along one of the trails or bike lanes.

Summer 2015 Bucket List

Today is my first day of summer vacation! Woooooo! You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to say that!

To kick it off, I thought I’d share the summer to-do list that’s been accumulating in one of my notebooks. In no particular order, here’s what I want to do in the next couple of months:

Goodbye Summer

So, there I wasn’t. At the homecoming dance in the school lunchroom (everyone else calls it the Commons, but it’s really a lunchroom), dancing with some guy in the dark to the tune of some rap song playing so loud you have to shout to be heard.

Dances aren’t really my thing. Instead I spent my night at the beach with my friends. Well, one friend and her brother and his friends and all our parents. We had a cookout with clams— no oysters— and brats and all sorts of “snacks foods” as my mom calls them. It was perfect.

The beach!

And it was so fall. You know when the afternoons are crisp but sunny and the skies are clear? I love those days. Especially when you can be outside and enjoy them. And that’s what we did on the beach, in our jeans and sweatshirts. No more shorts and tshirts.

Once it started to get dark, one of my friend’s brother’s friends pulled out his ukulele and sang songs for us all. We joined in when we could, but it wasn’t ever necessary because he was really good. We all laughed and stayed warm by the tiny little portable grill. The ukulele player would look up the music for song requests and play them even if he hadn’t ever before.

Us, except we were around a portable grill, with a ukulele instead of a guitar, and more spread out. So basically, not us at all.

A very fun way to spend my Saturday night. Much better, I think, than going to the dance. So, with that night in mind, I officially say “Goodbye summer”, even though that was probably supposed to be said about a month ago. And of course I say with much enthusiasm, “Welcome fall!” Can’t wait for the cozy nights and yummy foods and beautiful leaves!

Hooray for fall!

Friends

Yesterday I spent all day with friends. For many high schoolers, I am sure that isn’t a big deal. But I am more of an introvert, and a planner, and being seriously dedicated to football means I usually spend my summer days going to practice for a few hours in the morning, coming home to rest for a while, then going to more practice at night. And I love it. I see my friends at football and I spend time with my family at home. So spending all day bouncing between get-togethers and friends was an unusual occurrence for me.

But it turned out to be really fun! I went mini golfing with friends in the morning, then went to the Seattle Reign game with other friends and finally to a dinner party with a big group of yet other friends. It turned out to be a fantastic day. It was super fun (and exhausting). I think us less-social people get stuck in our ways sometimes, and forget how much fun it can be to go out with friends. Then we forget how great our friends really are.

I know we all have our excuses: I’m too busy, I don’t have time, I like spending time alone, I need to relax, I don’t like crowds. But every once in a while, or more often than that, we all need to try something new. Or even if it’s not new, we need to do something a little out of the ordinary. And spending more time with friends doesn’t necessarily mean there is less time to do other things. So if you don’t get together with friends very often, I challenge you to organize something with your friends in the very near future. I bet you’ve forgotten how much fun being with your friends can be.

This isn’t just to be applied to being with friends, though. Maybe there’s a new restaurant you’ve been wanting to go to for a while, or you used to go biking every day, but you’ve been so busy lately that there just hasn’t been time. Make time! That’s really the hardest part. But you just have to set a time and hold yourself to it. Don’t go in with your mind already set to not enjoy it. Give it your best shot to have fun. Don’t think about what else you could be doing, or what you are missing; relax and enjoy where you are. You might have a blast or you might discover you don’t want to spend your time doing this. But at least you tried. You never know. You may find your new favorite restaurant, or that you really love to bike. You might be reminded, like I was, that your friends are really fun, cool people and you really like to hang out with them.

 

Well, this post started as a reflection on my social life and turned into a call for everyone to be a little more outgoing… I hope it helps you (re)discover a passion or a good time. Personally, I am going to try to live on my toes a little more. Thanks for reading!