Vancouver + Whistler

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Okay, so this post is massively delayed, but I’m following the mantra “better late than never!”. Alex and I visited Vancouver and Whistler at the beginning of September where we spent the week.

With the time change, we didn’t arrive until early evening the first night in Vancouver. Our hotel was downtown, so we spent time walking along the pier nearby before grabbing dinner. Vancouver ranks 34th in the world for the least sunshine year round, so I considered ourselves lucky when we woke up the next morning to a bit of sunny skies! We started the day walking around the busy port and watching the sea planes takeoff and land which was extremely thrilling to see!

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Banff National Park - Part II

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Our first three days exploring Banff National Park have been incredible! With that said, my knee was still giving me trouble, so we took Wednesday off as a complete “rest day”. It ended up working out perfectly as we had plans to check into another hotel that day and did not have any hikes planned. We were both really excited about this second hotel as the property sits on the shore of Lake Louise and we couldn’t wait to wake up to that view each morning!

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Banff National Park - Part I

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After almost two years, Alex and I recently returned from our first international trip since the global pandemic began! We traveled to Canada where we explored and hiked Banff National Park. This was especially exciting as we were supposed to go in 2020, but it got postponed due to travel restrictions.

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Newfoundland - Fogo Islands

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Our final stop in Newfoundland before driving back to St. John’s was to the Fogo Islands. About four or five years ago, Alex came across an article in Bloomberg Magazine talking about the recent opening of the Fogo Island Inn. Architecturally, the inn is such am amazing structure which perches on stilts and hugs the North Atlantic Coastline. What makes this hotel extra special is that it is part of a charity which gives back to the island and many of the employees are locals as well. We had pinned this article in our “Places to Visit” file and were very excited about checking it out. After an hour ferry ride from the mainland, we arrived in the Fogo Islands.

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Newfoundland - Twillingate

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It was almost a five-hour drive from Gros Morne National Park to Twillingate where we spent one night. Because we were leaving for the Fogo Islands the following morning, we made sure to pack in a lot during the time we had in Twillingate. Twillingate is a beautiful area and famous for the icebergs which float down from Greenland. Unfortunately, iceberg season runs from May to June, so we missed this, but we’ve already discussed coming back another year to view them!

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Newfoundland - Gros Morne National Park

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The third stop of our trip was to Gros Morne National Park. When I was reading about places to visit in Newfoundland, I came across this quote: “Gros Morne may be the most breathtaking park you’ve never heard of”. Located on the west coast of Newfoundland, the park lies within the Long-Range Mountains and is dotted with beautiful seaside villages, beaches, lighthouses and freshwater fjords.

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Newfoundland - Trinity

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It was a three-hour drive from St. John’s to our second stop, the adorable fishing village of Trinity. Before checking into our hotel, we drove north to the town of Elliston where they have an incredible puffin colony. There is a short pathway to the site and we could see them pretty close! They are such cute and funny animals and honestly, we had to google information about puffins because I was unaware they could fly. Turns out, puffins are not a type of penguin like I originally thought. Puffins can fly unlike penguins who swim. It was fun watching them and the viewing area was so beautiful.

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Newfoundland - St. John's

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Hello from Canada! Alex and I are currently exploring Newfoundland and although we’ve only been here for a few days, this area really does pack a punch in terms of beauty! To get to Newfoundland, we took an early-morning flight (6:20am), had a brief layover in Toronto, and then landed in St. John’s, Newfoundland around 2:00pm.

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Niagara Falls

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While Alex and I were in Toronto two weekends ago, we decided to drive to Niagara Falls for the day. Niagara Falls has been on my New York bucket list for awhile and despite living in New York on and off for almost 8 years, we had never visited. When we realized the falls were only an hour-and-a-half from Toronto, we decided to rent a car and head out there.

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Toronto

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Alex and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary last week! I still can’t believe it’s been ten years - time please slow down! In honor of our 10-year anniversary we decided to celebrate doing what we love - exploring a new city. We decided to visit Toronto as it has been on our list to visit for awhile and only an hour-and-a-half flight from New York. The plane into Toronto actually lands on an island directly across from the city center. There is a short ferry ride (a whole 2 minutes!) to get across to the main city center and then we were able to walk to the hotel directly from there. I think it may have been the easiest flight to hotel experience we’ve ever encountered in our travels! It was also a fun way to see the skyline right from the get go!

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