Whitehorse Adventure

Our Valentine weekend getaway took us to a 'new-to-us' Canadian Territory - the Yukon! It was a fun little winter wonderland getaway. Of course we had in mind that travelling so far 'up north' in winter might give us a glimpse of the Northern Lights....as yet elusive to us both (after travelling in search of them a few years back to Iceland without success)...this was it - round 2 in the Aurora battle....*

Whitehorse is a pretty small town of around 37,000. It's the main city in the Yukon with over 75% of the population living there! Whilst it started off it's life caught up in the craziness of the Klondike Gold Rush, it's settled into it's current role as a main stop-off on the Alaska Highway. The highway was built in 1942-43 by the US Army after the Pearl Harbour attacks. It was handed over to the Canadians following the war and now it a major tourist route between northern BC and Alaska where thousands travel each year. Obviously not many of them travel the road in winter....and so Whitehorse is quite a sleepy little place in the off-season! But that's not to say we didn't have plenty to fill our time on our 3.5 day break!

Downtown Whitehorse - the museum and main street

We used Airbnb to book our accommodation. (and if you use this link to sign up for Airbnb you'll get a $30 credit on your first stay!) We spent our first 2 nights in the city and the second 2 nights at an incredible Mongolian Yurt about 1/2 hour out of town overlooking a frozen Cowley Lake. The Yurt wasn't just our bed for the night but ended up being a really memorable part of our trip! We arrived after dark and had a brief 1/4km walk through the trees and along a ridge line to get to the yurt on a well trodden snowy path. It was a clear night so we got a hint of what the view would bring us come morning - it was so exciting! Our host had the wood burning stove roaring away and the yurt was amazingly cozy and we immediately felt right at home. Come morning we stepped out onto the little deck perched right on the edge of a high ridge to a stunning view of the snowy mountains in the distance and an expansive view out over a frozen Cowley Lake.

Views from our cozy Yurt! Overlooking a frozen Cowley Lake where we snowshoed on our final morning!

We spent some time exploring Whitehorse itself - the city is quite compact and easy to walk around...we got lucky with the weather and had quite mild temperatures during our stay. We found some awesome little shops to explore - the Aroma Borealis was a lovely shop full of scents, potions and crystals - we brought home one of their unique essential oil blends. The Collective Good was another favourite - it was a beautifully curated design store of unusual and modern home decor, clothing, accessories and gift items with a great selection of local items but full of many others from all around the world - we'd been looking for some coat hooks for our mud room for the longest time and I was happy to find something a little different here! And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get our 'outdoor store' fix! - we both could spend forever in a great outdoor & sports clothing and equipment store - Coast Mountain Sports was Whitehorse's answer to REI and MEC! Obviously it's a great outdoor adventure area and they have a fabulous store to service it! And of course we couldn't pass up the local brew - Yukon Brewing, where you can sample all their beers on tap!

It may be small but Whitehorse serves up some top-notch eats! We loved pastries at Baked Cafe, Brunch at Burnt Toast, hot chocolate and snacks at Bean North. We dined at Antoinette's on our first night - a friendly and busy spot serving incredible Jamaican food with some wicked flavour and flare. We took our time over dinner, enjoying the house created cocktails and even managed to save room for dessert - squeezing in as much of the awesome food as possible! We picnicked in the yurt on our second night and on our final night hit up the Dirty Northern bar. We'd heard great things about their pizza and it didn't disappoint.

We lounged in the thermal waters at Takhini Hot Springs, visited the small but awesome MacBride Museum - I loved exploring the exhibits on 'ye old life' and socio-economic growth of the town - lots of stuff on the gold rush and rural outpost type life!  We took a 2 hour drive south to pop into Skagway, Alaska (where it was a totally different climate and not a snowflake in sight!). The drive south was stunning and we had gorgeous weather for it - blue skies and the crisp white snowy mountains as far as the eye could see, stopping at Carcross briefly en route!

Views around Carcross on our day trip to Alaska!

Our final morning before our flight home we squeezed in a snowshoe hike across Cowley Lake - the snow was crazy deep so it was a healthy workout! Just as well as our journey home ended up being rather long and frustrating. Having flown via Vancouver all the way back to Kelowna, we were on finals with the wheels down before deciding the fog was too bad and they routed us back to Vancouver with a night in a hotel! Oh well, bonus day on vacation!! And a great vacation it was too!

*And whilst we caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights it was a little faint and shimmery pale blues - not the wild dancing greens you see in photos, and so for now I'm not quite 'satisfied' enough to check it off my bucket list and the aurora battle continues!

The Best of 2014

A little late in pulling these together but here are some of my favourite moments of 2014 in pictures;

Happy New Year to you all!

(here's my best of 2013 post)

Vacation time! - California

This year Chris and I tagged our vacation time onto my trip to California for Ragnar Napa. Much as I love getting away (far, far away!) it wasn't really on the cards for us this year so several months back we turned my 3 day Ragnar trip into an 11 day California vacation for the both of us! It's been long overdue with family and friends there that we were eager to catch up with.

It's funny how quickly 11 days passes by!

Having arrived in San Franciso on the Thursday afternoon we spent Friday and Saturday doing Ragnar. It was awesome to have Chris along as the Van #1 driver! But as I kept on telling him he'd be hooked and now he wants to do another - next time as a runner! After our exhausting 48 hours we arrived back in SFO and spent the night at the airport Marriott. Winding down after a adrenaline charged weekend of fun, friends and running we relaxed in the bar with cocktails and said our goodbyes to our team-mates.

Our vacation started on Sunday after a huge lie-in! We headed straight for the ocean and we'd follow the Pacific Coast Highway all the way south to Orange County where my Uncle lives. First stop was Half Moon Bay and we stumbled into the most fabulous breakfast of the trip! We'd driven the length of the main street in town, eyed up a couple of options to eat and then cruised along till we found a car parking spot. We pulled in right in front of Chez Shea and decided it looked as good as anywhere, so without a step further headed on in! The breakfasts were Mexican styled - huevos rancheros, salsas & sour creams served on the side of the scrambles, breakfast burritos and my choice chilequiles. It was all so good!

Pacific Coast Highway

It was a long and gorgeous drive. From Monterey to Morro Bay the coastal route 1 is pretty remote with very few points of interest and even fewer settlements. We stopped frequently at the view points, and watched a gorgeous sunset and a small pod of whales frolicking in the ocean in the distance. Having started so late in the day we stopped that night in Santa Barbara and tried In-and-Out Burger that we'd heard so many people rave about.....uh....why?!! (Without doubt the worst meal of the trip - cardboard fries and tasteless soggy bun - ergyuk!)

Photo Credit: Tara Whitney

Monday we made tracks down to Orange County. After 7 years we had decided to get the fabulous Tara Whitney to take our photos again and we met her in Laguna Beach for our photoshoot. It was fun (if a little akward feeling at times!) but we had complete confidence in her after the last time! And within just a week we've got some beautiful new photos of us that I will treasure.

Tuesday and Wednesday was time spent catching up with friends.

We took a day trip to San Diego to meet with Libby - a fellow Health Coach that Chris had met during his time studying with IIN. We had lunch in the Gas Lamp area of town and then took a trip out to Old San Diego for a stroll around the heritage park.

Friday was a day at Disney. We got Park Hopper tickets this time. We'd both done Disney before but had never been to California Adventure. After a 'quick go around' on all our old favourites in Disney we headed into California Adventure in the late afternoon. In the evening we hooked up with Valerie (fellow Tough Chik Ragnar team-mate) and her husband Jeff and their kids, along with my Uncle and Aunt. After a quick ride on Screamin' (yes, without doubt my FAVourite ride in the park!) we headed into the rather exclusive 1901 lounge in California Adventure (it's one of  the private lounges for Club 33 members - and thanks to Jeff and Valerie's membership we were all invited in!). Oh my! What a treat! The park had gotten crazy busy since Disneyland had closed at 7 so we retreated into this blissful vintage club lounge and were treated to exceptional service, hand-crafted cocktails and appetizer plates. It was a perfect way to spend an hour or two! Eventually the park beckoned and we headed out in time to see the Magic of Color show and a last minute ride on Screamin' (again!) and the Cars ride.

It's got to be a good day at Disney when your car is the last one in the lot!! After more than 13 hours in the most magical place on earth we were dragged kicking and screaming from the park at it's midnight closing! What a day!

On our way back up to San Francisco I finally got to check off one of my bucket list items....To stay at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo! Many, many years ago I'd read some chick lit book that mentioned this hotel and after a google search and seeing the photos I was hooked on visiting! The whole hotel is just pure kitsch! Full of garish pinks and florals and patterns it's a visual overload! It could almost be tasteless and hideous but yet it's completing enchanting! I loved it! We booked a waterfall rock room and were allocated the Misty Rock Room.

Photo Credit: Madonna Inn

With 2 walls of the room built with giant rock boulders it was cosy and dark - cave-like! You really did have your own private waterfall as the shower water tumbled down the rocks onto you! Every one of the 110 rooms is individually and uniquely decorated and we strolled by some of the other rooms for a peek through the windows!! Even the public washrooms were crazy decorated! The men's room had a waterfall as the urinal!

The rest of our busy trip included as many beach sunsets, beach bars and beach walks as we could cram in - from Laguna, to Crystal Cove to Pismo Beach and Torrey Pines we stopped at them all and loved every one!

Pismo Beach

Crystal Cove

California livin'.....we could get used to this!

Race Recap: Ragnar Napa with Team Tough Chik

I couldn't resist! After the fun I had in April at Ragnar SoCal I was desperate for more! And so were most of my team-mates from Team Tough Chik. In fact the whole of our original Van 1 signed up - including our driver.

The Golden Gate shrouded in morning mist through the window of our van!

This time we ran Ragnar Napa.The race covered 205 miles between the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, across the famed bridge, through Sausalito and Mill Valley before heading north to San Rafael, Petaluma, and Santa Rosa then winding through the smaller scenic roads of Napa Valley's wine country in a round-about way to cover distance from Napa and eventually finishing in Calistoga by way of the beautiful Silverado trail.

Once again I was in Van 1, this time as runner #5 and over the course of my 3 legs I covered 20 miles; 6.4 miles from Mill Valley to Corte Madera up and down a very brutal hill (400ft in just under 1/2 mile!, but then I was rewarded by a beautiful off-road section on a trail at the top of said hill with fabulous views of the bay). 8.6 miles from Sebastopool to Santa Rosa spanning the midnight hour from Friday to Saturday (and just by chance I looked at my watch dead on midnight!). And my third and final leg was a 5 miler looping around Napa along the Napa River trail and finishing on a pretty tree-lined back road heading out of town.

Van #1 - Jody, Jen, Krystal, Shannon & myself having just dispatched Julie to run her final leg!

Ragnar is so much more than a pretty run. Though there was plenty of prettiness to look  out during our 205 miles. Ragnar is about the people and the team spirit. The fun, friendships, laughter. The crazy van decorations, the crazy costumes and the funny, witty and clever team names. Whilst half the team was made up from ladies I'd met at the SoCal event that meant half were new! It was awesome to meet some new friends and re-connect with the 'old'!

The ladies!

And the guys! Our 2 incredible and long suffering drivers Jeff (Valerie's husband) and Chris (you know Chris right?!)

And for those of us who had done Ragnar SoCal in April and completed this race we received the Ragnar Gold Rush Medal - and what a massive hunk of bling it is too, plus it's a bottle opener too!

The Team (L-R) - Jessy, Lauren, Jody, Krystal, Jen, Me, Julie, Shannon (Mama Chik), Valerie, Lisa, Lori & Nikki

Thank you Team Tough Chik for organizing us, and for being the reason I did Ragnar in the first place! And if you'd like to be a part of this awesome group of women then registration for the 2015 Tough Chik team is open now until 15th Novr! It's open to ALL women, anywhere in the world, from beginner to pro athlete. We have a private facebook group where we hang out and stalk, share or over-share (whatever works for you!) and it's a great network of women passionate for their sport (whether it's running, tri, cycling or archery!) supporting each other and having fun! All you need to do to be part of this awesome team is buy something from the team gear catalogue - there's options for cycling, Triathlon or Running and from my past 2 years experience it's totally cute and great quality. I for sure will be back for my third year! Maybe I'll see you there?!

Savary Island - BC's 'Tropical' Paradise!

We've lived in BC for nearly 5 years. Until a few weeks ago we'd never heard of Savary Island, and we'll be forever thankful to the Powell River taxi driver who told us about this hidden gem! On doing research for our trip I realised there isn't much visitor information out there about Savary Island - I think those that know like to keep it to themselves!!

Savary Island is a small island in the Strait of Georgia just off the BC coast near Lund on the Sunshine Coast. It's only 7.5 km long and less than a 1km wide. There are no paved roads, no electricity and no mains water or sewage systems. 

Once you drive all the way up the Sunshine Coast, the paved road ends in the tiny community of Lund. From there you get the Lund Water Taxi across the water to Savary. The water taxi is $11 per person each way and leaves every hour. You generally need to book ahead since it gets pretty loaded up with people and luggage. It's just a 10-15 trip across the water landing you at Government dock on the north east shore of the island.

We were staying at the island's only campground. It's very informal, and I'm not even really sure what it's called! We found out some information ahead of time online with it called 'Savary Camping & Cottages' but I think the locals more commonly refer to it as 'Pascal's Campground' (surprise, surprise it's run by a guy called Pascal! and really, since the information online is sketchy the safest, easiest way to connect is by good old fashioned phone - 604-698-8745) Thankfully it's on the eastern end of the island and a manageable walk from the dock - maybe 10-20 minutes depending on how much luggage you're hauling. Alternatively there are people at the wharf with trucks so you can pay someone for a ride. From the dock turn right and head up the hill. At the junction keep left onto Anderson Road and follow it around to the left until you see the camping. The campsite had around 10 sites all with nice wooden tent pads, picnic tables and lots of shade. There's a very basic outhouse with a flush toilet, dish-washing sink and a cold (really cold!) water shower. It's rustic to say the least! There's also a covered picnic shelter which would be a perfect escape should the weather be bad. The campground is in the middle of the island so it's a 10 minute walk in either direction to get to public beach access. We had gorgeous weather for our weekend stay on Savary but the campground is so heavily shaded by the lush green trees it actually gets quite chilly so bring a sweater if you're hanging around camp!

The first evening we explored the south shore beaches near the campground. There's quite a cliff to get down to the beach and it's mostly lined with private houses so you need to pick your spot to get down to the beach, but there are a couple of marked trails. The beach is strewn with driftwood and a fun place to beach-comb for sand dollars and I found some smoothed-out coloured glass fragments which I like to collect

Our second day we spent our time on the north shore beach, near the dock. With the tide out its a huge wide, flat, beautiful white sand beach with shallow waters and you can people watch the comings and goings on the dock! Our second night we ate at Riggers Pub & General Store. A small, simple menu but the beer flowed (at only $6 a pint) and it filled a gap! I was more than impressed that the general store next door were only charging $1 for a small bottled water - totally reasonable when there was easy opportunity to gouge their captive audience! Hat's off to Riggers! (and if you're a patron of the pub they have super lovely clean toilets!!) We rounded out our evening by heading back down to the beach for the sunset - just gorgeous!

I explored the island a little on the second morning with a 'sight-seeing' run. I ran the full length of the island. The road runs through the middle of the island so in truth there wasn't a lot to see. Savary is heavily wooded with lush, old growth evergreens - it really does have that rain-forest feel to it and it was lovely to run through this 'enchanted' forest! It was fun to glimpse all the little cottages and homes buried away in the woods - some tiny and shack-like, others quite elaborate mansions! There are a few businesses on island - a small bike rental place (near the dock & Riggers on the east end), a few B&Bs, a couple of art galleries and a kayak rental place. If you can spare the luggage space I think taking a bike would be super handy - it's the most popular way of getting around!

We loved our 2 night stay on Savary Island. It really was amazing to disconnect, kick back and relax with no distractions. It was a perfect, lazy 2 days with some great company. The showers were challenging to say the least (the upside to a 9 mile run for me was that I was hot and sweaty so a cold shower was quite refreshing, the others were cold from hanging around camp for too long so being cold and then getting into an icy shower was pretty shocking!) Whilst there was in fact cell phone service there was no electricity and my poor iPhone is old and doesn't last long without some juice. I turned it to airplane mode and saved the battery just to take photos. (though you can pay $2 at Riggers to charge up your phone!)

And the beaches really are tropical-like white sands and the waters really are warm (the warmest north of Mexico some say!)

Also very worthy of a mention is Nancy's Bakery in Lund. It was the perfect place to grab some last minute goodies to take with us and something to look forward to on our return...the most incredible place serving up breakfasts, fresh baked goods, sandwiches, paninis and more. Their speciality blackberry cinnamon buns converted Chris (not a cinnamon bun lover) into an addict! They were amaze-balls! And all  served up with a lovely view overlooking Lund harbour.

Savary Island, we will be back!