We spent about a week in beautiful green Vancouver.
This is the third summer in a row (!) that we’ve spent time in Vancouver. Every time we go, we’re struck by how wonderfully green and pleasant-smelling Vancouver is, perhaps usually by contrast to where we were immediately prior (concrete pee jungle NYC this year, arid desert Mexico last year).
We were lucky enough to stay in Gordon & Rosemary’s place again – we are always so grateful for their hospitality, and it was so wonderful to return to somewhere so pleasant and familiar. Thank you!
The reason for us coming to Vancouver was to attend Vancouver Street Dance Festival (VSDF)! You can find the footage of Jonny’s rounds in the Google Photos album. He made Top 16 out of 93 Lockers!
There was also a mini Locking event before the start of VSDF where Jonny and Marc (Scramblelock) represented Montreal in a city versus city battle.
We also got to hang out with some of our Vancouver friends, like Jackie (seen here showing off her amazing homemade Italian deli style sandwich)
On August 7, we attempted to fly to St. John’s, Newfoundland…
Our flight was originally going to transfer through Edmonton, but was cancelled because of a Calgary hailstorm (classic) that damaged 16 Westjet planes.
We were rebooked to go through Calgary instead, and we got to sleep a luxurious 3 hours in a familiar bed at Don & Sheila’s before jetting off to St John’s. What a pleasant surprise!
We got to St. John’s successfully in the end, and met up with Liam, Jonny’s lifelong best friend (who now lives in St. John’s with his girlfriend Maria)!
We spent about a week in Newfoundland. We hung out with Liam a lot, got “screeched in”, played multiple rock-related games on rocky beaches, tried and failed to fish a couple times, and did a few little hikes. Newfoundland is gorgeous and unique, but most of all we were happy to spend some quality time with a treasured friend.
Liam and Wei-Wei admiring the beautiful coastline on the Stiles Cove hike.
We went chanterelle foraging! Here is WW with the first find of the day! We only found a few, but they were delicious!
Jonny and Liam created a whimsical rock stack at Beachy Cove beach!
WW and J kissing the cod as part of being “screeched-in”.
Wei-Wei and Liam chilling part way up the Signal Hill trail.
We made a lovely meal using ingredients from Maria’s family garden. Zucchini risotto, Caprese salad, smoked mackerel (caught by Liam) and sautéed chanterelles on the side.
We did a little road trip to Bonavista.
Along the way, we stopped in Carbonear and Bay Roberts to take a peek at some of Jonny’s ancestry! We also stopped in Dildo for lunch, because, well, why not.
We spent our night in Bonavista in an Airbnb that actually was a bed and breakfast. Our host made us a traditional Newfoundlander breakfast, including toutons and homemade baked beans! It was a delight.
We saw a couple of adorable puffin colonies (WW’s first time seeing them!) at Cape Bonavista Lighthouse, and near Elliston. We saw a bunch of cool rock formations formed by sea erosion, and enjoyed a classic fish-n-brewis lunch at Nanny’s Root Cellar Kitchen in Elliston.
On our way to Bonavista, we stopped by a few towns where Jonny has family history! Here he is in Carbonear, where his great-great grandfather built the old general store (now commercial space pictured below).
We also stopped by the tiny town of Dildo on our drive there! (if you look closely, you can see the Dildo sign in the background!)
There are many beautiful, striking, erosion-created rock formations along the coastline. Here is WW with the Chimney at Spillars Cove.
WW also saw puffins for the first time! They are adorable! (Also apparently you can get a decent video if you hold your phone up to the stationary binoculars!)
The charming, colourful house we stayed in in Bonavista. Any guesses as to why we felt intrigued about this spot?
Our host, Gord, was very friendly and cooked us a traditional Newfoundland breakfast, including toutons! It was delicious!
And on August 15, we flew to London, UK!
London has been lovely, we have been so lucky to be able to stay at our friends’ Nathan & Athena’s place! Thank you, friends! It’s in a beautiful, peaceful neighbourhood and we feel like this is what we love most about travel – feeling a little bit like a local in a new place.
We have been Hustling a lot – the Hustle scene here is so vibrant and we’ve gotten to meet so many wonderful people! Hustlers in London love a “cut & steal” circle to cap off a session, and we’ve been loving going out for drinks and/or food afterwards. It has all the best parts of a social Hustle scene that we love.
Our first day in London, we went to a park yoga class, taught by our friend Sara who we met in New York! She invited us to a bbq later that day and we got to meet a bunch of people in the Hustle community right off the bat!
A quick clip of the Hustle practice we helped organize during our stay in London!
For the first part of our stay in London, we enjoyed simply having some slow days and cooking at home.
We took a weekend trip to Scotland!
We decided to go to Scotland for a few days to catch the last few days of Edinburgh Fringe Festival! The Edinburgh Fringe is the original Fringe festival (that has inspired many other cities around the world) and we were so glad to catch a few days of it. Edinburgh is beautiful and was miraculously sunny while we were there. We managed to catch 8 shows in 2 days!
Neither of us had seen her comedy special, but this show was really great. It started off a bit stilted as she jumped from bit to bit but slowly she revealed how fame has affected her life, it flowed much better.
Yeah, this is what a great fringe show should be!
This was maybe… too immersive for a person that already has some flight anxiety…
We loved this one-man show! It was immensely funny and unexpectedly touching.
Free comedy! Woo!
Clown/circus show with an all female cast! It was surprisingly funny! Beautiful venue too.
Stand up – this was our only “meh” show, the jokes felt a bit out of date. It was pretty funny to hear the comedian’s family heckle him from the audience however!
Super good classic sketch style improv! They even used WW’s suggestion for a prompt!
We also decided to head to Glasgow for just a day to see some of the famed beauty Scotland is known for. We trekked to Balloch to do a hike up Conic Hill to see Loch Lomond, but bumped into some truly Scottish weather. It rained the whole time and in some places, our trail was literally a raging unavoidable stream of water.
After getting to the end of our hike, we were in a cafe, huddled over a hot chocolate and sopping wet from head to toe, when outside, the clouds parted, the sun shone down, and a literal rainbow stretched across the blue sky. Hysterical! Pure suffering, no views, but it certainly makes for a fun story!
The next day, we checked out the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art and the Glasgow Necropolis before heading back down to London.
What a beautiful, clear view of Loch Lomond…
The rainbow that appeared after our hike that induced literal hysteric giggling.
Back to London!
We closed off August in London by:
- picnicking in Hampstead Heath (a park near our place)
- scrapbooking at home
- seeing Sir John Soane’s museum and the British Museum
- more Hustle
- seeing the spectacular Fuerza Bruta: Aven at the Roundhouse
Sir John Soane was an architect and collector and his museum/home was packed to the brim with so many different things. Including a picture wall that opens to reveal more layers of paintings.
Picnic and reading!
A Rapa Nui statue: Hoa Hakananai’a at the British Museum. One of many items in the museum that the original owners want back.
At the end of “Fuerza Bruta: Aven” the ceiling rained water on the audience and we got very very wet! We only realized afterwards that it was only our section of the audience that got soaked…
For more photos, check out this Google Photos album.
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Oh wow! Looks like such a good time in the East-east coast and in the UK 😀 Can’t wait to see what’s next on your trip <3
love you and miss you! and yes it’s definitely the east-east coast hehe
At least Wei Wei’s getting good use out of the souwester!! Was great seeing you guys!
i was truly so excited to wear it! too bad we got drenched all the way through, but at least the top of my head was niice and dry! was so lovely seeing you 🙂
you guys are living da life!! love imagining that day of swimming through scotland, and sounds like a great fringe!
also very cool hustle outfit, weiwei 👀
it truly does feel like the life right now C: heehee thank you! been having fun with the fashion a lot lately!!!