It’s been a while…
HEY STRANGERS!
So, it’s been a while. The last time we spoke, was just after our West Coast Road Trip from our home here in Kelowna, BC all the way down to Las Vegas and back! We hit some pretty iconic spots on the way, and we wrote all about it on this blog. Then we went a little M.I.A and truth be told, for a while there we were a little lost. We didn’t know what to post, what we were doing or where we were going with this website as a whole. We’re ready now though and we’re excited to catch you up on everything we’ve gotten up to in the past year and a half.
Since the road trip
Since our West Coast Road Trip back in September 2023, we’ve been to: Orlando, back home to the UK (three times), Whistler, Silverwood Theme Park, Alaska, Vancouver, Disneyland, and San Diego.
2024 brought a year of challenges that we definitely weren’t ready to face and completely changed our outlook on life, our priorities and our goals for the future. It was a tough year, especially for Jake, but we made it through together.
2024 Recap
Celebrating New Year’s in Orlando, FL
Our 2024 started in the most Magical Place on Earth, Walt Disney World, where we rung in the new year on the Animal Kingdom Lodge pool deck with some sparkling apple juice, paper hats and a lot of noise makers.
We enjoyed a two-week Disney vacation with Jake’s parents and our friend, Hannah, who surprised us on the trip! Whilst at Walt Disney World, Jake and his mum also ran the Walt Disney World Marathon (we’re all still very proud of them both).
While we were in Orlando, we also got the opportunity to check out our wedding venue for the first time & talk to some of the wonderful people at Disney Fairytale Weddings to get an idea of cost, dates and decor!
Disney wasn’t the only fun we had in Orlando, we also visited Sea World, Discovery Cove and Universal Studios! You can catch up with the whole adventure here.
Back to the UK (the first time)!
After returning back home to Kelowna, we spent a few months entertaining ourselves locally by going to local attractions, hockey games and bunkering down for the winter before flying back to the UK for a friend’s wedding.
This trip home was all about friends and family, we attended a wedding, went on nights out, enjoyed some UK attractions like Chester Zoo and Alton Towers before flying back to Kelowna for the summer! You can catch up on our UK antics, here!
Unfortunately, we weren’t back home in Kelowna for very long.
Around three weeks after we got back from our UK trip, we got the phone call that everyone dreads, telling us “you have to come home right away”. We got the news that Jake’s dad had suffered a serious heart attack and was in critical care; so, we booked the first flight home from Vancouver and 24 hours later we were walking through the doors of Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
We spent a month in the UK, practically living off of hospital vending machine food, only going home to sleep before getting up the next day and heading back to the hospital. Because of everything that was going on, we didn’t know if our life in Canada had come to an end, if we were going to be able to come back and live here full-time again. Fortunately, Jake’s dad did come out of intensive care, was placed on a ward and began his road to recovery. After a few weeks of his dad being on the ward and showing visible signs of improvement, Jake decided he was comfortable and confident enough for us to return back to Canada and pick up our lives again. This was a very difficult decision for us both as we really didn’t want to leave the family behind again, we kind of left with the looming feeling of “what if something else happens”.
Almost a year on, Jake’s dad is back home but still recovering, whilst we’re happy with his progress and feel comfortable being back in Canada, the whole ordeal really put things into perspective for us and has been the driving force in some big decisions moving forward.
Summertime in beautiful British Columbia
After returning back to Canada after a month in the UK, money was tight as we hadn’t worked/earned for over a month at this point so we made the most of our own back yard! Living in Kelowna, especially during the summertime, is such a blessing. We get to live where others vacation and we definitely made the most of it in the summer of 2024.
We had bought a paddle board from Costco just before going back to the UK so we were super eager to use that and it is how we spent most of our weekends last summer. We enjoyed paddle boarding after work, on the weekends, with friends and just as a way to unplug and spend quality time together with minimal distractions.
Aside from paddle boarding, we did also make a few local trips to Revelstoke and Whistler! We visited Revelstoke for the day on my birthday in July where we explored the fantastic farmers market, the local trails and the Meadows in the Sky Parkway.
In August we made our way into the mountains for a weekend in Whistler. We had been dreaming about visiting Whistler since we got to Canada back in 2022, so after seeing countless Instagram ads throughout the summer for an event called “Vallea Lumina” we finally headed up the Sea to Sky and on to Whistler. Whistler village was everything we hoped for and more, we’re still hoping to get back sometime soon…
Silverwood Theme Park, Idaho
The weekend after we returned home from Whistler, we decided we wanted another adventure. We had just bought a new GoPro Max and wanted to give it a test run on some rollercoasters (duh), plus Silverwood had been a place that peaked our curiosity a few years ago, but we never found a good time to actually visit until now.
So, we booked a last minute airbnb not too far from the park & Jake sent a somewhat cheeky email to the marketing team over at Silverwood to let them know we would be coming to film a video for our Youtube channel & that we would be hoping to bring our GoPro onto the rides – this lead to Silverwood very kindly gifting us a pair of tickets to the theme park AND waterpark, Boulder Beach!
If you want to watch the Silverwood & Boulder Beach videos, you can find them linked here (top tip: do not watch the Silverwood video with headphones, Jake’s a screamer).
We applied for Canadian Permanent Residency!
In August we also applied for Canadian Permanent Residency – no news as of right now, but we’re still keeping all fingers and toes crossed for good news!
Alaskan Cruise onboard Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas
In September we set our sights on the open ocean! We left our home in Kelowna and drove to Seattle for a weekend trip before boarding Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas for a week-long Alaskan cruise!
Whilst onboard we did A LOT of exploring, we even filmed an entire ship tour which you can find here!
But of course, you go on an Alaskan cruise for the ports of call! Our first of which was Sitka, where we didn’t have an excursion booked but made the most of a local’s recommendations to visit the Sitka Science Centre and the Sitka National Historic Park, which has a lot of indigenous and Russian history! The park’s main walkway also ran along a river bank which allowed for a ton of wildlife spotting, including: seals, otters, salmon, and birds!
Next up we docked in Skagway where we started our day with a coffee from The Sittin’ Sasquatch and some nachos from the famous Red Onion Saloon, known for its scandalous past. After our wander through the town of Skagway we boarded the Scenic Whitepass & Yukon Railway which offered stunning views of Skagway and the local mountain range as we made our way north towards Canada! We even took a little skip across the boarder, into BC, before turning around and heading back to Skagway. This three-hour excursion was definitely worth the price, we especially loved the access to the outdoor platforms where you could really take in the mountain air, breathtaking scenery and just watch the natural world go by.
Our final Alaskan port of call was the state’s capital, Juneau. Once disembarking the ship in Juneau we hopped on a school bus and drove out to Mendenhall Glacier where we took a “glacier view” kayaking tour. This excursion was one that didn’t quite feel worth the money to us, the description on the website was rather misleading as we, and our fellow excursion goers, believed we would be kayaking at least near the glacier but it turned out to be a few miles away and just about visible depending on how good your camera is. However, we still enjoyed our excursion, our tour guide Cassie was the saving grace and made the whole thing so much fun! After our morning of kayaking we headed into the town of Juneau to do some souvenir shopping and grab a bite to eat before getting back on board the Quantum of the Seas.
We then had one more day at sea before heading to our final port of call, this time in Canada: Victoria, BC! In Victoria we boarded the Orca Spirit and set out to find orca, humpbacks, seals and sea lions. We absolutely loved this excursion, we enjoyed talking with the crew of the Orca Spirit who were so knowledgeable, friendly and passionate about the animals they spend every day with.
If you have a few hours to spare you can watch our ENTIRE ALASKAN ADVENTURE in one video OR you can find the playlist here!
I’ll be home for Christmas
For our final trip of 2024, we headed home for the holidays. After the year that Jake’s family had, we wanted to spend Christmas with the family and enjoy the festivities together. So we flew home for a six-day whirlwind visit where we enjoyed TWO Christmas dinners before flying back to our home in Kelowna and enjoying a third Christmas dinner, this time prepared by yours truly.
What’s next in 2025?
A new year bring new hopes, dreams and goals! In 2024 our little YouTube channel grew to 30,000 subscribers!! In 2025, we want to reach the ambitious goal of 70,000 and have some exciting plans to help us get there.
Starting the year, we ventured to the immaculate vibes of Vancouver, BC for a winter weekend getaway. January closed with the start of our 2 weeks in Southern California, where we visit the Walt Disney Studio lot, Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm, Disneyland (for 5 days!), run the Disneyland Half Marathon, take an Amtrak train to San Diego and wrap up by visiting SeaWorld San Diego and the San Diego Zoo! This whirlwind trip was incredible and you can follow the adventures through our vlog playlist, here.
Our next plans for the year will see us riding the rails once again as we take an overnight train from Seattle to San Francisco (24 hours in coach – wish us luck). And we’ve got some other super exciting plans to share… once we know if we’ve gotten Canadian Permanent Residency!
West Coast road trip, Kelowna BC, Las Vegas road trip, travel blog, family travel, West Coast adventure, road trip travel, theme park visits, 2024 travel recap, Disney vacation, Walt Disney World marathon, Disney Fairytale Weddings, Orlando Florida vacation, SeaWorld Orlando, Universal Studios Orlando, wedding venue tour, UK travel, Chester Zoo, Alton Towers, UK weddings, hospital emergency, Blackpool Victoria Hospital, Kelowna summer, paddleboarding Kelowna, Revelstoke travel, Whistler BC, Vallea Lumina, Silverwood Theme Park, Boulder Beach, GoPro Max, Canadian Permanent Residency, Alaskan cruise, Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas, Sitka Alaska, Skagway Alaska, Juneau Alaska, Victoria BC, Orca Spirit whale watching, Mendenhall Glacier, Christmas travel, Vancouver winter getaway, Southern California travel, Disneyland Half Marathon, Amtrak train San Francisco, 2025 travel goals, Super Nintendo World, San Diego Zoo, travel vlog, couple adventures, Canadian expats, Kelowna life, 2024 recap, dream travel destinations, family-friendly vacation spots, Vancouver BC tourism, hiking Whistler, Canadian lifestyle blog
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