Back From Haitus!

It has been a helluva long time since I got guts to get back onto the blog, I wanted to do it many times over and never got around to it. I will have to take a little bit of your time to explain what I have been up to or you have the option to skip ahead.

Excuses are just procrastination revved up to the max, as time goes on I always seem to eventually end up back at the computer thinking to myself how much I wish I was writing....so here I am. 

TADA!

Life became 'hectic' after the move to Vancouver after decided again Edmonton wasn't for me, that is right folks I moved out west again. lol A place called Burnaby for a little while. That lead us straight into April 2017 where I got another opportunity to travel again with my now husband Adam ( I am going to be name dropping him from time to time, like I said a lot has happened this year thus far.)

We packed up our bags, hopped on a plane from Kelowna -> Vancouver -> Taipei, Taiwan -> Tokyo, Japan. I thought that it would be different with a partner and it was, it was tougher than I had imagined at times and easier too. I had someone to react to and sometimes that is just more fun, to have someone to bounce ideas off of and relive experiences with in the future. 

I will make and attempt to keep the recap short, we traveled throughout Japan on the infamous JR rail pass and I finally got to see parts of Japan that I had been dying to during all these months gone by. I was really home sick for JapanLand for those who know me well enough. Unable to shake the Asian homesickness I was back and in full force where I was able to ride the rails just the way I like it, on a bullet train. 

After the two weeks of unlimited travel which is now about mid May 2017, I was ready to attempt another workaway after a bad experience in the past with Wwoofing. We found a place called Nozawaonsen home to a whopping 3400 people, a quaint ski mountain town about an hour out of Nagano. (If anyone remembers it was where the winter Olympics were once.)

Using the last day of our pass we were able to make it to Nozawa shaving off an extortionate rail prices if we weren't on the pass. I will skip the finer details and just say that we made ourselves a contact here and worked for room and board. I ended up staying here for 5 weeks total doing interior painting, sanding, oiling trim and general cleaning. 

During this time here we were able to hitch a ride to the top of the mountain and to train stations into Iiyama and Nagano city. Including discovering a free croquet course on the side of a ski hill where we eventually decided to get married. *insert awesome sound effect*

Before getting hitched in Japan, some family emergencies took us by surprise and eventually we both returned to Canada cutting our trip short. I traveled onward to Hong Kong to visit my grandmother in the hospital for 4 days before returning home. 

Back in Canada we did some camping to help us regroup near Gibsons, BC after touching down in Vancouver. The weather kissed us with the perfect camping spot at Smugglers Cove, which is still one of my favorite camping memories to date.

Of course I headed home to Edmonton, AB to visit with friends and family. Don't forget Jamtron, a music festival worth going to if you are ever in the area at the right time.

With a minor detour mini road trip to Drum Heller to learn about the underwater river which is now a dinosaur rich lands. We very quickly learned that the prairies are not ideal for camping since they home some of the strongest winds I have faced in a tent. So much so we had to tear down and to sleep in the tent before finally making our way back to the Shuswap, BC. 

This leads us to WEDDING IN 30 DAYS.