The Unexpected Adventure of our Lives!

Mary Tyler & More was always a way people remembered our names... the "more" being the certain je ne sais quoi we'd bring to the proverbial table. Well the figurative "more" has grown into literally more Mary and Tyler...yup, we had a baby!

If you're slightly taken aback by this revelation, don't worry, you're not alone. We ourselves were also surprised by the initial news. And then surprised again by his 6-week early arrival, and then again with how much we absolutely love this little babe. Although parenthood was not something Tyler nor I had seen for ourselves, here we are loving, learning, laughing ....and sometimes crying through it.

The beginning, middle and culmination!

Despite having made very little waves on social media (this kid has got his whole life to be an internet sensation), little babe has made big tsunami swells in our once D.I.N.K lifestyle. (If you do want some seriously adorable baby content, send us a message and we will gladly spam your inbox).

Being born early, babe spent some extra time in the hospital.
Everyday we'd have lunch on a nearby patio that faced this mural 💕 

Yes, we are up all times of the night, squeezing little babe into the cutest outfits, flashing titties, constantly wiping up vomit and currently struggling to hold our heads up without flopping over---to be honest, sounds like a pretty good pub crawl, doesn't it? And boy, we party in this house!

From the word go, we have loved sharing our lives and adventures with our little beanie baby. Watching a shadowy fleck on an ultrasound screen grow into a real-life tiny human who is experiencing everything for the first time is pretty awesome! From feeling the ocean wind on his little face, being annoyed with the snowy, cold weather (you may have been born during the hottest Vancouver summer on record...but sorry babe, you are Canadian) to being shy with his own reflection--- the first smiles and giggles, first hugs and kisses, first babbles and cries; everyday is a new adventure!

So that's what we've been up to lately!

Here We Van-Again!

You all know that we love a good recreational vehicle. From motorcycle tours in Korea, roadtripping in Australia and vanlife in the Balkans, it's our favourite way to travel. After moving back to Canada, where the national fondness for camping and outdoor living is profound, naturally we wanted to get back in the scene. We've dipped our toes, been burned and are now ready to love again. Truly, it's been a bit of a bumpy road, but the soap opera (albeit melodramatic) saga continues!  

So back in March 2020 we, along with with rest of the world, found ourselves unexpectedly grounded. Super bummed that our Spring Break in Mexico was canceled, it was the motivation we needed to start the hunt for our next rolling home. Turns out, that's what everyone else thought they'd do as well, and it was rough out there. We saw some really lived in RVs, vans and motorhomes. The characters you meet in the RV world are the real deal (ranging from Pinterest crafty bloggers all the way to modern-day draft dodgers...and to be honest, we dig all folks on the RV spectrum) The kicker was, no matter what we were looking at, the prices were absurd--toilet paper and RVs were at a premium as the world grappled with the globals crisis. 

Sometimes you gotta kiss a lot a frogs, am I right?

We had some feelers out there and got a lead on a 27 ft Class C Corsair. Admittedly a lot more real-estate than we have piloted in the past, it looked sweet, the previous owner had taken great care of it, and the price was right. So we bought it sight unseen (so to speak) as we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into with an actual motor home. As evident when we were about to pull away, and the seller hesitantly asked "You ever driven something this big?" Uhhh, nope!--Our plan was to drive slow and take the corners wide!

Settling right into that RV life!

I know some of you had seen our Corsair excitement hit Instagram...and then never heard tell of it again. Well, here's a brief story of our very brief foyer into the motorhome world. 

So our plan was to update the RV (falling into the Pinterest-ish camp of RVers) and fully move into it after a month when we would continue to teach online and enjoy some of the freedoms of remote teaching. Everyday we'd finish our day of Zoom classes, head on over to the Walmart parking lot (in North America, Walmart parking lots are free and clear for overnight camping...just to add to the overall ambiance), and start renovating. I'm sure when Walmart opened their parking lots up to overnight camping they exactly envisioned people parking for 3+ weeks and gutting their RVs. We basically slapped white paint on everything, tiled the kitchen and replaced the shag. We had a blast doing it, and were pretty happy with the way it was all shaping up. As the pandemic continued to unfold, the snowbirds whom we were housesitting for were unable to get back to Canada, so we had some unexpected bonus time before moving into the RV. We thought we'd use the gift of time to update the bedroom too. First thing Tyler did was unscrew the headboard from the wall...which was apparently integral to the entire structure of the back of the RV, because Whoa! Two words-- water damage. Two more words--- broken hearts. And just like that our RV dream was drown. The more we tore away at the soddened walls, floor and ceiling, the more dampened our spirits got. Recognizing this was a job that was definitely beyond our construction capabilities, let alone possible to be done in the Walmart parking lot with our most basic of tools, we decided to let it go. In the end, we sold it for what we bought it for, occupied our time during covid lockdown and learned a couple things, so really no harm, no foul. The only legacy the Corsair leaves behind is a new family catch phrase "They've got water damage"every time we see a RV cruise on by.

Before, during and after!

My fave part of the whole reno was the tiled kitchen!

Annnddd this is as far as we got with the bedroom 😳

Ok, so fast forward a year and a half later. Our recreational vehicle dream has never and will never die. Although the past year has thrown us some curveballs (pandemic, broken foot, an unplanned pregnancy resulting in the sweetest little toddle-baby) we have always kept our eyes, ears and hearts open for the right little gem to pop up. We knew we did not want to get into a RV again (the rot was just too much for our hearts to handle), and now that we have a babe who requires a carseat, we need something with at least one seat in the back. So we've waited for something right, and we've found her! ---Well actually, we can take none of the credit. Tyler's brother Micah found the van, did all the wheelings and dealings and deserves huge kudos---And a big bottle of whiskey for his troubles-- So we're back in the business of a van build!! So so excited to start planning and converting the new rig, as well as share the van lifestyle with our baby and explore on four wheels once again!

Photo cred goes out to the shop in Edmonton!...That's as specific as I can be.

** Update: Van life has been stalled once more, as the mountain highways that connect Vancouver to the rest of the country have been washed out by devastating floods and mudslides. Why does this affect our van viability? Well, as mentioned Tyler's brother found us the van. Micah and the van live in Edmonton,  which is 13 hours and a couple mountain ranges away from Vancouver. So that's where the van will remain until...well, who knows!

Revelstoke Roadie

Circa November 2020~ If you've been following our travels for a while, you may have noticed that we never share much about our Canadian adventures--Our time at home always feels quite personal, relatively mundane and so familiar, that it's hard to imagine that anyone would want to read (and in my case write) about our comings and goings in the Great White North. But alas, we haven't travelled anywhere outside of Canada since November 2019 (WILD), and I'm finding myself with more time to write these days (shoutout to the unemployed👐) so let's crack into some homegrown travel stories.

I often get thinking about timelines and where we were and what we were doing at this time a year ago (5 years ago, 10 years ago, etc.) Let's take it back to exactly one year ago. We were still strongly discouraged to travel outside of our province (let alone internationally), but were really feeling the need to stretch our wings beyond the city limits. Working within pandemic parameters, we decided to strike out on a 10 day road trip, looping through the mountains on the hunt for some hot springs and big vista views. Luckily, around every corner in British Columbia is another stunning panorama and the impressive peaks are endless--not a lot of planing was needed!

Turns out November has always been a good travel month for us!

....But first wine (always). Breezing through B.C's biggest wine region --Kelowna/Okanagan Valley-- for a couple nights, we reunited with friends from university, and checked out the city. This area is busting full of wineries and vineyards, lakes and mountains (basically a bachelorette party haven). 

From Kelowna we meandered towards Nelson

Literally overnight we went from sunny, crisp autumn to a dreamy, white winter wonderland. As we rolled into Fairmont Hot Springs, as far as I could tell it is a stop on the highway that includes a couple of hotels, a mini mall, a population of less than 500 people...and of course, its namesake and raison d'etre, hot springs! We arrived just as the snow began to fall, and it was absolutely mountain magic! 

Big steamy pools at Fairmont Hot Spring Resort

We first hit up the natural hot springs (opposed to the hotel pools where they pipe the water in). We trudged through the snow in our winter boots, bikini bottoms and parkas, equipped with a soggy box of wine, eager to sit in a puddle of tepid water that smells like farts...Screams winter magic, doesn't it? Given this was a random weekday in November with sub-zero temps, we had those puddles all to ourselves! It was magical in that silence that comes when the snow falls all around you. It really felt like we were the only people in existence. After being sufficiently soused, we sprinted back to the quintessential mountain lodge to adorn ourselves with robes, before our evening soak in the steaming pools at the hotel. Then came our morning soak, midday soak, afternoons soak, and again, evening soak. Honestly, basing any holiday around sitting in the tub for hours is, in my opinion, the way to go. So after a couple days, us pruned raisins reluctantly put our pants back on and continued the drive, heading straight through the rockies.

After driving through some pretty big mountain passes, and thanking our lucky stars we had a clear blue day for the drive, we arrived in Revelstoke. To our delight, we woke up the next morning to LOTS of big fluffy snow! The first big snow of the season is always so exciting (ask us how we feel about snow in March after sloshing around in it for 4 months). After a day of reveling in the winter wonderland and frolicking around town, we started to think about the coming day's drive. Would our all-season tires guide us safely home through the snowy mountains? (In Canada our cars wear their winter boots too--Tires get switched over to a more grippier winter version for safety reasons.) In true Mary and Tyler fashion, we started calling around in a slight panic, asking if there was any way we could 1)buy winter tires, and 2)could they be put on...like today. When we got a resounding "No" (nothing available for 6+weeks), we then followed-up with question #3 "Do you think our all-season tires will make it through the mountains?" With notable hesitation from everyone we asked, we knew we had to make a new plan. You see, the problem was that the fastest, most direct route back to Vancouver was up and over the Coquihalla highway mountain pass...which has some pretty unpredictable weather and frequently gets shut down in the winter. Enough so that the highway has inspired a TV show called Highway Thru Hell, where they chronicle the driving adventures of trucks going over the mountain in the winter. Needless to say, we did not want to make our reality show debut, and needed a different route home. We ended up taking a slightly longer, less snowy, death-defying highway home that turned out to be a really beautiful drive...and we arrived safe and sound--Win, win!!

....Oh! And a year later, we still don't have winter tires.

Not no snow, but decidedly way less snow.

As we settled back into the monotony of pandemic lockdown life, we knew we'd likely be sticking close to home for awhile.... Little did we know the next big adventure was already underway!