Month in Review: April 2022

And just like that, April has come and gone! This has been a fun month with lots of errands and outings to keep me busy. It felt like April flew by and I’m excited for warmer days ahead in May.

Highlights

April started off with an awesome highlights: a girls’ weekend away at Tigh-Na-Mara spa in Parksville with some of my colleagues. It was so nice to spend time with each other outside of work, get a glorious facial at the spa, enjoy endless tapas dining, and eat all the snacks while we watched (AKA judged the outfits worn during) The Grammys.

After living in Vancouver for 12 years I have finally made it up to Grouse Mountain courtesy of my mom and her friend’s free passes. While I wasn’t exactly prepared for the experience (I didn’t understand how much snow there would be!), I did love the views and delicious dessert at the Altitudes Bistro.

We continued to updated our Yaletown apartment this month. We purchased a new couch (the 5th we’ve had for this place!) and our patio is all ready to go. I think I might write up a separate post about our patio makeover because it’s been such a labour of love to source all the things for it.

Lastly, we got to see Colin’s family this month at a big birthday dinner for his Uncle George. It was so nice to connect with that side of the family and meet some of the newest family members!

Lowlights

April was a pretty awesome month so I luckily don’t have too many lowlights to speak of. We borrowed Colin’s mom’s car while she was away and spent a weekend running all the errands in Richmond. While it was so nice to have a car, it was exhausting going to IKEA (twice!), Walmart, No Frills, and three other furniture stores.

It would also have been nice to get a little more sun in April. Yes, we did have some sunny days but it also rained a bunch too. I can’t wait to take the tarp off our patio furniture for good!

Best watch

April was a big TV month for us! I rediscovered my love for Downton Abbey, picking up where I left off after (spoiler alert!) Matthew and Sybil’s deaths and finishing the series just in time for the next movie release in May.

Colin and I got really into the “dramatized fraudster limited series” niche watching Inventing Anna, WeCrashed and The Dropout. And for some lighter shows, we’ve been laughing our butts off with Girls5Eva and Single Parents. Honestly, I recommend all of these shows!

What’s cooking?

Three stand out meals from April were:

• A huge takeout feast from Tasty Indian Bistro
• Beet panacotta, smoked salmon, roe, arugula and crackers from our endless tapas dining experience at Tigh-Na-Mara
• Sticky toffee pudding from Altitudes Bistro on Grouse Mountain

And an honourable mention to the roast duck Colin made us that was also very delicious!

Posts from this month

This month on Teaspoon of Adventure I published:

• 5 Day Cabot Trail Itinerary on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia
• Which Online Photo Book Service Is Best?
• How Has Travel Changed in 2022?

Check out any of the posts you’ve missed!

For my throwback post of the month, I’m going back to April 2019: Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting Angkor Wat. I have such fond memories of our time in Cambodia where Angkor Wat completely blew me away. I can’t wait to travel in that part of the world again soon.

Reads

This month, I’ve finished reading:

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
After a few months of not finishing a single book, I’m glad I finally got one under my belt. And what a great one to break my reading slump! I love Rebecca Serle and her latest was another hit for me. She writes incredibly heartfelt and smart fiction that is the perfect balance between light and tearjerker. Of course, it didn’t hurt that this one was set on the beautiful Amalfi Coast in Positano, Italy!

Travels

While I didn’t leave the province this month, I’d like to count a few of my local trips under the travel section. Our weekend away in Parksville was such a fun getaway. Outside of the spa, I loved hanging with my work friends and checking out the beach.

I also think our weekend in Richmond and trip up to Grouse Mountain should count as travel! We spent entirely too long in Richmond (including having to drive there a second day to return the wrong size pillow inserts to IKEA) and we had to take a gondola to get up to Grouse, which was a trip in my eyes!

Where we have travelled in April:

• April 2014: In April 2014, while I was studying abroad in Amsterdam, I travelled to Italy with a friend of mine. We visited Rome and Naples, and then I spent some time in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. It was an amazing trip and definitely part of the reason why I love Italy!
• April 2016: April 2016 marks the best flight deal I think I may have ever found: $63 CAD round trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles. Colin, his mom and I flew down for a few days at Universal Studios and the beach, and we took in Clippers and Ducks games.
• April 2018: More amazing flight deals! April 2018 took us to Ireland for 10 days of beautiful scenery and lots of pub food ($400 round trip from Vancouver) and then for a long weekend in Austin, Texas for funky art and even more good food ($40 round trip from Seattle).

Gratitude

I’m really grateful for moments of connection this month. I was recently reading my life in lockdown post from April 2020 and everything felt so unsure and isolated back then. That’s not to say the world is fixed (because it definitely isn’t!) but I am so grateful to be able to leave the house and see people.

I loved spending time with my work friends at the spa, going to the top of a mountain with my mom, improving our home with Colin, meeting up with friends, and seeing lots of family at a birthday dinner.

Coming up next

I am so excited because next month we are finally going on another international trip: We’re starting May off with five days in New York City! I cannot wait to check out all the sights we missed during our first trip to New York, watch SIX on Broadway and eat all of the incredible food.