Month in Review: July 2022

After way too many weeks of rain, Vancouver finally figured out that summer was here! And now it’s entirely too hot…

Despite the heat, this has been a really busy month for me with some big highs and big lows. So without further ado, let’s get into my month in review for July 2022!

Highlights

July started out awesome with our annual family trip to Pender Harbour. I loved eating oysters on the campfire (my new favourite way to eat oysters!), taking in the view from our family friend’s new home, and catching up with everyone during a phone-free weekend!

Back in Vancouver, I got to see some special out of town guests this month. I went out for delicious vegan Vietnamese food with Emilie and our friend, Mireille, who flew in from the UK. And a week later we hosted bmy Auntie Hayley from Toronto/Calgary for dinner on our patio.

Mid-month had a few more highlights for me! My mom and I went out for delicious happy hour seafood and then to the Jason Mraz concert. Despite having terrible seats, the show was amazing!

And then a few days later, I turned 30! I had an amazing, low-key day with Colin where we got brunch, visited Vandusen Botanical Garden, went out for a fancy seafood dinner, and then ate cake straight from the box with a fork (my birthday dream) while watching some Netflix. I also received so many lovely birthday cards and well wishes. It was a great day!

We also booked our trip to New Zealand and Australia this month, which was a HUGE highlight!

Lowlights

Unfortunately all of those highs were met with a few lows this month too, starting with our New Zealand trip. As I shared in this post, we almost weren’t able to go to New Zealand. Luckily we were able to rebook and make the dates worked, but ended up paying more than we should have.

On July 7th we were heading to bed when we noticed huge puddles of water by our fridge, washing machine and shoe closet. It turns out our upstairs neighbours had a leak that flooded into our suite. We cleaned it up and thought everything was okay, but it’s become a much bigger deal. A repair company came to assess the damage and determined that things were pretty bad under the surface.

Since then, we’ve been living with a giant dehumidifier in our apartment that has to run 24/7, is pretty loud, makes the apartment grossly hot, and has to be checked every couple of days by the repair company. And apparently once insurance gets sorted out with our landlords, we’ll have to move out while they repair the walls and ceiling. Not looking forward to that!

And after 2+ years of avoiding it, while working in a hospital the whole time, Colin finally tested positive for covid on July 20. We thought he was never going to get it! But he did and has the sore throat, headache, cough and runny nose to show for it.

We assumed after Colin tested positive that I would too, so I began isolating and testing daily. I started feeling sick about a day after Colin did but didn’t get a faint positive test until Saturday (and a strong positive on Sunday). So yup, I have covid too! 

Best watch

I watched a few episodes of The Good Place with Colin back in Prague and didn’t like it, so let him finish the series without me. But he convinced me to give it another shot recently and I loved it. We finished the series this month and cried lots during the finale. After finishing that, we decided to give The Umbrella Academy a try and while it’s not my favourite show, I’m definitely hooked. We’re just wrapping up season 3!

We also watched a few reality shows this month such as The Challenge USA and The Amazing Race Canada. Both are cheesy but we love them!

What’s cooking?

My highlight meals of July were all about seafood and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Top meals include oysters on the campfire at Pender Harbour, seafood happy hour at Fanny Bay with my mom, and the seafood tower Colin and I indulged in at Blue Water Cafe on my birthday.

I also have to shout out my birthday sweets: We started the day with waffles, stopped for a free Cartems donut in the afternoon, and ended with the chantilly cream cake from Whole Foods.

Posts from this month

This month on Teaspoon of Adventure I published:

• 8 Things I Miss About Living in Prague
• We’re Going to Australia and New Zealand!
• Where to Eat in Yaletown, Vancouver

Check out any of the posts you’ve missed!

For my throwback post of the month, I’m going back to The Top 3 Things You Must Do in Ireland from July 2018 in honour of my family travelling to Ireland next month!

My dad, stepmom, brother and grandparents are heading off for 10 days in Dublin and Belfast in just a couple of weeks. I am so excited for them! This will be their first trip to Ireland – and my stepmom’s first trip to Europe. It was so much fun to help them plan the trip and I know they’re going to have the best time!

Reads

This month, I just finished one book (but am part-way through a few more!):

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
A friends-to-enemies-to-lovers rom com with flashbacks to past travel adventures? Sign me up! This was a fun read and, of course, I especially loved all of the travel stories. While travel wasn’t the main part of the plot, it was a great backdrop to scenes of this love story.

Travels

Like many July long weekends, this month we headed up to Pender Harbour on BC’s Sunshine Coast for a Canada Day family reunion. I would have loved to travel somewhere for my 30th birthday mid-month but wasn’t able to. Maybe next year!

Where I have travelled in July:

• July 2013: While interning in Eswatini (then Swaziland) for the summer of 2013, my friend Ale and I decided to fly down to Cape Town, South Africa for a week to celebrate my birthday. We loved exploring the waterfront, shopping at the markets and seeing the penguins on Boulders Beach.
• July 2014: In 2014 I took a job in Tokyo as a chaperone for students coming to the city to learn Japanese. It was only a month-long job and perks included homestay and language lessons. It was certainly one of the coolest and most immersive travel experiences I have ever had.
• July 2017: In 2017, Colin and I headed to San Francisco for my birthday weekend. We took in the sites, ferried across to Sausalito, and saw Hamilton!
• July 2019: While living in Prague, I celebrated my 27th birthday with a weekend trip to Vienna, Austria. While I didn’t love Vienna, I did love exploring Schonbrunn Palace.
• Lots of Julys: Pender Harbour! I love that every July long weekend we get to head to Pender Harbour with Colin’s family. I’ve been going up since 2016 and Colin has been going since he was born!

Gratitude

I am so grateful for all of the birthday love I received this month! It was so nice to have so many people reach out and wish me well as I enter this next decade. I thought I might feel anxious about the big 3-0 but I’m actually feeling pretty good about it!

I’m also grateful for everyone who has checked in on us while we’ve been sick and offered to run any errands for us. While covid is certainly no fun, I’m glad we’re not completely taken out by it (thank you, vaccines!).

Coming up next

Next month we’re heading back to Toronto for a short visit to attend my friend’s wedding and catch up with some friends and family. I can’t wait to see everyone!