Home and Away

Here’s the thing about me: I like to think about travel. A lot. I like to plan, I like to budget, I like to fantasize, and yeah, when it comes time for the actual travel part, I like that too. But I find that I get so excited by overseas travel that I rarely give much thought to doing the same here in Canada.

I spent most of my adolescence wishing I was anything but Canadian. Give me the cobblestone streets and sidewalk cafes of Europe, or the colourful lanterns and bustling markets of the Far East any day. Give me a foreign accent, a chic sense of style, the talent to play an obscure instrument, and life would be infinitely more interesting. In a city like Vancouver, where just about everyone seems to be from somewhere else, I’m left feeling seriously lacking culture wise.

But as devoid of culture as Canada may be (don’t take that too seriously) it sure is beautiful. Unfortunately, when you’re born into a place where mountains collide with sea, where you can escape into verdant rainforests on a whim, or plunge into a clear, cool lake in the summertime, you can’t help but take the natural beauty that surrounds you for granted. It’s home. It’s comfortable. And regardless of how stunning it may be to those who haven’t spent their lives here, it’s not nearly as exciting as, say, Africa.


That said, every now and then I’m shaken out of my complacency, my indifference for this place. Every so often I see what they see – the blues and the greens and the vastness of it all. My world gets blown wide open and I appreciate, seemingly for the first time, how utterly spectacular the landscapes I’ve become so accustomed to really are.

One of my favourite parts about travel is seeing how even the most mundane things are different in other countries – items in the grocery store, street signs, public transport – things that make walking down the street an eye-opening adventure. But as exciting as that experience can be, it doesn’t come close to truly opening your eyes to the things you see every day, and coming to realize that no matter where you go and what you see, this place you call home? Is the place you want to keep coming home to.


Photos taken on a recent trip to Sechelt, British Columbia. Thanks to Ron and Diane for hosting us and showing us the beauty of the Sunshine Coast.