Taking Off On Our Vancouver Adventure!

We’re 2 weeks into The Great Taylor Adventure! With my husband’s job as a professor, he gets the opportunity to apply for a sabbatical every 6 years. So this year, we are taking our first one. We’re spending the next 6 months in Vancouver, BC. How did we choose Vancouver?? With our littles being so… little, we wanted something that was not super exotic (ie. English speaking, since they’re still learning how to pronounce some of their letters. AND we need to be able to get baby wipes and the occasional box of mac & cheese without trouble), but still offered us a big change in location and culture. Here’s the crazy thing though... we’re homebodies. We’re not adventurous people, yet here we are!

In our normal Orlando life, we don’t go on adventures. We have all the entertainment around us in Florida - water parks, theme parks, museums, hiking destinations, natural springs, beaches… but we don’t do any of it! That’s actually kind of embarrassing to admit. Since we moved to Florida, we haven’t been to a single natural spring to see manatees. We haven’t been to Universal, or any of the water parks. We never go hiking. We used to have Disney passes, but they expired and we only used them a handful of times when we had them. We are lame.

Our front porch is our favorite place at home.

We stick to our routine, spend a lot of time in our jammies, and we eat most of our meals around our own dinner table. My favorite time of year is the holiday season because we can snuggle in with candlelight, soup on the stove, and family games. Serious homebodies here, especially when it’s chilly outside. Shannon and I moved to Florida from Chicago more than 6 years ago and we became totally accustomed to warm weather and sunshine almost immediately.

A few weeks ago, we went to Illinois to visit family for the holidays and it was COLD. The kids have to wear winter coats exactly 1 time each year - when we visit our family for the holidays. And everytime, they completely lose their minds. This year, once again, they both freaked out about having to put them on and we had to fight about it. All I could think about was “God, I don’t want to fight every single time we leave home when we’re in Vancouver.” I had no idea what to expect, but it did not look good for our “adventuring” plans.

And what about the lack of sunlight?? Before living in Florida, I lived my entire life in the North. I’ve experienced 30 long and cold winters in the Midwest and the East Coast - from Peoria, IL to Columbia, MO to Providence, RI to New York City, and then back to Chicago. I’m no newbie to cold and gray weather, but man have I gotten used to that Florida sunshine! During winters in the North, it was the gray that really brought me down. Day after day without sunshine… it was oppressive. Will I struggle here without the sun?

I had so many questions and unknowns and worries while preparing for this journey. I just kept thinking, “What if we don’t do enough? What if we get there and we stay inside because it’s cold and rainy and the kids hate it? What if I hate it??”

Not to mention, “What if we never sleep again??” In our apartment here, there are 2 bedrooms with exactly 2 beds… total. Vancouver is crazy expensive. It’s sort of in between Chicago and New York City in terms of living expenses. A 2-bedroom apartment is what we can comfortably rent, so A & M have to share a room and sleep together in the same bed. They’ve always had separate rooms. HOW in the world would they learn to sleep together?? Sleep is always a major source of anxiety for me, so this was a massive worry.

So what the h*ll are we doing in Vancouver, the land of tiny apartments, expensive living, outdoor adventure, cold weather and gray skies?! It would have been so much easier and more comfortable to stay in Orlando, skip the sabbatical opportunity, and continue living our regular routine life. We would have saved ourselves so much stress and anxiety and SO much money. But, choosing the easy way would mean we’d miss out on so much growth and greatness. I know we would regret it.

So, we’re pushing ourselves. We’re putting on new hats (literally and figuratively) and becoming adventurers no matter how uncomfortable it makes us. We’re teaching our kids how to push themselves beyond the routine. We’re showing them what it looks like to have new experiences, to be brave even when you don’t know what to expect. We’re helping them learn and practice resilience. We’re exposing them to new people, new cultures, and a new lifestyle. And we’re building memories that will be with us forever.

So far, it’s all been absolutely wonderful! Surprisingly easy, and totally awesome! Our apartment is in such a cool location with lots of things to do within walking distance. Our home is….cozy, but the incredible view of the city and the mountains makes it so worth it. The kids are sleeping just fine together, (Hallelujah!!) I’m honestly blown away by their resilience. It’s like they were born to travel and have new experiences. They adapted so quickly to our new way of life - the coats, the boots, the umbrellas, the long treks in the stroller for errands, and taking the bus is like nothing for them. I guess I totally underestimated how easy this would be for them.

Our first couple of days here, I struggled to figure out how we were going to get the things we needed without a car. We needed quite a bit to make this place comfortable, it is cozy, but was furnished for people on vacation. We need to feel like we’re home here, so we had to get some pretty big things - drawers to unpack our clothes into, storage for the toys and books we brought, hangers for the closet, a proper trash can, a flipping coffee maker (!!) among other things. I’ve been so used to jumping in my car and running to Target or hopping on Amazon for same-day delivery. But here, we had to get creative. I’m happy to say, that with the help of a rolling shopping trolly, and one sweet friend, we got everything we needed!

Once we got the things we needed, I could start exploring the city and I realized that Vancouver feels a bit familiar. So much of this city reminds me of Chicago and even New york, and all my city-girl experiences are flooding back. Sure, I wasn’t pushing a stroller back then, but somehow I sort of have muscle memory for this way of life. I didn’t realize how much I missed city-living. The sparkling lights at night, the excitement and hustle, and having so much to do right at our fingertips... I have a strong feeling that this is going to be an absolutely wonderful experience for all of us.