Hello Monday ~ August 17, 2026/Vacation - Day 1

 Happy Monday friends!

I have a few things from weekend to share, but then I am finally starting some of my vacation recap.  If you need blog content, I totally recommend you going on a 2 week vacation, ha, ha!  This may take a while to get through, so hang in there with me!

First, the weekend.  Friday, I worked that morning and then spent the afternoon and early evening with Jenn being at the funeral services and then spent some time with her family afterwards.  I have loved getting to know her family over the past few years and love them too!

Thank you for praying for Jenn.  She has been so well taken care of in so many ways by her family and community of friends.  It was such a sweet service to honor Chris' life.

I caught up on making some sourdough this weekend and also bought a new dutch oven Saturday at Wal-Mart.  The lid on my previous one was not closing properly and it was well used after baking sourdough the past 3 years.

Saturday, I caught up on some things at home since last week so busy catching up with work and friends and spending some time Jenn.  Clearly, I never really even got back to regular blog posting, reading or commenting much. As much as I love this space, I take advantage of face-to-face life as much as I can.  

One of my purchases on the Alaska portion of my trip was purchasing some postcards.  I was able to get these framed and on the wall Saturday.

I watched some of the Elvis candlelight service Saturday night.  Elvis died 49 years ago yesterday.  Every year on August 15th, there is a candlelight vigil at Graceland in his memory where people light a candle (that is distributed) and walk past the meditation garden at Graceland where Elvis, his parents, his twin brother, Lisa Marie and her son are buried.  I went 2 years ago with Brook and plan to go next year on the 50th.

Speaking of Elvis, when Brook and I arrived back into Memphis last weekend, this is what we were greeted with at the airport:

This also got me remembering the time I picked up my brother, who is also a huge Elvis fan, from the airport with this:

Well, somehow, this has turned into an Elvis post! I have so many more random Elvis pictures, but I will move on for now :).  

I left 3 weeks ago for a trip that I've been planning for 2 years!  I couldn't believe the time finally came! Brook took me to the airport early & I was on the way to Canada! My first stopover was Salt Lake City & seeing the beautiful mountains. Little did I know what was to come the next 2 weeks!

I once thought I would spend some time contemplating on some life things once I got on the plane, but nope, I was on the vacation of a lifetime, so I started it by watching my favorite movie, Rocky.  I love the original Rocky. Then I watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.  I forgot how funny that movie is. I may have shed a tear at both movies.

I saw this view of Mt. Rainier and so many other beautiful sights flying over the Pacific Northwest.

I landed in Vancouver, went through customs, collected my luggage and got an Uber to my hotel.  The drive into the city was so pretty seeing all the skyline. My room wasn't ready, so I dropped off my luggage and headed out to explore even though I was tired and hungry too.  I walked 10 minutes to an area called Gastown, one of the oldest areas of Vancouver.  The big attraction there is this famous steam clock that goes off every hour and draws a crowd.  There are lots of souvenir shops and restaurants in the area. I went into a food court and ended up having my first meal at a place called Fatburger.  What a way to start my vacation eating :). I skipped the bread, but the burger gave me some protein for the afternoon.

I was falling in love with Canada by this point.

I walked towards an area called Canada Place where all the cruise ships dock.  This was a huge Royal Caribbean ship, but I also saw about 4 other cruise ships here too.

From here, I took a free shuttle to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  This is a popular outdoor attraction that includes the highlight, a 460 feet long suspension bridge.  It also has a Cliffwalk and Treetop Adventures.  I walked all of these, shuttled back to Canada Place and walked 20 minutes back to my hotel.  I had clocked over 20,000 steps that first day and I didn't even leave the Vancouver airport until around 1pm that day, so most of my morning was sitting on an airplane.  Needless to say, I was pure exhausted and adjusting to Pacific time.  I was in bed by 6:30, but waited until 8:30pm to go to sleep.  It took a few days to adjust to the time change.  I went to bed a with a full, thankful heart knowing I was there and had a great first day!

Below, I was definitely falling in love with the Evergreen trees.  These were a theme of the Canada trip for me that I could not get enough of seeing!

For every tree picture you see, just know there are so many more on my camera roll!

Thank you for reading and have a great Monday!