Practice makes perfect.

I am pretending that I am writing this post to practice adding photos to the blog but really I'm just killing time as the minutes tick closer to departure. In the spirit of travel I will post a few photos from our hike yesterday to Johnston's Canyon. I had never been there before, despite living here my entire life, and felt compelled to go after reading in a travel forum that a lady in California thought it was one of the most beautiful places she's been to!

Indeed it is lovely, but it was not really a hike in that it was more of a 'tourist walk'. You definitely went uphill and if you were completely out of shape it would've been quite difficult, but it was more of a 3 km ramble.

Julia likes to hike while Chloë isn't the hugest fan - but she was lured up the hill with the promise of a gummy shark at the halfway point and the end. Just like a carrot on a stick, but less healthy! It was so interesting to see the variety of people on the trail and the multitudes of different languages spoken. I'd say at least half of the people we encountered were from another country which we made sure to point out to the kids - they sometimes forget that we live in a very desirable place that others make a point of to visit. It's not always easy to remember how, for instance, we are so excited to go and visit Barcelona in a few days and yet there are people living in Barcelona who would love to come here!

I had always taken the beauty of the mountains for granted when I was younger, and it wasn't until I lived away from them for a few years that I came to realize how important and grounding they are to me. The air is so fresh and crisp and there isn't another place in the world that I feel I can fill my lungs up in the same capacity. Some days I'm just driving around doing errands and look out at the vista and literally want to pause and just take it in... we are really lucky to live here.

Part of realizing how lucky you are to live somewhere comes from being able to compare it to other places. Of course you could never leave your town or city and still love it unconditionally, but I think that everytime I return from a new place I find out a little more about what it is about living here that I find so special. I have been to some pretty amazing places in the world and this is still home... granted the winter weather isn't fabulous but I'll have to admit that it's really pretty, and skiing is fun!

However.... this by no way means that I can't wait to get out of here! Five more days and I'll be buckling in and checking out which movie I'll watch first. Oooh, and seeing what fancy airplane food I'll be eating. I don't know why I'm so fascinated with airplane food but I'm equally interested in train food - must be due to my childhood fascination of those little divided plates. (Who am I kidding, I still think divided plates are fun!)