Ray and I haven’t been doing much out of the usual since my last post – he kayaked, hiked and cycled, I dragon boated, tutored and did crosswords – so I’m relying on Nick to provide the fodder for this week’s blog.
After 5 weeks, 186 kilometres hiked, 12,000 metres of elevation climbed – the equivalent of climbing from base camp to the summit of Mount Everest three times – Nick is back home.
While in Vancouver, Nick did a challenging 34 km hike up to Panorama Ridge and Black Tusk in Garibaldi National Park. He said that Jen’s nutritious meals gave him a ton of energy and he did the climb with no breaks, finishing several hours faster than the estimated time to complete the hike.
The following day, Nick returned the rental car and settled in for a 15-hour overnight bus ride to Canmore Alberta. He arrived early in the morning, having had several long naps on the ride, so he decided to do another challenging hike on the Grotto Mountain Trail.
I wasn’t thrilled with him doing these potentially dangerous solo hikes in grizzly country, but he helped ease my concerns by face-timing occasionally along the way to show us a panoramic view or introduce us to his travelling companions.
A storm rolled in unexpectedly on his descent, which he found a bit unnerving, but he made it down ahead of the worst of it and got to try out his new hiking gear.
During one of Nick’s video-calls with Ray and I, my sister overheard him say he was broke.
Karen: He said he’s broke. Should I send him money?
Me: No. He’s not broke. He’s on a 5-week vacation. He’s fine.
Karen: But he said he was broke.
Me: He’s a student. He’s SUPPOSED to be broke!
Karen: [messaging Nick] Should I send you money?
Nick, to his credit, said no, then proceeded to buy himself an Osprey backpack, an Arc’teryx jacket, a Tilley hat, and new hiking shoes (all great deals, of course). Apparently he wasn’t broke after all…though he may be now.
On his second day in Canmore, the forecast called for rain. Relieved, I sent him a message, “no climbing today I guess”. He responded by sending me a pic from inside the Canmore climbing gym. *sigh* He’s definitely his father’s son.
Third day in Canmore he did a shorter solo hike in the morning, then met up with his second cousins Louisa and Victoria, who’d driven from Calgary to pick him up. The three of them went for an afternoon hike, before driving back to my cousin’s house in Calgary, where he ate enough food to gain back a chunk of the weight he’d lost over the previous month. He said it was great to just chill there for a few days – though he still managed to fit in a visit to the climbing gym with Victoria – before flying home.
One of the purposes of this trip was for Nick and Megan to get a feel for which western cities they’d like to live in, before they start applying for jobs during their final year at Queen’s. It will come as no surprise to those who know Nick that he created a rating system to rank the cities. A rating system is a great way to analyze the data, but his criteria can sometimes be…questionable. When choosing a university, one item on the pro list was ‘unlimited chocolate milk in the cafeteria’, and when making a list of companies he wants to apply to, he eliminated one because it reminds him of his summer landscaping job, and another because its logo ‘looks like it was designed by an 8th grader 30 years ago’.
For the city assessment, Nick and Megan used six criteria:
- affordability
- opportunity (i.e., jobs)
- nature (e.g., mountains, green space)
- infrastructure (i.e., does it have ‘cool buildings’)
- general vibe
- smell
They assessed Kingston, Toronto, Vancouver, Squamish, Calgary, Seattle and Portland. I’m pretty sure Kingston and Toronto were never really in the running. Calgary came out on top. I suggested they should do the trip again in February for a more accurate assessment. You might be left wondering why ‘smell’ is a criterion and not seemingly more important factors, like climate, safety, or proximity to family. We asked and were told, “That’s all part of the vibe”.
We now have Nick with us for 48 hours. Karen picked him up at the airport and drove him to Oshawa (mostly because she loves chatting with him), and I met them in Oshawa after spending a fun afternoon at the zoo with Sarah and April.
In my defence, he is my ONLY nephew and he said he was a poor, broke university student so of course I had to help! Sounds like he’s doing fine though with all that new gear and he did leave me a toonie for driving him from the airport to Oshawa so he can’t be that bad off.
We also had a bit of a discussion on who had more mentions on the blog, which resulted in some quick research and Nick determining that he was the winner.
I guess that makes sense. He’s a pretty amazing kid. Oops…man.
Well, also I rarely refer to you by name in the blog, so if he searched on ‘sister’ you might have won.
There’s so much here to comment on. First, it’s hilarious when you say you haven’t done much (hiking, cycling, kayaking, dragon boating and tutoring – didn’t count the crosswords because I have a cantankerous relationship with crosswords). I move from the couch to the back patio and back to the couch. ha! Nick is amazing and it’s just so lovely to see how both you and Ray are in his character – and his face! I see his smile and I see you and it makes me smile. His photos are stunning. I’m wondering how you’ll manage the pull between where he lives and where Karen lives… where will you end up? Your sister weekends have inspired me because my sister (who I’m really close with – she lives in Vancouver) and I are going to start doing get-aways just the two of us. Life is short and sisters are amazing. Another wonderful post Carolyn, I feel like I know you all and it’s such a gift.
You always leave such lovely thoughtful comments! They make my day.
A very large portion of my week is made up of moving between back patio and couch as well. I imagine we’ll end up dividing our time between Ontario and wherever he ends up, with more sister trips out west. I’m so glad you and your sister are spending more time together. Sisters are awesome. 🙂
So many amazing things to comment on. I’ll just add that I like that Nick appreciates branding.
What a kid 😉 (and photographer)