What an awesome weekend and this glamping site on Pender Island. WOODS on Pender opened in 2015 as the ultimate modern glamping site. Besides the gorgeous airstreams and the adorable cabins, their restaurant Coffee + Kitchen has fantastic food for breakfast and dinner... the restaurant design and decor feel very mainland blended with that charming island vibe. 

Here are some snaps from our weekend away, celebrating Mike’s belated birthday. We’ll be back for sure. 

To Whistler. Our happy place. Although for some (annoying) reason, BC Ferries did not have a 6pm ferry on Family Day Long Weekend... so we missed the 5pm due to traffic and had to wait for the 7pm :(

We left what was left of the snow in Victoria for way more snow up at Whistler. It was an amazing weekend for skiing. Honestly, the conditions have probably never been better for us. We had a horrible stay in the Village. We’re too old to stay right smack in the middle of party central. After getting up there at 11pm, all we wanted was to sleep and instead of falling asleep, we laid in bed until 3am listening to the young hooligans partying and talking about who they wanted to sex (to name two: tyra banks, jessica alba)... and then come 3:30am, apparently it’s okay for the Whistler snow ploughing companies to start moving snow around. We also had to unplug the fridge in our room because it was vibrating so much. Quite the first night. But, it got us up at 5am and got us ready to attack the day and the slopes.

Here’s some footage from the day:

This place seriously brings us so much joy. We can’t even explain it. 

Oh! And I almost forgot. We met Jon Olsson and Janni Deler at Sushi Village - this was really exciting for us. We were totally star struck because we really admire the way they live their lives and we follow them regularly. Forget the big A Listers, we were totally giddy about meeting these two in our favourite place. You can check out their blogs/vlogs here:

Jon Olsson: http://jon-olsson.com 

God, I hope not but it hasn’t stopped since Sunday and it’s still going strong. Here is some video footage of our driving around today, with really dramatic music :) I thought it was fitting as I’m pretty sure that’s the theme song for most Victorians as they have been driving around today. Photos posted after the video! 

Trying to do the selfie thing together doesn’t ever really work for us haha. 

Attempt 1

Attempt 2

Attempt 3... kinda works. 

We picked up our little restoration project (we haven’t named her yet) and took her to Mike’s parents to show them the pretty little thing. Mike forgot to turn the lights off and shortly thereafter, battery was shot. Mike’s dad has all the gizmos and gadgets for charging cars etc etc so he helped us out. 

What a beautiful car though. Island owned, almost original everything, paint is in great condition, cleanest car record of any car he or I (separate and together) have ever owned, runs like a gem and just brings us a ton of joy. We can’t get to start adding to it little by little to make it our little summer Sunday car. 

I agree, it looks gross. And it may taste gross to some, but we love that early AM shot of green. We’ve been revising this along the way as we learn more about different vegetables and fruits and their benefits, and this is the most up to date recipe of what’s included in the delicious brown sludge :) 

1/2 or 1 full avocado 

1 - 2 carrots

Approx. 8 kale leaves 

1 C blueberries (or cranberries)

1 container broccoli sprouts 

1 tbsp chia seeds 

Lemon juice from half or full lemon

Water (enough to make it smooth) 

Optional: 

- Rainbow chard, spinach, flax seed 

The green leafy veggies in our smoothie are all high in magnesium. The kale and broccoli sprouts (esp. broccoli sprouts) are a potent source of Sulforaphane which is the latest thing we’ve learned about from Dr. Rhonda Patrick, American biochemist and science communicator extraordinaire. “Sulforaphane has potent cancer preventative effects as well as effects that likely influence cardiovascular disease. Studies have also shown that Sulforaphane has the ability to enhance the excretion of carcinogens. It has also shown positive effects on decreasing all cause mortality, aging, brain and behavior & more.” 

Here is a link to her latest video about it - it’s pretty science heavy, but we still got some good nuggets of info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz4YVJ4aRfg&autoplay=1

Here are some other amazing benefits of these fruits & veggies worth noting:

(sourced from https://www.foundmyfitness.com/reports/micronutrient-smoothie.pdf)

Broccoli Sprouts: Most potent source of Sulforaphane

Kale: High in Magnesium, Lutein, Zeaxanthin, and Sulforaphane

Rainbow Chard: High in Vitamin K

Carrots: High Beta Carotene and Lycopene

Avocado: High in​ P​otassium, Vitamin E, and Monounsaturated Fat

Blueberries: High in the Flavanoids Quercetin, Anthocyanins, Epicatechins

Flaxseed: High in Alpha Linolenic Acid

We usually have this in the morning along with our Bulletproof Coffee (a blend of: coffee, grass fed organic butter, brain octane oil and collagen protein). 

More info on the Bulletproof method can be found here: https://blog.bulletproof.com/engineering-the-ultimate-morning/

We were testing out our new Hero 5 Black Go Pro on the way up to Mike’s parents house. We bought the suction cup accessory and attached it to our car and it worked perfectly. 

Here’s some video footage heading to their new house in Metchosin - not the best day but felt very west coast. 

Headed up again for our annual friends Whistler trip - drove the SQ5 up there this time, as that was the only car that had true winter tires and we definitely required them on the drive up. ‘Twas very snowy. 

The skiing on Saturday was gorgeous - not as much powder as we had hoped for but the weather was unreal. The next day had clouded over but Mike & I still had lots of fun exploring Whistler and runs we had never done before. 

Itching to get up again.. we’re counting down the days.