Best Girlfriends Getaways
Hannah + I met in high school + we came best friends over a mutual inability to fit in where we lived. We did all sorts of fun + weird things together + when we graduated we both headed off to Montreal, a place neither of us had even come close to visiting + moved across the hall from each other.
The night we moved in there was a barbecue meet + greet for all the residence of Douglas Hall, the "Harry Potter residence" and on the front lawn was Jessica + that was it. Friends forever.
Jessica lives in Berkeley, California, and Hannah lives in Whitehorse, Yukon and I live in Vancouver, British Columbia, but we try to see each other at least once a year. The last two years I got all the visits, with my stagette + wedding, and the year before that we met in the middle, Portland. But this year Jessica asked that we come to see her + so H + I headed down to Cali for the long weekend.
Mostly all we want to do when we get together is look at pretty things + eat while talking. And explore trendy places. And do something mildly unique like take a cooking class. Or shuck oysters. Or swim in the ocean.
Although next year we've been invited to the Yukon which means we're likely going to have to exert some energy too
by doing something outdoorsy
like canoeing.
Which to be fair, I'm actually really excited about.
I guess.
Oh and the other thing we like to do, is match apparently. Hannah showed up with a low back black tank, a Jude skirt, a Tofino Tote, and newly blonde hair, so even though I'm literally like a foot taller and wider than her, we still somehow ended up twinning.
In case you wanted to know what I packed, it was a low back black tank, a Jude skirt, Tofino Tote and blonde hair.
Because,
friendship,
pretty sure she's equal parts inspiration + biggest fan of the blog.
Oh, also she had the SAME GD AZURE SWELL BOTTLE AS KYLE.
Female friendships are always getting a bad wrap with the competitive passive aggressive bullshit, but I have to say I've been very lucky with the lady loves of my life, and feasting on tomatoes from Jessica's garden + bread we picked up at the bakery that morning, asking endless questions of the lady at the winery as only people from small towns do, sampling beer + eating grilled cheese at the local brewery, meeting Jessica's man clad in tie dye because it was Friday + he's a teacher and he wears tie dye on Fridays, + dining at Alice Water's place for Hannah's birthday
was the most relaxed I've been in months.
On the Monday we laid on my mattress in the living room + watched TV and looked at photos + pet Jessica's cat + it was like we were back at our Harry Potter residence when we would watch Sex and City + reminisce about the night before + all the shenanigans that happen when you're out with your best girlfriends the first year you move away from home.
I would not be who I am without these women + who they are have shaped me + my views of the world. And it's so odd to look back and realize that you became a big piece of who you are while you + Jessica watched Hannah eat cereal with a melon baller because when we moved away from our little town to the big city of Montreal we forgot spoons but had a melon baller + we were too hungover to walk down the hall to borrow one from a more responsible young person.
how lucky to have friends
for the decades
Ranking the countries I’ve visited is impossible. Each one makes me feel impossibly lucky and overwhelmed with gratitude just for the chance to have been there at all. I’m the luckiest.
That being said, why not try?
25 countries in order of experience.