Canada Bound!

Good morning and happy Thursday!  By the time most of you are reading this, I'll be on my way to Canada as my flight leaves at 6:45 am today!  I've been talking about visiting Amber in Kamloops for many years so I am so excited that this trip has come to fruition!

Every time I get together with Amber (and our other running URL turned IRL friends) it always makes me nostalgic for trips of the past.  The first time I met Amber in person was in 2010. I flew into Vancouver, she picked me up at the airport and we were together non-stop for the next 5 days as we road tripped from Vancouver down to Portland where we met up with Lauren to run the marathon.  You know that a friendship is special when you can spend that much time together and not have any moments of being annoyed with one another!

Enjoying lattes in front of the original Starbucks.  Coffee is ALWAYS part of our meet-ups

In 2011, I got to see her twice as I hosted her in August for a long weekend in Minneapolis and had a blast showing her around the city that I love.  Iowa Amber came up for the weekend, too, and we had the best time together!  What made the trip extra special was that we helped Amber pick out her wedding dress!

Posing for a photo with views of my neighborhood in the background!

A couple of months later, I headed west to Victoria, BC where Amber, Leigh, Lauren and I met up.  Lauren ran the full marathon and the rest of us did the half.  We had a great time checking out Victoria - it's definitely a place I'd love to go back to!

Checking out the harbor area of Victoria which we ran by during the race.

Flash forward to 2012, and I was back out west to stand up as a bridesmaid in Amber and Eric's wedding in the Sunshine Coast area of BC.  On this trip, I also got to meet Kelly and Anais for the first time.  It was fun to check out another area of BC - that province is just stunning!

Dressed the 9's on Amber's special day!

2013 found Amber, Anais, Lauren and me in Chicago for the marathon.  I was a bit down on this trip as I was unable to run it due to a stress fracture and my RA, but I made the most of the trip and still had a blast. It was great to explore the city and reconnect with these ladies.

Pre-race/spectating selfie

 In 2014, Amber, Lauren, Leigh and I traveled to San Francisco where Kyria lives.  We did something different this time and ran a trail race which was really fun!  Leigh bowed out on the race since she was quite pregnant at this point - and we would later find out that Lauren was in the early stages of her pregnancy, so baby Henry got to experience his first race on the beautiful hills of the Berkeley area!

Pausing for a photo before biking over the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge!

And now here we are in 2015 and I am on my way to Amber in her home city of Kamloops.  So much has changed in our lives, and the lives of the other girls we have met up with, but I'm thankful for the fact that we still try to see each other on a regular basis - and that our rendezvous have taken us to such cool places!  I've definitely formed very special bonds with these girls as we of course share a love of running and being active, but there are many other commonalities that tie us together.  Amber and I will definitely be thinking of our other runner buddies on this trip when we run a trail race on Sunday!

Have a great rest of the week, everyone!  I'm sure I'll be back next week with photos of my time in Kamloops with Amber!