Aaron’s 30th birthday had to be big! This was a celebration of my favorite human and a chance for me to show how special he is! I had been saving for a year and I knew there was no other way other than Vegas ….
I think not!! In January a few months before Aaron’s bday I unfortunately had my U.S visa revoked. That’s a story for another time …
After much thought I decided why not Canada, it would be special for us to be in the place of his birth and celebrate him with the people who make him who he is! I needed to get my surprise on!
First stop Banff. Banff is beautiful and so fresh. We had both never been to Banff and after the long travel from Nassau we welcomed the snow and the open fires.
We stayed in the Rimrock Hotel, which was just the cutest place in the heart of the Rocky Mountains! The room was very quaint with a view of the mountains and the hotel’s own ice rink. There was Champagne and balloons in the room ready to get our celebration on!
The Town of Banff was just a bus ride away down the hill and the hotel provided a free shuttle. This was the hub of all the ski shops, coffee shops and bars. I will never get over how friendly everyone is in Canada. Our first evening was so random we went to this cool tap house and met two Canadians which were doing a ski season. We got chatting, beers became shots and somehow we ended up on the worlds tiniest balcony having a bbq in the snow with complete strangers!
The next day was surprise day! I just couldn’t contain myself! We got picked up from the hotel and ……
We went in a helicopter! It was a tour with Viator, whom I love for the different adventures. We got picked up and drove to Canmore which was about a 40 min drive away from Banff.
It was a private tour for two, and the helicopter did a tour of the mountains. It showed us where The Revenant was filmed and other cool movies. Then we landed on some mountains and had a little picnic just the two of us on the mountains edge (the pilot was chilling in the bush with a can of bear spray incase we needed it).
It was so romantic, and Aaron seemed to have had an awesome time! I think that evening we went to get sushi and just chilled.
Our next adventure was dog sledding, which again was in Canmore and sooo awesome. We got to meet our instructor Jen and our team of dogs. It was such a cool experience and something I have wanted to do for ages. It was very romantic all huddled up in a basket.
That afternoon we decided to walk down to the town, instead of taking the bus. It will be fun we thought…. Well fun it was… Along our hike through the icy forest wearing boots with zero grip we figured we didn’t tell anyone where we were going, nor did we have a flash light and yes the sun was going to be setting soon… oh and no bear spray either. However, we had already committed and it can’t be to far away.
An hour and a half later of a combination of sliding, slipping kind of crawling, and whisper shouting at each other (as not to disturb any wild life) we saw the opening to the Fairmont Hotel. I ran … really ran… and after Aaron and myself discussed all the poops we saw along the way and the sounds for sure we knew there had been lots of wildlife!!
After dinner I remember us going back to the hotel for the last night and watching the film Brooklyn. I really loved the coziness that Banff offered, and I hope next time we can ski!
We then flew from Calgary to Vancouver for part 2 Dirty Thirty. It’s always fun to go back to the West Coast and catch up with family and the little ones. We spent the remainder of our vacay downtown in the Rosewood, which is my favourite hotel. I love the smell as soon as you walk in, the attention to detail is wonderful and we were made to feel very special.
Our First evening downtown we went to this amazing restaurant which was a treat from the family for Aarons bday. On our way out of the hotel we saw Ellie Goulding and we were seeing her in concert in two days! I started to speak to her but what came out was kind of just a selection of random words.
At the restaurant LIFT we started with cocktails and oysters and then followed by sea bass and risotto! And of course dessert… always dessert for Aaron’s sweet tooth. Another really nice restaurant downtown that we visited was CinCin, which is Italian cuisine.
On Aaron’s actual birthday we went to see Ellie Goulding (lucky him!) but during the day we wanted to do something that he would always remember…so we got matching tatts! Aaron hand drew them on handkerchiefs, we wanted to have paper airplanes because of our love of travel and the dashes are each others initials, and that is because we will always be part of each others’ journey.
Our final day in Van we had a massive get together at The Keg restaurant with a lot of family and friends to celebrate the kindest, funniest human I know! Mr Aaron.
In between all this there was a lot of family love, a lot of eating and probably too much shopping! It was the best, and we were treated so wonderfully at all the places we stayed.
Thank you Banff and, as always, Vancouver .. you had me at hello.
