Dancing in the waves
We’re spending the week in Vancouver visiting my cousin, Mo, and her awesome family and friends. It’s a time of reconnection. She is the only cousin I have on this side of the family (my 2 siblings and I make up the rest of the Duncan cousins – a grand total of 4 of us!). When you Google “quotes about cousins”, you mostly get the one about how cousins are the first friends you ever have and are friends for life. That was so not the case for us. We always lived a good ways apart and only saw each other on a few pretty isolated occasions. (I’m pretty sure I could count on one hand the amount of times we’ve seen each other in the past.) Those visits have been few and far between – so rare that she had never met Kyle and I’d barely met her family. This past year, we decided to remedy that. To stop talking about getting together and actually do it. So last Wednesday, Kyle and I hopped a flight to Portland. We stepped off the plane and out of baggage claim into the arms of my beautiful boisterous cousin and her incredibly amazing hugs. This week is the best version of reconnection.
In the past 5 days, we’ve explored her city, spend time at the Oregon coast, and hung out in the cooler parts of Portland. And I have loved all of it. It has been such a treat to get reacquainted with her, to see her in her element, to discover all the reasons she is in love with her places and her people. And we’ve seen (& eaten) many amazing things. But my favorite part of this trip is all the time we’ve spent just sitting around talking about our lives, ourselves, our families, and life. I’ve always joked that my cousin and I are the only extroverts in the family and that we probably have a ton in common. It’s a delight to learn just how right that statement is. Mo and I have taken to playing a new game – figuring out what we don’t have in common. It’s much more challenging. And it once again demonstrates my favorite part about travel: the ability to connect (& reconnect) with people. So grateful for the opportunities and possibilities that choosing to live a life with less has given to us. We have the flexibility to go where we want. To explore new places and meet new people. But we also have the freedom to visit old favorite familiar places and reconnect with our favorite people. That alone is worth it.
We’re here for a few more days of fun and chats before we head back to ABQ and back to our current version of the real world. But until then, here are a few snippets of our experiences here in the Pacific Northwest.
Playing Qwirkle with Mo’s coffee shop friends.
Seafood from Local Ocean in Newport Bay.
The Misty Moody Oregon Coast
Enjoying the local beers
Cousins at the beach
Have a great week! Cheers!
We had some growing pains last week and if you are a subscriber to the blog, no notifications went out. So you may have missed our posts from last week. Check them out if you have the time:
Three Lies You Tell Yourself About Travel
Don’t Be Afraid to Change Your Life
Another wonderful post. I so enjoy reading your posts, and am grateful you take the time to write them and post the photos and videos.
I also (again) applaud you and Kyle on your priorities in life. Traveling around the world and seeing foreign cultures is of course great, but deciding to reconnect with family is indeed something else altogether.
BTW I read the post and saw the photos via email notification, but the email does not indicate the post includes a video. I’m glad I clicked on the link to comment, because that’s when I was able to see that there was a video, and it is quite cool.