Our road from Greenwood quickly landed us at Grand Forks. Home of borscht, apparently. I told Shane, "Grand Forks has borscht, and we are going." And it was absolutely divine. As was the scenery, and more deer on the loose. We were given the ok to camp out for the night in the visitor's center parking lot (which is a stone's throw from the river, now a running theme of our lives lol). So our purposes were pretty much served.
Then we trekked onward to Nelson, which instantly had a good feel. There's a really peaceful, gentle, laid-back energy here. People are friendly, relaxed and just at ease with themselves. There’s zero pretentiousness. And everyone is just so conscious and aware of others. No one loudly squawks on their cell phones or Facetimes in public. Or pushes ahead of one another in lines. It's like everyone takes the extra steps to be super considerate of one another. (I looked up the astrology of Nelson and it’s a Pisces city, which tracks.) And there's a real mix of people from other countries. Also, quirky old men trying to figure out the parking meters is an honest-to-gawd mood here.
Nelson is also home of the heritage houses (all 350). Houses that for the most part are immaculately kept up, and lots of them look really funky and bohemian. We just walked around after grabbing coffee and checked some of them out. And sometimes the people living there even came out to chat, which was so nice. We also walked up and down the main shopping/restaurant area of Baker Street (and I've had the song Baker Street on a loop in my head ever since), hit up a new age store, bought some sage and crystals (so Nelson of us), and enjoyed our first post-covid patio beer while we chatted with some locals. We then meandered over to Lakeside Park, which is so well laid out and has immaculate facilities - baseball field, picnic tables everywhere, tennis courts, playground, fitness workout area, a greenhouse, a tiny beach and so much green. Also noticeable: we haven’t spotted one homeless person yet. Although there are plenty of van dwellers here and there.
Shane went in for a haircut and chatted with his hairdresser. She told him that Nelson doesn't really have an industry per se, but makes up for it with a "can-do" attitude. Basically, if you have enough hustle, you can pull anything off (well, besides hair styling and coffee shops because they’re already in abundance around here - “hipsters take over all of the cafe and distillery businesses, aka fad businesses”, she said). The weed industry was huge here until legalization messed it all up, just like everywhere else.
Today, there was more advice while in the laundromat about how to fend off bears. I'm starting to wonder, how much do we really have to worry about this? And we splurged on a dinner out for our last night at Red Light Ramen, where we snagged the last two available margaritas (everything is premade in these times of covid) and feasted on ramen and gyozas made with fresh ingredients from local farms. Well worth the splurge.
Dining out in the time of covid:
Other than that, we’re still working out the kinks of vanlife and are planning on making a prolonged stop in Calgary so that we can have access to some parts and wrap up our interior build. But we’ll first be heading to the halfway point of Cranbrook to pick up a lithium battery, so that we can run on electricity at full force (as opposed to currently running on solar charged batteries). And I’m dying whenever I catch myself, Shane and Xiao Meow all engaging at the same time in our newest pastime of gazing out the window and creeping on the people outside. (Okay, maybe that was always Xiao Meow’s fave activity but now we see that the cat is onto something.) We have polarized windows, so no one can see inside. It makes for some stellar creeping.
We’ll be hitting the road again tomorrow. But Nelson has certainly been a slice and we’ve added it to the list of favorite places so far.
This was just the sweetest little cafe, a real community hub.
