About

Hello!

We are Vince & Louise.

We are super stoked to have you here and connect.
Down below, you will see a place for you to leave a comment- let us know what brought you to our page, how our story connects with you & anything else you would love to share! The internet is kind of amazing because you get to connect with so many people on different walks of life from all over the world. We hope to use this blog as a means to inspire you to live a life that aligns with you, a life that you love & a life that truly makes you happy. We hope to show you the beauty in this world & the adventures out there waiting for you.

Here is the story of how we met, some of the adventures we’ve been on & why we decided to start this blog!

How it all Started

February 2017, during a winter season abroad in Niseko, Japan is when and where we met. Vince was the tall & handsome bartender at Barunba which is this basement bar that is covered in tree roots. Louise was this bubbly & happy client asking for a drink. Louise had recognized that Vince wasn’t Aussie or Brtitish which, living in Niseko, was rare. She was intrigued to spark up a conversation on where he was from. Turns out, Vince had worked that past summer at Deer Lodge in Lake Louise where Louise had previously worked for 2 years and had actually JUST left that job right before Vince had stared his! We quickly realized that they had a bunch of mutual friends and chatted a bit more before Louise was off to spend the night with her friends.

Through the online world (cough FB creeping cough– can you guess who creeped who?) we connected. We had not spent too much time together in Niseko other than a day of skiing and a day trip to visit Otaru with Louise’s sister Michelle who was visiting from Canada.

Vince was back in Canada first & had gone back to where he had previously lived, Revelstoke BC. Louise, after much debating between Revelstoke or back to Canmore AB, decided to move in with her sister in Revelstoke. It was a new town for Louise & having a friend with a car (Vince) was a really awesome way to start seeing the town and surrounding areas. Plus, he was always down to go explore and adventure which was just what Louise wanted to do in this new place.

At the time, Vince didn’t want a girlfriend. At the time, Louise was in a place where she didn’t want to spend time dating guys who weren’t interested in her (especially after a weird little fling in Japan).

As the summer progressed; we had gone hiking, did some climbing, spent a lot of time together (& texting) and did a busy trip to Oregon (more below) we started to realized that MAAAYBE we didn’t want the other person to be doing what they were doing with someone else (awkward exclusive talk – right?).

At the start of the summer, we realized that going to Nepal was a bucket list adventure for us both. We had decided, even if we were just going to go as friends, that exploring Nepal would be an amazing time (we were right). After looking at flight prices, we booked our tickets for a 5 week adventure starting at the beginning of November 2017. This trip is where we really connected on a deeper level, fell in love & realized that we were heading down the same paths in life.

Vincent and Travel

I fell in love with travelling and adventure at a young age.

My first time on an airplane, I was three months old. I was born in Swakopmund, Namibia in Africa. At the time, my parents were working and travelling there. We then moved back to Germany shortly after.

As a young child I had already been to several places in Europe before making the move to Canada with my family at the age of 4. This is where I have lived ever since, but the travel bug has never left.

As a teenager I was fortunate enough to spend several summer’s travelling Europe with my Aunt. Visiting places such as Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, and more.

For a while, travel and adventure took a backseat. School and my athletic career became the main focus in my life. After sustaining several injuries and eventually dropping out of University, my aspirations of becoming an Olympic athlete came to an end. Lost and not knowing what to do with my life, I came back to the things I had enjoyed growing up. I ended up getting a job at a ski resort in Revelstoke, British Columbia. That winter reignited my passion for adventure. I took up photography, which has now turned into a career. I skied over 100 days and I learned how to ski tour in the backcountry, which is now one of my biggest passions. I met some amazing people from all around the World who were working and travelling in Canada.

I had no idea you could work and travel internationally so easily with a working holiday Visa. Soon after, I found myself on a trip to Australia. Driving all across the country in a station wagon, finding random jobs along the way and capturing the sights with my camera. From bartending in the outback to working as a deckhand on a prawn fishing boat and everything in-between. From there, I scrimped and saved for a trip to Japan. I worked for three months in a ski town called Niseko on the northern Japanese island Hokkaido. Chasing some of the world’s finest snow, walking up frozen volcanoes and slinging cocktails in the evenings. This is also where I met Louise. Little did we know, but this was the beginning of a whole new set of adventures.

I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface of what this beautiful planet has to offer and I’m super stoked to continue living this dream.

Louise and Travel

I have been travelling since I was a baby. Every summer, my parents would drive 14-16 hours from southern Ontario to northern Quebec to visit my mothers side of the family. This was ALWAYS a super fun time and I loved doing all the different things we didn’t do growing up in the city.

My first taste of overseas travel was when I was 13 years old. I had done a three month exchange to France. The host family that I stayed with had taken me all over France to explore all these amazing places. I got to see so much history first hand & experience this culture so VERY different from my own. Generally, when I travel overseas, I want to experience the culture, the food & people of these places I am visiting.

Feeling lost after realizing that I did not want (nor feel like I belonged) in University, I got the opportunity to go work/live abroad in Spain for 9 weeks. This was my second time solo travelling and I was hooked. Returning back to the city I grew up in, I was always looking for ways to leave and go abroad. I actually ended up in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in November 2010 and this is when my life changed.

I discovered adventures & truly stepped into myself. Snowboarding became my best friend. Rock climbing became a mental strengthening tool. Hiking became my mindfulness practice. And yoga put me down the path of the careers that I have today. Living and working in the mountains, I explored so much of the rockies & travelled to some amazing places like Vietnam, Peru & Japan. Going to Japan the second time, brought mine & Vince’s paths together.

Oregon Road Trip

Our FIRST trip together was a wild (& busy) 3 days. At the time, Louise was working 2 jobs and teaching 6 yoga classes yet SOMEHOW managed to get a couple days off squished together. We drove (actually Vince drove since Louise didn’t know how to drive stick) 12 hours one way for 3 days of adventures. It was Louise’s first time sleeping on top of a mountain where we experienced an epic sunset (photo down below), checked out as many waterfalls as we could squeeze in & witnessed another epic sunset in Smith Rock before hauling it back to Canada. The trip went super smoothly, we had an awesome time & celebrated Louise’s 27th birthday! This was the trip where we have the official ‘talk’ about being exclusive.

Nepal

This 5-week trip had very little planning done for it. We had tried to do research about trekking in Nepal, if you needed a guide, finding itineraries & other information before going which proved to be trickier than we had anticipated. Once you are there, it is EASY to find the information you had been looking for but couldn’t find online. Our plan was originally to head to Gokyo Lakes (since it was all we could really read about online) and see what happened from there. Once we were in Nepal, got a map & talked to some other people who had trekked- we decided to do the 3 passes circuit. You will be able to read more about this itinerary soon.

Nepal was a beautiful place full of friendly locals, delicious food, beautiful mountains, green jungles & bustling cities. If you are thinking of visit Nepal- you won’t be disappointed. For us, this trip really brought us together as we both tested our limits trekking in the Himalayas.

Ulna the Van

We took our first REAL road trip in our converted ford van down to the states for 6 weeks. Vince (with some help from his dad) had built us this beautiful little beast of a van to rip around in. We spent most of our time in Utah with some time spent in Oregon, Arizona & Nevada. On this trip we did A LOT of climbing & hiking. We seen some breathtaking sunsets & sunrises (Vince mostly watched the sunrises while Louise sleeps). We met some incredible people along the way & got our first taste of freedom on the road.

As much as we loved Ulna, we realized that she would be quite cozy for the three of us (Yuki is basically the size of a small human). We decided that we wanted to sell her and eventually get a trailer one day.

Adventures

We love nature. We love to adventure in nature. Ski touring (Vince), split boarding (Louise), hiking, climbing & backcountry camping are our favourite ways to enjoy the beauty that this planet has to offer. Over the last 5 years, we have gone on many micro trips close to home, road trips to see new places & explored our own backyard – Revelstoke BC. We both love to see where our bodies can take us & how we can push ourselves to get to the new places. There is something incredibly soothing and humbling about pushing yourself to bring yourself to some of the most stunning places you have ever seen with your own eyes.

The Pandemic

The c-bomb hit and put a pause on the whole worlds travel plans, including ours. As we all know, the world was shut down as there was an element of the unknown.

For us, it meant spending a lot of time just the two of us at home.

For us, it meant learning more about each others values.

For us, it meant growing closer.

Between travel restrictions & mandates being added/changed/taken away/added again what felt like daily, made us wonder what we COULD do for travel & where could we go? SO, we landed on buying the trailer and travelling around Canada full time.

For both being quite well travelled, we both have not seen much of this beautiful country that we live in, Canada. We know there are some incredible places here & it made the decision pretty easy for us!

Why Are We Here?

We are here to share our common love for travel & adventures with you. To inspire you to live a lifestyle that you truly love. If our type of adventure and travel align with you, we want to give you information to make exploring a little easier & more informed. Over the years, the internet has been a great support system for us when planning our adventures.We believe that life is precious & beautiful. You have got to live that life in a way that aligns with you and this is how life aligns with us!

We are so stoked to have you here!

Vince & Lou

Reminder: Down below, you will see a place for you to leave a comment- let us know what brought you to our page, how our story connects with you & anything else you would love to share!