Oh, Canada

Carly Martin

04 Sep 2026 — 5 min read

Good morning folks. Hope everyone is having a magnificent start to their Labor Day weekend! Please see below for my thoughts and feelings.

September Ins and Outs

Back to school, back to ins and outs.

ins

quick pickled red onions
jewel tones
Baggu cloud carry-on bag
the character 'Conkdor' from Mario Kart World

outs

proteinmaxxing
hormonal breakouts
getting a sunburn while swimming despite it literally raining out

Diane, I've Never Seen So Many Trees

For the past two weeks I have been bouncing around Canada and the Pacific Northwest on a fab vacation with Nat. The original plan was to get out to Olds, Alberta, CAN for a friends wedding, but we quickly added on stops in Calgary, Banff, and Seattle.

Calgary is so cute. Maybe it gets real boring real quick if you live there, but for the day that we were there, we had a grand time walking around to a bunch of very fun vintage stores and vegan bakeries and tea shops. We also stopped by the Bow Habitat Station and checked out the trout fish hatchery that supplies Alberta rivers and lake with populations of fish. Sounds boring but was actually very entertaining. We got little vials of food and could cause a real pile up in the tanks. This is now the second wedding where I have spent time at a fish hatchery to kill time.

We then headed up to Olds, which is about an hour north of Calgary. Really nothing to report from out here. Lots of hay bails and cows. In the morning before the ceremony, Nat and I plus a few other pals headed even farther north to Torrington, AB to visit the World Famous Gopher Hole Museum. This was integral to understanding the culture of this area of the world. For those unfamiliar, this is a one room museum that displays diorama scenes of taxidermied gophers. I could try to explain further, but see for yourself.

The wedding for besties Katie and Joel was held at a venue that had a cow, alpacas, and some donkeys. Seeing two friends profess their love and affection for one another was nice and all, but the animals were the real stars of the show for me.

When in Alberta, it feels required to go to Banff National Park, and so that is where we headed next. We stayed up by Lake Louise and did a few hikes around Louise and Peyto Lake. It was incredibly gorgeous. I was floored by the Canadian Rockies and how huge and jagged they were. I was also amazed by the wildlife we saw out and about and I loved learning all about glacial runoff (the reason that the lakes all have that intense turquoise color).

After 3 days in Banff, we headed back to Calgary to fly over to Seattle. I've never been to Seattle, or anywhere in the PNW so I was very excited. It is just as gloomy and grey as everyone claims, even in the summer.

We got in at 7am so we threw our stuff at the hotel, got breakfast, and headed over to T-Mobile Stadium to catch a Mariners game, hoping to be witness to another historic 22-0 loss. The Mariner dog far outshines the Dodger dog, but nothing really holds a candle to a Fenway Frank I must say.

We spent a day on Bainbridge Island, which is about a 3o minute ferry ride from Seattle. This place proudly claims that they are the birthplace of pickleball, which I maybe wouldn't advertise but, who am I?

It was very cute in the downtown part of the island. It had the same kinda vibe as any cape or Maine downtown area, some trinket stores, a cafe, an unsupportable number of art galleries, you know what I'm talking about. We wandered over to a nature preserve area to see a giant troll statue - the first of many in the state of Washington.

We spent a lot of time just walkin around through Seattle proper. We encountered more trolls, tried so many orange wines at the most precious wine bars you've ever seen, and admired a few plane bodies. Nat and I genuinely loved this city. There was so much to do and it was pretty easy to navigate. Highly recommend a visit.

TTYL

recs to consider.

a song i'm loving:

Lotta Love by Nicolette Larson

a movie i watched:

I haven't watched anything in weeks, so I leave you with something on my watchlist and you can lmk your thoughts: To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)

a book i'm reading: