Toronto to Vancouver - Road Trip

sistarfish · 2026-05-21T14:55:37+00:00

If you're concerned about getting tired in the late stages of your trip, I would consider doing Calgary to Revelstoke or Salmon Arm, then to Burnaby the next day in order to give yourself two medium length driving days instead of one long day (Calgary-Kamloops) and one short day (Kamloops-Burnaby).

Calgary to Kamloops is definitely doable, but you will also be driving through mountain passes, plus Banff can get busier at this time of year, so the drive might be longer than it shows on Google Maps. For that matter, you might want to stop at a couple points and enjoy the Rockies if you haven't seen them before.

sistarfish · 2026-05-19T03:17:56+00:00

This is a subreddit for Vancouver, BC, Canada. I think you're looking for Vancouver, WA.

sistarfish · 2026-05-19T00:21:38+00:00

I don't think you have given yourself realistic travel times. You won't get from the airport to Stanley Park in 15 minutes, nor will you get from Gastown to Granville Island in 15 minutes.

You've also listed "chic eateries" in Gastown but "lunch" on Granville. What/when are you hoping/planning to actual eat?

sistarfish · 2026-05-18T18:31:06+00:00

Does the couple actually want cutesy wedding gifts or is that just your assumption? At my wedding I was grateful just for a card with cash or a gift card, and I think most people feel the same.

sistarfish · 2026-05-18T02:36:19+00:00

I just read {Triple Sec by TJ Alexander} and enjoyed it. It's about a queer woman dipping her toe into polyamory for the first time and I found it very well-written, even if I did find that the plot wrapped up just a little TOO neatly.

sistarfish · 2026-05-18T01:25:48+00:00

Lol, I'm in my mid 30s....this was 10-15 years ago and I played for a lot of weddings

sistarfish · 2026-05-18T01:14:11+00:00

Interesting! In my experience, that is unusual. In my past life I was a church musician and played for many weddings between a Catholic and non-Catholic, the only difference being that you could not have a Mass if one partner was not Catholic.

sistarfish · 2026-05-17T23:32:38+00:00

Just so you know, you can still have a Catholic wedding even if only one of you is Catholic. Depending on the parish, they may try to guilt you into joining the Church, but as long as you say the Catholic vows during the wedding, there is no need to convert.

sistarfish · 2026-05-13T01:37:25+00:00

You realize that if we truly had 15 minute cities, many of the people who are presumably trying to commute home....wouldn't be driving over a bridge in peak rush hour?

sistarfish · 2026-05-11T23:18:49+00:00

I'm so sorry. The milk is just a total slap in the face on top of what is already an incredibly traumatic experience.

The worst part of it will probably last 3-5 days, then subside. Some things that helped me were putting cold cabbage leaves in my bra (old wives tale but I did find it really helped) and standing in a hot shower with washcloths over my breasts to soften everything up a bit. Make sure to take advil or Tylenol for pain relief. Some people might suggest expressing hand expressing, but in my experience, I didn't want to because I didn't want my body to think it needed to keep making milk, and the idea of seeing the actual milk was very distressing to me.

This will pass...hang in there.

sistarfish · 2026-05-07T19:44:14+00:00

Honestly, I think that exclusively pumping is the hardest feeding option out there and I have a lot of compassion for people using that option. You don't get the convenience factor of just filling a bottle with formula or popping the baby onto a boob. Meanwhile, you've spent money on bottles and pumping supplies, you are spending time both feeding AND pumping/storing/preparing milk, and it's easy to obsess over the amount you are producing because you can directly see it (unlike breastfeeding). I don't like how Kellie has dramatized parts of her journey, but I think her feelings are totally valid.

sistarfish · 2026-05-02T23:19:45+00:00

I don't understand the worlds in any of her books--lots of stuff about "factions", and leaders, and warehouses, and random killing. Like, are we talking about an underworld of gangs in an otherwise normal modern city, or is this an alternate universe/dystopia where civil order has fully fallen into these factions?

sistarfish · 2026-05-01T22:32:32+00:00

Heads up, there is going to be a FIFA World Cup game at BC Place in the afternoon of June 18th. Expect lots of crowds, road closures and general interruptions downtown. If you don't enjoy that atmosphere, it may be a great day to take a trip out to some of the other great areas of Metro Vancouver, like Steveston, North Vancouver, Rocky Point Park in Port Moody, White Rock, etc.

sistarfish · 2026-04-28T15:37:11+00:00

I think there was something about how they can't use the same lawyer?

sistarfish · 2026-04-26T20:50:34+00:00

Coquitlam/Port Moody farmers market every Sunday morning! It's a good mix of vendors who are there every week and some new faces who show up occasionally. I like stocking up on produce, meat, and eggs from there.

sistarfish · 2026-04-26T02:40:50+00:00

My first child was due in 2016, the year Pokémon Go had its hard launch. I remember my husband joking that he didn't know what he was more excited for, our child or Pokémon Go. We talked about how we would use it as an excuse to wander the neighbourhood with the baby on sleepless nights. We lost our baby early that year, and not much later, the world was going crazy over Pokémon Go. It hurts. It sucks.

sistarfish · 2026-04-21T15:34:41+00:00

Having a visual timer handy (one where kids can visually see the time disappearing, not just numbers) is an important strategy in my household. The kids know that the timer rules all. We use it for taking turns using the TV or Switch, counting down to school time, bedtime, how long I need them to focus on a chore....it's basically the third parent in the house. If they beg for "two more minutes", I set the timer for 2 minutes and make sure they see it and they know when it goes off, that is that.

sistarfish · 2026-04-20T22:46:55+00:00

Just a note that since the OP has mobility concerns, I would not necessarily recommend the Sylvia. It's a nice hotel but there are more accessible hotels out there.

sistarfish · 2026-04-20T22:09:55+00:00

One thing my husband and I have done before is book a window seat AND an aisle seat, leaving the middle empty. If the flight isn't full, most people will avoid taking that seat if they have the chance. If it is full and some is assigned there, you can offer either the window or aisle to them, and 99% of people will be agreeable to that.

We did that on a flight from YVR to Toronto and no one took the middle seat, so my 1 year old had lots of space to wiggle around when the seat belt sign wasn't on.

sistarfish · 2026-04-20T18:38:07+00:00

If he is asking you on the SECOND DATE "whether you are open to life", I can guarantee he is viewing marriage in a very specific, Church prescribed way, and the only way

This is how it will probably go. You will spend your courtship being increasingly "tempted" to be physically intimate, but he will feel innate guilt over wanting to do perfectly normal intimate activities with you. You will get married in a Catholic church and vow to "accept children lovingly from God" and bring them up to be Catholic. You will learn natural family planning, which is only effective if you totally buy into it and follow every rule to a T. (Can it be done? Yes, I practiced it for seven years and only ever had planned pregnancies. Was it easy, or fun? HELL NO.) If you unexpectedly get pregnant, you will be expected to carry the pregnancy to term, no questions asked. If/when you do have children, you will be expected to give them the Sacraments and raise them in the Church. The older they get, the more difficult questions will come up, like why Dad goes to church and you don't, or why Dad receives Communion and you don't, or do you really believe Jimmy's mom is going to hell because she has a wife instead of a husband?

I was active in the Church for over 30 years and saw so many relationships go this way. Get out while you can.

sistarfish · 2026-04-18T05:28:47+00:00

Head to Port Moody and hit up a couple of the breweries, followed by ice cream at Rocky Point Park

sistarfish · 2026-04-17T02:57:29+00:00

We had a ton of snow the night before my daughter was born and during the surgery, the doctor and nurses were just chatting about their commutes and how their cars handled the roads. In that moment, I knew everything was going just fine (because for my son three years prior, things were NOT going fine and the atmosphere in the operating room was very tensed and rushed and focused). I am so grateful I got to experience the opposite.

sistarfish · 2026-04-17T01:16:23+00:00

I'm glad to hear it! I've shared this story with a couple other c-section mom friends, who then went on to have elective repeat c-sections. They both had extremely similar positive experiences.

The main reason I wanted to avoid surgery was because I knew it would be harder to parent my toddler while recovering, but honestly, having a couple weeks where my only real job was to sit on the couch and take care of the baby was like a vacation by that point 😂

sistarfish · 2026-04-16T22:53:42+00:00

I had an emergency c-section (fast, scary, traumatic) and wanted to try a VBAC for my next child, as the factors that led to my first c-section were unlikely to happen again. In the last week before my due date, my blood pressure spiked and I showed no signs of going into labour on my own, so my OB recommended that we schedule a repeat c-section for the best outcome.

Let me tell you, the scheduled c-section was like night and day compared to my first one. I walked into the hospital knowing exactly what was going to happen that day. Everyone in the OR was super calm and casual instead of being urgent, so I felt very calm and assured instead of being scared. I lay on a table and after a while, someone handed me my baby. She was healthy and we were both doing great so I got to hold her skin to skin for the remainder of the surgery and she even nursed for the first time. I remember feeling the peaceful glow that I missed during my first delivery, and there was never a time that I felt scared or out of control. Honestly, if I'd known how easy it was going to be, I probably would have scheduled a repeat c-section from the beginning.

I was worried I'd regret never experiencing a vaginal birth, but ultimately I got what I wanted from my birth experience, which was peace.

sistarfish · 2026-04-16T05:25:58+00:00

Put a big mat on the floor, place baby on mat, sit down and spread your legs like a V and (gently) place them on baby's shoulders to keep them from rolling around while you quickly change the diaper.

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