Tag Archives: nature

West Coast Tour (2026)

Mission, BC

I got to spend a few days visiting with my aunt before my weekend of shows started. It was great to be sitting in sunshine for the first time in months. I was trying to beat a snowstorm to the Regina airport before my flight took off – so no snow and everything in bloom was great. Mission was home base for majority of this tour, and my aunt helped out with so many little tasks (and bigger ones like driving in Vancouver) that made my life easier.

One of my aunts’ cats held a strong interest in my guitar case.

We went for coffee on the patio of The Penny.

Our little coffees.

We ended up having the time for a quick tattoo by Nathan, at Heart to Hand, right in Mission. A little fine line pear on my ribs.

Vancouver, BC

After a few days of enjoying the sun, we headed into Vancouver for the first show. We chose a little restaurant for breakfast that happened to be in on Granville Island. We were lucky to find a parking spot and started to explore.

We stopped at a music store that had instruments from all over the world – these singing bowls were my favorite.

I loved the colours of these little tour boats – everywhere I’ve been so far, and I haven’t gotten onto a tour boat – that’s on the list of things to do this year.

A sailboat from the marina.

The first show was at Kolm Kontrast, a Sauna and Cold Plunge Spa. This was an unique venue. The folks at the sauna were so kind, it was a great first show for this tour. This was my first time playing in Vancouver – I was nervous, but the environment was so laid back that the nerves did not last long.

Mission, BC

Back to Mission for a little show at The Penny, a cute cafe that we discovered when my brother and I were out visiting my aunt. There was a photo taken of me about a year ago on the same couch drinking a matcha – so of course we had to retake it again.

We had some time to kill before we headed to the cafe to start getting set up – so we drove around Mission, taking photos.

This was the first time this year too that I got to wear a sundress. There was just a snowstorm going back at home, so I did not take wearing a dress for granted.

The actual little show here was lovely, it was another laid back, open armed environment. Coffee houses are my soft spot for shows – when I had imagined myself being a musician it was in cafes and slow-paced environments. Previously to this tour I felt like it’s been a lot of bars and consistent upbeat fast shows. So, this whole weekend was a nice contrast to that, it is nice to be playing my slow songs.

I loved the old espresso machine – the first time I came to this place, I thought it was so cool. It feels full circle to be playing in front of it.

The bird on The Penny’s logo, I thought was super cute.

Victoria, BC

Aunty dropped me off at the ferry that would take me from Tsawwassen, a little city near Vancouver, to Swartz Bay, the ferry terminal outside of Sydney, BC. I took a cab from the ferry terminal down to Victoria – about an hour drive. This was a very relaxed night for me.

I did go for a little walk after supper and found this cat hanging out in the garden, who was very friendly.

The next morning, I took a cab to Ogden Point to get a nice view of the ocean. It was rainy and cold, and I was not dressed for the weather, but I wanted to walk around Victoria for the day before my show.

The fishermen’s wharf was gorgeous – I was here before everything was open, so I got to walk around the wharf peacefully.

One little shop had these wooden chickens outside of them.

Everything in Victoria was in full bloom.

There were little things like this old man bird house on random trees, in a lot of the streets.

The government building was so pretty too – photos do not do it justice. At this point it was starting to rain harder, so I found a cafe to warm up in.

Then I hit Chinatown, Canada’s oldest. It was smaller than I thought it would be but filled with good little spots.

Finally, it was time for my show. This was a crowd that contained a few good dogs – pictured here is Charlie. Him and his owner were super sweet.

This was my little stage set up – right tucked into the corner surrounded by gorgeous plants at VI Plant Shop.

Syndey, BC

My travel plans included going back to Vancouver from Victoria so I could catch my plane back.

I didn’t get up too much in Sydney – there was a Sea Glass Beach, that I went and picked some sea glass.

This was my first time staying in a waterfront hotel, with an ocean view, so that I was excited for.

The next day I took the ferry back to Vancouver – and only had a few hours in Vancouver before I had to call it a night.

Vancouver, BC

I hadn’t been to the aquarium in years, since I was maybe eleven – so I headed that way. I loved it. The touch tanks were almost closing – but I got to go stick my hand in a tank with some jelly fish.

This was my favorite video of the animals that I took at the aquarium.

Sunny Sask Tour

Four shows – Four towns – 7 hours of playing.

Before we left home

There was so much packing and organizing to do (I am pro at procrastinating laundry, so laundry day). Top priority was getting my nails done.

Done by Karla (Reflexology by Karla, Langenberg, SK)

Day One: Starting close to home; Music in the Park, Binscarth, MB

A lovely little set in front of a listening crowd. It felt like I haven’t been onstage for awhile so it was nice to have this crowd to start this weekend. These little shows really help put into perspective on what I’ve accomplished in this past year. This time last year I played here and sang The Mountain Lion Song for the first time. We did another photo like the one from last year.

2025
2024 (the album cover of the first live performance of the mountain lion song).

Day Two: The Road Trip Out

The road trip mainly consisted of behind of the scenes work, making posters for shows, doing updates on my website, last minute set list changes, all that fun stuff. I added a piece of Merch this time around (that I plan on continuing) called Pocket Poems. They’re very small (four page) poem books that I hand sewn the spines too. I’m bringing two different issues out – Self Reflections of Twenty-One and The Garden Gnomes Smoke When The Streetlights Turn On. So excited to see how they do in the merch trunk.

Mac the Moose

We stopped in Moose Jaw to check out the world’s largest moose. On the way here I read through the history of this moose loosing and regaining his title. The information building was cool, I picked up a sticker for my guitar case, and looked at some local art.

Buffalo in Moose Jaw

We kept driving and hit Chaplin, we explored a little nature center on the side of the road. This was one of the coolest side of the road attractions I’ve hit, it’s right near a salty pond so all the shorebirds hit it on the migrations path for the shrimp that live there.

The amount of taxidermy birds found in this area is astounding.

Morse Museum – Morse, SK

When we got to Morse we hit a little bar to play some pool to kill some time. We got a private tour of one of the graduates from the Morse Museum (it previously was a school until 2009). One of my favorite parts of doing shows is the special opportunities I get to do like having a private tour of this museum. Performance wise this summer has been a lot of first time running into issues (breaking strings, technical difficulties, ect) in Morse when they were setting up the lights once it got dark – the lights blew a breaker. So, it made it extra interesting, but I think I played it off smoothly. I love a classic trailer stage but the cat tails behind me was one of my favorite stage set ups.

The lovely cattails behind the stage.
They let me jump the fence to get this picture
Another stuffed seagull (this was the 7th I saw in a day)

Day Three: SWT Theatre – Gull Lake, SK

We woke up in Swift Current and started the drive out to Gull Lake, once we got there, we had three hours to kill so we headed to the Eastend Dinosaur Museum. It was cool to see all the casts, and I ended up learning a lot about the history of Sask (never would have guessed there was crocs here at one point). I learnt about Scotty the Dino years ago in school, so it was kind of nice to see him in person. We passed through a small town full of murals, Shaunavon, that had a little coffee shop with the best coffee I’ve ever tasted there.

A little creek we stopped at on our way to the museum.

We headed back to Gull Lake, and it was a pretty quick getting set up and sound check until the show. This was my first theatre I got to play on my own and having my name on the sign was crazy. I discovered a Swift Current movie production company (Dead Prairies Production) which has a movie called “Gorephers”, a horror movie about killer gophers, which is on my list of things I need to watch this winter.

The crowd was smaller than ideal but a vibrant night, and I believe the folks who were there enjoyed it.

Day Four: Cypress Hills Winery – Maple Creek, SK

We started the day in Gull Lake and had a few hours to venture since I wanted to hit the little bookstore, The Yellow Canary, before we left. We hit a little cafe and found an ice fishing shack in someone’s yard that dad wanted to ask some questions about the build of it. Afterwards we did hit the bookstore. Lovely little place, really love the small-town businesses. I bought a book that’s been on my read list for a while and then we hit the road again. We found a little church that turned into an antique store, and I found a throw blanket by Laurel Burch (covered in cats). Had to grab it.

The original stain glass in the church.

Maple Creek itself was such an old timey cute town. People were so friendly here, like anyone on the street would start chatting. We checked out the two busy streets with all the shops, someone told us that one of the toy stores has the largest collection of puzzles in western Canada – so we had to go and check that out.

The Cypress Hills Winery itself was the cutest little place – a long curvy pathway that bring you to the front doors (where two wooden bear statues greet you). The artwork in the winery was all oil paintings of livestock and wild animals which I always appreciate. I believe this winery is ran mainly by a mother-daughter duo – it was such an experience getting the behind the scenes of how the wine is made and of course trying as many wines as I could in a night. One of the waitresses hoped onstage and sang while I strummed along with her (which is something I want to start doing more, I love when other people take the mic for a while).

What was SO cool was someone from the Cypress Hills Grasslands Area organization came out and took a few videos.

It was a busy weekend, and an even longer drive home the next day but overall Western Sask is such a nice place to be.