Thank you to everyone who submitted questions for my Ask Me Anything! Today I have quite a variety to answer; I love how different these all are.
Your CareBear stares are the best, Nicole! I know… I’ve been the beneficiary of so many lately :)! I wish you’d had a quiz about this set because I knew all the answers! I was blown away when you first shared the Banff pictures, it’s on my list of places to visit. The vistas!! Simply beautiful! Like you in all those pictures :).
That yoga video was very moving, somehow… I think it’s the community and the trust as you flip into a backbend…
Alright, you’re sold me- I’m rushing off to Banff right now. Seriously, EVERYONE’S photos from Banff are unbelievable.
When I first read Elisabeth’s question, I though she was asking for your favorite food- so when the answer was celery I was astonished. Then I read more carefully- oh, that makes much more sense! I actually don’t hate celery, but I can’t imagine it being anyone’s favorite food. And, my daughter agrees with you about onions, which makes cooking extra difficult around here. She doesn’t like them raw OR cooked, and can identify them immediately in anything I make, no matter how I try to hide them.
I’m also an alien agnostic, but I’m laughing at your ET phobia. Yeah, I guess he does look kind of creepy!
This is a very fun post!! I am also alien agnostic! I love your photos of the Rockies; I have been a few times and really love them as well. My favorite place I went to so far was I hiked up to Healy Pass from Sunshine Village and it was snowing and there was nobody else out and I had the area and the views to myself and it was stunning! I also hiked part of the GDT and especially loved the Banff section. To your readers, I would also suggest Mt. Assiniboine, which is touristy for sure, but there is a reason that people love it!! I plan to ride the Icefields parkway sometime this year if all goes according to plan and am really looking forward to that too!
My daughter had the same thing with ET. She was never an easily frightened child but seeing ET would send her shrieking from the room.
I’m laughing so much at the Devil’s greenery. Oh my gosh, that tickled my funny bone. I don’t like celery unless it is in my pot roast in my crockpot. The photos are amazing. We loved our visit to Waterton, so pretty. Maybe we should add Canadian Rockies to our list. I don’t mind ET, but I don’t get people thinking he’s cute. My younger brother had a stuffed animal of ET. I cannot imagine Coach retired. I can imagine ME retired, but what on earth will he do with himself. I suppose I will have enough aches and pains that I’ll ask him about on the daily, that he’ll still feel like he’s working.
Thanks for answering my question. I do think of what I do as work (and if I stopped I’d think of it as retiring), even though I haven’t worked full-time since 2005. The reason retiring is on my mind is that Beth is hoping to retire in the next couple years but my job is much less stressful so I will probably continue to work until my sister retires and shuts down her business. Her current target is 2031, but that could move in either direction.
Those pictures of the Rockies are lovely.
Word: The iconic Banff Springs – worth the splurge, I swear
So your husband is definitely retired! Mine started down that path but has deviated from the concept. He is now semi-retired which is great but also inhibits our flexibility about travel. Therefore I shall live vicariously through you. Where you going?
I need to get to Banff like…today. It is just so gorgeous! Life goals for sure, and I’m Canadian so feel like I have zero excuse to not make my way out there.
Okay, I HAVE SOME WORK TO DO WITH MY YOGA FLEXIBILITY <3 This is just incredible, Nicole, and you're so humble about how incredible you are at the poses and clearly love it so much!
I'm fine with celery, but don't eat it a lot. Raw onion is a HARD pass for me as it really, really hurts my stomach but I add onions to most savoury things I cook. Garlic, sadly, is another thing that hurts my tummy.
Alien Agnostic – what a perfect description. I think I am a Ghost Agnostic too. And geez luiz are you flexible!! My back is hurting just looking at those photos 🙂
I really enjoyed that video. It’s a great video that demonstrates all that the human body can do. I’ve never realized this more than when I began doing yoga. Thank you for sharing that.
Aliens. SO, I saw a TikTok where a woman said, “what if aliens are just billionaires from another planet exploring our planet” and I can’t stop thinking about it. 🤣
First of all, you are just so beautiful Nicole. These photos are amazing — the one of you in BC and Alberta at once is MY FAVORITE — and I am so in awe of your flexibility, my god, I could NEVER, but also you just radiate this lovely joyous, peaceful energy.
Second of all, THE DEVIL’S GREENERY. I love it. My husband would agree with you. He can handle celery if it’s, like, in mirepoix as part of a soup or something but that’s IT. (I, shockingly, kind of like celery!) (Not with peanut butter, or, SHUDDER, raisins, though.)
Also, we are E.T. twinsies. That movie is horrifying! It’s both creepy and sad! And E.T. is NOT CUTE, and the things he endures at the hands of those kids! No thank you. My daughter suggested we watch it just the other day and I said nope, you’ll have to watch that with your father when I am in a different state.
Don’t forget about the Jasper area! It’s been a few years now since I was there, I admit, but it wasn’t as touristy and crowded as Banff always is. I liked it more. And the whole Icefields Parkway drive is stunning and well worth doing.
I try not to swear on other people’s blogs, but ET is fucking terrifying. My parents took us the drive-in to see that movie and I was like 3 or 4 and it was on that BIG SCREEN and his voice is creepy and GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, ET. I share your trauma. Thank goodness he went back to his home planet or whatever. (I actually don’t know the ending because I hid under a blanket and fell asleep and maybe this movie is solely responsible for my not enjoying cinema today.)
So do you just not like raw celery and onions? Do you cook with them? I assume you do, but maybe I’m wrong.
Banff is gorg, and so are you. Alien agnostic is a perfect description.
I keep thinking we need to get visiting Lake Louise on the schedule for when Matt can travel places that are actually in Canada. At least we have enough air miles to get to Australia and back twice at this point. Those pictures of you are so beautiful – so in your element.
Not liking celery seems so funny to me – it seems so inoffensive. Not that food dislikes are rational – I know, I have a ton of them. I am grateful when I meet someone else who doesn’t like onions because they seem to be in everything and not liking them makes me feel like a freak.
Alien agnostic here too. Fermi Paradox.
Oh my stars, I, too, intensely dislike celery. It’s so STRINGY and AWFUL!! PS: Your yoga pictures are so beautiful and authentic and impressive (your foot went where?!?!!)!!
I know we have discussed this before, but I am WITH YOU on the whole E.T. thing.
I was also scared of ET! I don’t think I have ever seen the whole movie.
I do like celery though, LOL. Not that I buy it often since I don’t like it enough to eat it all before it starts going bad.
Celery is BS. For the most part I don’t think about how much we spend on food since we gotta eat, but every time that I buy celery for something like soup where I know I’ll be using a stalk or two and end up throwing the rest out weeks later after it shrivels up in the fridge, I really resent it. Grrr…
That cake tho…retirement has been very good for both of you!
Wow! That kitchen pose is so impressive! I think I am even more impressed, though, with your ability to sustain such a rich yoga practice on your own. You manifest dedication and flexibility.
I hope the garden beds yield many tasty veggies. Do you think you’ll plant kale?
I fully endorse banff as a destination. I have told everyone that i talked to about my trip there that they should go. It is the only place I’ve been that rivals the beauty of New Zealand which is the most beautiful place I’ve been to in my life. But I would rather fly 2.5 hours to Calgary than halfway across the world!
It is my goal to achieve what you and your husband are doing. I should probably be more private about it but people close to me at work know that my goal is to retire in 10 years around age 52. I don’t feel like the pace of work that comes in my industry is sustainable into like your 60s. And according to the financial advisor we met with, we should have enough money to retire at 50. I really hope we can make that happen. My boys would be 16 and 13 at that time so I would be much more available for their final years at home (not that I’m not available now, but I am traveling a fair amount). So I think that will be a good time to be able to fully focus on them? We will see how it all shakes out!
Your comments about celery are funny! If a recipe calls for it, like a soup recipe, do you leave it out?
Alien Agnostic! HA! That made me giggle.
Yay for garden beds to come!
I love Bijoux’s question because I want to see Canada, but I’m not exactly sure where to start! I do have Banff on my list though.
First of all, WOW! Holy cow! OMG! You were serioiusly flexible! Those are great pictures, and the video is wonderful!
Yes to celery being the Devil’s weed. Ugh. I hate celery too. I saw some cartoon somewhere that said celery is great if you enjoy water with dental floss in it!
I remember loving ET as a child, but I watched it as an adult and thought it was awful! Care Bears the cutest!!
I enjoyed reading your answers to all the questions!
I’m guessing you won’t be planting celery in your garden beds!
You used to go to Yoga Shala?! I was a food vendor there for 2 years in a row during their Christmas Market.
I know Dana as we interacted for a few good years (before I started my curent endavour). Small world! ❤️
First wow on those back bends!! So impressive. Banff and Lake Louise are spectacular. Travel is the best part of being retired! So many places to see, so little time! Is it your first time to Ontario and Quebec? No Rockies but we do have beautiful little towns, so many lakes & of course Niagara Falls. It’s so touristy but seeing the actual falls is mesmerizing. I have gone almost every year of my life but could still stare at them for hours. Then there’s Quebec City & Montreal- great cities! Finally how do you make a delicious tuna salad sandwich without finely chopped celery???
Man, I love celery. HAHA. And especially with PB. I found something we vehemently disagree about. But it’s all good because that just means more celery for meee!
All of your pictures here are GORGEOUS. I really want to go to Banff. One of these days!!
Thank you for answering my question. Banff has been on my bucket list for a long time, and especially since I had to cancel our trip to the Colorado Rockies in 2020. Still mad about that! Your photos are beautiful. I hope I get to go!
You are funny is your hatred of celery. I have to admit, I don’t seek it out. It’s okay for me if it’s chopped up in chicken salad or egg salad (but considering you don’t eat those, I guess there’s no opportunity for you to not mind it that way). I do like onions, but I don’t want a big huge ring of raw onion on my sandwich.
Oh, my goodness, those yoga pictures are *amazing*! I’ll just say that I completely agree with you and NGS on ET (WHY), but I am solidly in the plain celery = good, pb alone or with apples or crackers or bread = good, and raisins = crime against humanity. *slinks back to hide*