What's Living in North Vancouver Like? -- Americans Living in Canada

you see this list this neighborhood needs checklist this everything we believed we wanted list guess where it's going wait it's your phone we're chris and melissa back in 2020 we left our empty nest to embark on a slow travel adventure living in 12 cities in 12 months when we started out we thought we wanted to find the perfect big city we gave living in minneapolis st louis dallas austin phoenix and san diego a try after six months we realized that big city life just wasn't for us the city problems are just too much i'm over the air pollution i'm over the pollution on the streets and the noise so we stayed in pismo beach california and whistler bc we liked life in those small towns way more now we're spending some time in north vancouver around 86 000 people call it home making it about the same size of the city i grew up in is it the just right size our original ideal neighborhood checklist contained coffee shops grocery stores restaurants outdoors fun group fitness and arts and entertainment but as melissa said none of this matters our new checklist is coming together here's what's most important to us at this point nature restaurants cool community spaces outdoor exercise fun activities cost of living climate and serenity and treats [Music] it's a lovely neighborhood in north vancouver isn't it yes it is it's nice and peaceful most of the time now and again our building is above a bar and uh it'll get a little lazy yeah that's not serenity at all what i really like is how close we are to vancouver so you like being in north vancouver so you're close to vancouver but not in vancouver you know i just love where this place is located there's a lot of things to do and today we're gonna go over to vancouver yes we are going to get on a sea bus for the first time never been on a sea bus before no we've been on little ferries we've been on big ferries but never sea bus yeah and i've been on a bus before yeah a little bus a big bus double decker bus double decker boats let's do this you know what's got me worked up right now what is like the purchasing the ticket i'm just full of anxiety i know it's gonna be like buying a subway ticket so it's probably not gonna be a big deal but i'm just nervous about because i've never done it before well and i always struggle with those subway tickets like and then the thing and getting it to move and i drove with my ski lip ticket the other day so i understand let me handle this i got it i do have to say i was not worried about it at all because i didn't think i'd have to deal with it at all so yeah how about this do you think there are dangers to do you know we've never taken the seaboast are there dangers because there's always dangers in everything we do oh i'm sure there's risks yeah yeah i'll agree with that [Music] we've got 12 minutes i'm excited i'm super excited [Music] so far simple so far pretty easy so far it's just 870 that's not bad for the two of us [Music] two cards two cards [Music] that was pretty simple so i don't think we have to do anything else we just we just get on the bus the city bus [Music] chris look they're preparing us for potential danger [Music] it's always something always [Music] something so they say this is a 12 minute ride it's pretty fast [Music] here's a travel tip hold on to your seabus ticket until you exit the station on the other side you'll need it to get up [Music] six hours later [Music] just like that we're back in north vancouver boom that was really convenient yeah i like the bus what about you yeah just to be able to jump over to vancouver and all the cool things over there it was like eight bucks canadian dollars and it only takes about 15 minutes and it's it's a nice system nice little setup it is pretty spacious this is a nice neighborhood i like to see bus and with vancouver i like to see bus we need a teacher we like to see bus [Music] lonsdale key is a great place to chill and enjoy the views [Music] i like shopping the market and food hall look at that awesome crane and they even have an ice skating rink that's really cool to have a place like that in our neighborhood wouldn't you say oh yeah for sure and i'm super excited to try out the teas that i picked up from the teapot oh you got tea yeah do you have a peanut butter really peanut butter tea yeah never heard of it and a sweet cherry one well i was just excited to find a little mexican place that had this stuff oh you love that hot sauce best hot sauce around here [Music] north vancouver has a ton of restaurant options and we're trying something a little bit different today we're trying taking big pizza i'm excited show us how excited you are that's the most exciting pizza walker i've ever seen our pizzas were made right after we ordered freshly made food is always the best food [Music] timer set a few moments later honey it's time pizza's done here we go take and make pizza first time we've ever made it in canada first time do you think it's really done yeah i think it's really done um i would go a little bit more though chris is the household pizza expert so i'm going with what you say on this [Music] i've got my cheese a little bit a little bit of brown a little bit of crispiness [Music] round two oh yeah that looks good [Music] [Music] boeing pizza company here goes melissa with what's the first flavor you're gonna get the first one i'm going to have is the potato one i can't remember its full name but it's vegan it's potato it looks delicious nice mushrooms on it hmm it's got kind of like a a caramelized it also has caramelized onions on it's got kind of it's a nice dynamic flavor in the rosemary the mushrooms the potatoes yeah all works together are you gonna try it now thank you for sharing with me your pizza it's light [Music] a very different pizza than i'm used to it's good though it's really good can you share more than one one piece no that's not happening you're lucky i shared the one i'm gonna try a bite of yours this one is the all dressed it um has a lot of meat on it and vegetables but i changed it i modified it um i put italian sausage on took off the ham so i hope you like it honey you also took off the mushrooms which i do like mushrooms but i'm sure it's still great [Music] string cheese [Music] it kind of reminds me of a slice of new york style pizza because also like you notice the the cross bends like that you know and it's still thin but it's not as crispy as the other one oh wow yeah love to see what you think okay [Music] you're cute it's pretty good um it's you can tell it's all fresh and you can just tell it was just made a couple minutes ago um i like it okay i'm gonna keep eating is that thumb up a bump yum on [Music] there was an earnest ice cream about a block down from where we were staying and of course that means we have to check it out i had the chewy pretzel blondie and i tried the cookies and cream they were thumb up about yum there are great restaurants within walking distance of our condo that we'd become regulars at if we moved here tap in barrel rosemary rock salt the treasure cheese and joey's shipyards [Music] [Applause] [Music] what i loved about living in north vancouver is a proximity to nature fun outdoor activities and serenity all in one it's just it's awesome [Music] i see a one-bedroom one-bathroom condo for sale it has 630 square feet so it's pretty tiny here's what i did is i did the search and zillow for like the lowest cost you know sort them from low to high so we'd be on west 21st street oh so this is in north vancouver yes it's okay it would basically be about the same cost of the house we sold in rochester minnesota the 2 500 square feet house we sold we could get a 600 square foot older condo in north vancouver for that price right one bedroom one bath our home in rochester that we sold had three bathrooms and four bedrooms two levels and yeah a garage a nice yard but it wasn't close to these amazing mountains or the amazing city of vancouver so you know it's location that's true it was a lot quieter though true melissa is now searching for a home that was equivalent to the size of the home we had in rochester minnesota she's scrolling away that's the scroll side i'm almost to it okay let's see 2570 square feet sound about right that sounds about right can you believe your eyes it's about two million dollars more than what we're used to 2 575 000 canadian dollars you know four bedrooms four baths so one more bathroom that we had it is a condo not a house doesn't look like it has many pictures available so you can see it must be new yeah that's it it looks kind of cool what neighborhood is it uh it looks like it's right by the water like right kind of controlled by where so we didn't have those views in rochester we were on a hill so we kind of had a view of a valley there was a water tower in the distance and buildings but nothing like these mountains or oceans or cities so you know you pay what you look at i guess you pay what you look at you pay for what you look at perhaps or what you have access to i mean the hikes are amazing near here the food options there are a lot of great food options although rochester has a lot of great food options too i just don't think we can give a thumbs up for the cost of living here no we we would have to make a lot more money to make it work for us yeah so sorry sorry north vancouver we do love you but i'm sorry it's more affordable than whistler and like when it comes to the food costs too do you feel like you've noticed uh it being a little bit lower or not food costs are lower yeah definitely oh and the avocados well they seem to be about the same price we're way better way fresher than what we found in whistler that was the caramel avocado indicator it's a economic indicator of the quality of food wherever we are yes and the cost for said quality [Music] north vancouver is pretty mild average temperatures in a year range from the mid 30s to the mid 70s that's in fahrenheit there can be snow in the winter it rains a lot but cherry blossoms bloom in the spring it's pretty nice [Music] this is serenity right now [Music] so that's our view from our patio that brings about some serenity and then we have a horned hockey there's a lot of horn honking earlier today and there's some traffic and we can sit out here on the patio look at the mountains have serene thought and serene thoughts and you're honking yeah or when we're sleeping at night we'll hear hooligans hooligans making lots of noise but as they leave the bar so dear god really really what is your issue person honking what is going on what do you need to express that you can't find the words for i know i don't think melissa is experiencing serenity right now it's a bit too noisy to truly consider it serene the views are nice when you look over that way [Music] hey we used to live in vancouver did you know that we made all kinds of videos too yes you can check them out here in here [Music] you

Channel: Chris+Melissa

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Id: aVxbmjJJjWg

Length: 16min 47sec (1007 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 15 2022