A lot of people drive along Marine Drive in West Vancouver. They are heading to shop or heading towards 15th Street to access the Upper Levels Highway. But there’s something else you really ought to take a half-hour or so to do. If you want a coffee, you can hit the Starbucks at 17th Street and Marine Drive. There is 2 hour free parking on Marine Drive, which is handy. Then as you exit Starbucks, head right, and right again (south) on 17th Street. Go to and cross Bellevue Ave. You then get to walk over the BC Rail tracks […]

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Tucked in a park-like setting on the north end of Hornby Street(between West Hastings and Cordova) this little gem is a treat for any chocolate lover. Mink boasts some great coffee and pastries but best of all is anything chocolate. Cold or hot chocolate comes in milk or dark or you can spice it up with Mexican-style with chillies and cinnamon. There’s even ‘drinking chocolate’ for the die-hard chocoholics for whom hot chocolate just isn’t enough. There are parfaits and Belgian waffles, chocolate steeped, of course. The Chocolate fondue is a wonderful highlight and fantastic for sharing. Or you can […]

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Carmen at Blue Vista Resort tells us these five secrets. Having Bruce’s amazing chowder at the Sunny Mayne Bakery Seeing the sea lion colony off the shores of Bennett Bay by kayaking out with Bennett Bay Kayak tours or your own kayaks Snorkeling near Piggott’s Bay and seeing the giant mollusks just at the entry to Navy Channel Cruising with Mayne InterIsland Sea Tours for a cold Beer at Saturna’s Lighthouse Pub Don’t miss the Mayne Island Fall Fair, which happens in August!

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Old “Historic” Hazelton was a large commercial town in the 1800s serving the northwest wilderness. Steamboats travelled up and down the Skeena River carrying goods for trading with miners, farmers, and more remote settlements. New Hazelton came into existence with the arrival of the steam train in the early 1900s. The Hazeltons are now comprised of the Village of Hazelton, the District of New Hazelton, the unincorporated villages of South Hazelton, Two Mile, the Kispiox Valley, and the four First Nations’ villages of Gitanmaax, Hagwilget, Kispiox, and Glen Vowell or “Sik-e-dakh”). Back in the day of the old frontier, the […]

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As much as we were impressed by the drive to Revelstoke, we had many eye popping vistas greet us as we headed to Calgary. Golden BC has the whole Kicking Horse Mountain resort going for it, which is about 14 km from Golden, and completely not on our itinerary. One thing to keep in mind, which we didn’t, is that you lose an hour going into Mountain Time in Golden. So we grabbed snacks at the Highway 1 Tim Hortons, a facility that has seen better days, and headed east. Field BC, is the last outpost for British Columbia and […]

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The Best Western PLUS Revelstoke opened in 2011, which makes it a fairly new property. Best Westerns are highly varied in quality even with the PLUS designation the brand has been pushing for the last few years. I loved the rock and wood decor, which seemed to fit into the overall outdoors-y feel that Revelstoke has. We were only there one night, but the room was spacious enough for two adults and two kids. There are key amenities such as high speed Internet, free breakfast, a pool, pets friendly, a fitness centre and a hot tub. What did seem lacking […]

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After a long day driving, you are often too tired to think and the thought of a complex dinner with kids is too much and since we’re not the organized types who have a picnic dinner on standby. The Best Western we were staying at, although a new construction, did not have a restaurant, but was willing to shuttle us into town. As we weren’t sure what we wanted to eat and I had no intention of drinking (I knew even one beer would put me to sleep), we returned to the car for the 5 minute drive into town. […]

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This is the first article of a circle tour my family did between Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and back. This journey in the end covered roughly 2600 kms of driving in one week, which by some standards is crazy, but by Canadian standards is not too bad. Our first leg was Vancouver to Revelstoke, which is about 6 hours of driving. If you are only familiar with normal east-coast driving, be prepared that this is a lot of high altitude mountain driving. This is good because the scenery is amazing but can be daunting at first. When you take Highway One, […]

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The sun is creeping out from behind the clouds and spring is just around the corner. Jump into the sunny season with one of these fun festivals. Celtic Fest is an exciting 12 day festival that runs from March. 6-17 that celebrates Celtic music and performances. There will be performances by the Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir on March. 13, Delhi 2 Dublin on March. 15, April Verch on March. 16, and many more. The Belmont Whiskey Tastings will take place on March. 2. There are also two free events that will be held during the festival. The first is the […]

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Lets face it Vancouver is known as Raincouver. It rains so much during the winter that there is not a lot of activities you can go do outside without getting wet. But Vancouver has this place where you can get a small taste of feeling like you or outside on a beach. There is this place called 6Pack Beach, located in Richmond, and yes it is an indoor beach. I first heard of this place through my church group. The youth were trying to organize an outing and they told us we were going to play indoor volleyball but to […]

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