Tag: Sightseeing

In a good way, Granville Island in Vancouver is a peculiar place. There’s a fascinating intersection of the arts, retail and not-so-light industry. In other words, watch out for the Ocean Concrete trucks lumbering across roads people often don’t really think are roads. Given the brand-name-free nature of the shopping, it’s a pleasure to actually shop. I don’t understand the allure of Robson Street that has designer name brands you can find in any city’s high street. My reason for being on Granville Island was a child’s birthday where a bunch of kids boarded a barged-converted-to-pirate-ship and all dressed up […]

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Our second Salt Spring Island beach walk on our trip (see Jack Foster Trail) was at the south east part of the Island. To find the access point to this trail, from Ganges, take Fulford-Ganges Road, turn left on Cusheon Lake Road, right on Stewart Road, left on Beaver Point Road, left onto Bullman Road and then right onto Meyer Road. There’s a cul-de-sac at Meyer Road where you can park. The trail soon becomes this mossy magical location. In March the moss was so profound and wet and green that it felt like a scene from The Shire in […]

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At the north end of Salt Spring Island, there’s a place to visit called Sunset Farm, which is on Sunset Drive, conveniently. Basically it’s a hobby farm with sheep, ducks, chickens, goats, two ponies and very cute black lambs (just don’t tell my kids what happens to most of them). One thing we learned was that it’s a lot easier to raise sheep on Salt Spring Island because there are no foxes, coyotes or wolves. In the Fraser Valley, predation by coyotes is an issue. Interestingly if you are raising chicken, you don’t want to be too close to the […]

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On Salt Spring Island, at the intersection of North End Road, Southey Point Road and Sunset Drive there’s an access point to Jack Foster Trail. We were lucky that the trail access was walking distance along a country road were we had a chance to feed grass to a couple of horses in a pasture. It’s a wooded trail, bound by moss-covered decaying snake fences that lead to the ocean. Technically this is an easy trail, which means you can easily use running shoes (preferably ones you don’t mind being covered in mud), but be aware that there are a […]

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In my opinion, calling this peak a “mount” is an insult to the peak. One of they key unexpected surprises is how twisty, up-and-down and basically mountainous Salt Spring Island is. By the time we were settled in our B&B, we had figured this out through driving and were listening closely when our hostess suggested that the Mount Maxwell view was stunning. However, she cautioned, the road was challenging for regular vehicles, but figured a regular sedan would do the trick. Taking Cranberry Rd from Ganges, you simply follow the signs. You will be going up and up. When the […]

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Victoria has plenty to see for all members of the family, museums, art galleries, gardens, churches… Miniature World is a category all on its own. Located at 649 Humboldt St., Miniature World is just around the corner from Victoria’s most famous Fairmont Empress Hotel. A Victoria attraction for over 40 years, it has over 80 displays depicting various events in history, doll houses, scenes from old story books and even a peek into Space 2201. Some displays have buttons that highlight a section, or make characters or objects move. The attention to detail in facial expressions, costumes, ground cover, cobble […]

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This is possibly one of the easiest and most scenic bike rides in Vancouver. It was a hot summer day when my daughter and I set out on the 5.7 km (each way) bicycle ride from Kits Beach. We wanted to try the relatively new (18 months old) bike path along Point Grey Road and see how it connects to Jericho, Locarno and Spanish Banks beaches. This was the view from where we started. As you ride west, following the markings for bikes, you then follow a short stretch of Point Grey Road, which then turns back to where Cornwall […]

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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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If any of you watch the hit TV series “Once Upon a Time” and have wondered if the little town Storybrooke actually exists, I can tell you that it does! My friends helped me become obsessed with the TV show, and I thought, “what a cute little town”. I was curious as to whether or not the place was real or if the whole thing was shot in a studio. Well it turns out if you go to this little town called Steveston in Richmond BC, you can walk the same streets as your favourite characters from the show. My […]

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