Day 1: Vancouver to Salmon Arm via Trans-Canada Highway

Driving through (approximately) Hell's Gate in the Fraser Canyon

Fraser River

Fraser Canyon overlooking The Canadian Pacific Railway

Day 2: Salmon Arm to Banff via Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 93

We stopped for a morning coffee in Revelstoke near The Last Spike of the CPR. We made sure to visit the Railway Museum in Revelstoke.

Driving through the Rocky Mountains (still in BC)

Rogers Pass (at the visitor's centre)

Arrival in Banff

Day 3: Day trip to Columbia Icefields in Alberta via Highway 93

View from the hotel in Banff

Driving up the Icefields Parkway from Banff towards Jasper

Columbia Icefield (one of the eight glaciers)

At the visitor's centre of the Athabasca Glacier. In 1844 the Glacier covered the visitor's centre parking lot. It has been receeding since.

Marker showing where the Athabasca Glacier was in the year 2000

Lake Louise

Day 4: Banff to Osoyoos via Highway 95/93 and Crowsnest Highway

Kootenay National Park decimated by the pine beetle infestation

Driving into the Okanagan Valley

Day 5: Osoyoos to Vancouver via Highway 3

Dipped our toes into Okanagan Lake in Osoyoos before heading home

The office is just on the cusp of Gastown but outside the city centre. The area is very up-and-coming with the new W2 Woodwards development including SFU, London Drugs, and Nester’s Market.

New and old Ws at Woodwards | Gassy Jack in Historic Gastown

Soon, it’ll be part of a new business district called “Hastings Crossing”. I figured that this was as good a time as any to highlight some of the local businesses that I frequent and hope to continue to support.

Bambo Café
This is absolutely my favourite lunch spot. Everything I’ve tried has been delicious, fresh, and well-priced for the large portions. I know I can spend less than $10 on lunch and be nice and full until dinner time. I love the sandwiches and their homemade soups. My favourites are tuna melt because they put fresh dill in the tuna and this amazing butternut squash soup. To die for.

Butternut Squash soup and grilled veggie sandwich at Bambo Cafe

Deadly Couture
Speaking of dying… but not really… is the alternative shop Deadly Couture full of goth/punk/rockabilly fashion and accessories. They carry my favourite brand of hair dye here: Special Effects. The colour is super intense and lasts for a really long time. I also love.love.love all the fashion accessories and clothing style.

Dressew
I’ve been going to Dressew for years — it is a crafty person’s dream come true. The whole basement is filled with discount fabrics and notions galore, the main floor is costuming, some discontinued yarn and fabric fabric fabric. Dressew celebrated its 50th anniversary in March of this year and the Vancouver Courier ran an awesome article. It’s true you can find a zipper to match any fabric, fringe to adorn anything, and even genuine leather scraps. They told me that in addition to two full floors, Dressew has a sub-basement for stock and an additional off-site storage facility.

Old Faithful Shop
Relative newcomer to the area, I cannot resist going into the shop regularly. The style embraces au natural design with unfinished wood, unbleached fabrics, and sustainable materials. Old Faithful has amazing home decor (think shabby-chic, eco-cabin) with a down-to-earth, organic, homegrown feel. It was the hanging glass terrariums that inspired me to write this article about how to make a terrarium for GardenWise Online.

Hitz Boutique
Another ‘alternative’ style clothing shop in the area, they always have hilarious baby clothes in the window. But what I really love is that they carry several brands that are mostly found in Kits and Point Grey. My favourite turquoise jacket is made by a company called Orb and I bought it at Hitz Boutique. Also, the staff are fantastic, friendly and helpful. One of them even remembered—nearly a year later—that I was “the one who bought the turquoise jacket.”

ButtonButton
You may think with Dressew just around the corner that ButtonButton would go out of business. In truth, it’s the skyrocketing rent for retail space in the downtown core that nearly did in this cute, tiny little shop. Sure, Dressew may have tons of buttons… but most of them are fairly common. What about the uncommon buttons, the buttons that turn heads, the buttons that make you squeal with delight as you find a replacement for your favourite jacket? ButtonButton has all these kinds of buttons and more.

Olla Urban Flower Project & Shop
Even though I have a mottled green-black thumb (I only succeed half of the time), I love Olla Flowers. I love their design aesthetic as well as their concept. They create arrangements and living containers using sustainable resources, local and ethically-traded plants and even recycled and/or repurposed containers. They also work with corporate and non-profit groups to compost, re-home event decor, and even hold monthly workshops.

Also in the area is Academie Duello, where I’ve recently begun taking lessons. This makes the history geek in me very happy and it’s surprisingly quite a good workout!

Crocuses sprouting in January (before the snow)

Henry chewing on the leaves of the crocuses. Crocuses are just finished blooming, tulips are beginning to show. (April/May)

Tulips in full bloom (May). This was about 3 weeks before they cut down those bushes and destroyed my private little sancuary. Now I look onto the road and can see the ugly stucco building across the street.

Lilies in full bloom (July)

How is your garden doing?

Henry takes over the couch pillows

This is an older photo, but so good. My sister's cat Saasafras looking guilty after killing a flower.

Abby is a CatLoaf. My mom got upset and thought I was calling Abby names. Actually, my sister and I call this pose "CatLoaf" when they tuck all their limbs under them.

Sassafras is the Cat in the Hat. She is sitting inside a purple velveteen top hat. Yes, she is that small. Yes, she is full grown.

Henry is a bookworm

There were lots of exhibitors selling Scots stuff, from kilts and scarves to flags, knick-knacks, swords and Renaissance items.

BC Highland Games 2011 - Marketplace

We watched the Parade of the Clans where only a handful of clansmen and women were representing. Listening to the band pipe them in was awesome though. I love the sound of bagpipes!

Then we wandered over to the Heavy Events area. It was slow-going, but still very neat to watch the Heavy Events. The only problem was the viewing section was only on one side of the field, so the events in the far corners were hard to see (as you can tell in my photos).

Heavy Events: Women's Weight by Distance

The weight for distance throws consist of a “light” weight and a “heavy” weight event. The men’s Light weight is 28 lbs. while the women’s is 14 lbs. There are three different heavy weights, the men’s 56 lbs., men’s masters (40 years old +) is 42 lbs. and the women’s is 28 lbs. The weights have a handle attached with a chain. The weight must be thrown with one hand and the athlete must keep one foot inside of a throwing area of 4’6″ x 9′ at all times. The most common method of throwing the weight is to use a double spin.

Men's Weight by Height

In the Weight for Height / Weight Over Bar events the athlete has three attempts to clear the height of the bar. The Men throw a 56 lbs. “scale weight” (masters 42 lbs. and Women use 28 lbs.) with one arm. The weight must go over the bar in order to be counted.

Men's Braemar Stone Toss

The Stone Putt: The thrower must “putt” (derived from the Gaelic word “thrust”) the stone from the shoulder area not letting the elbow lead the wrist. The Braemar Stone Putt is a standing Putt that does not allow any approach on the Trig (Toe Board). The weight of the stone generally ranges from 22 to 26 lbs. for men and 13 to 18 lbs. for women.

Heavy Events: Men's Hammer Toss

The Scottish Hammer Toss is the ancestor of the modern day Olympic hammer. The “hammer” is a weight on the end of a 50″ piece of rattan or PVC. The original version of this was likely a wagon wheel spoke with the wheel hub attached. The name “hammer” and the weights were added when clansmen used a blacksmith’s hammer (sledge hammer), to see who could throw it the farthest.

There is a Heavy Hammer and a Light Hammer. Men throw 22 lbs. heavy hammer and a 16 lbs light hammer. Women throw a 12 lbs. light hammer and a 16 lbs. heavy hammer. The athlete must throw the hammer without moving his feet.

Heavy Events: Women's Caber Toss

A caber is from 15 to 23 feet long and between 70 and 130 pounds. The caber is stood up for the thrower with the large end up, the thrower then hoists the caber up and cups the small end in his hands. After a small run, he will attempt to “turn” the caber by throwing the caber so the large end hits the ground and the small end falls away from the thrower.

The caber is scored for accuracy as if on a clock face. The judge will score the caber based on where it hits the ground in direct relation to the throwers shoulders, 12:00 is a perfect toss; However if the caber fails to break the vertical plane (turn end-over-end) then the caber will be judged based on the degrees it traveled to the vertical plane.

We then wandered over to watch the dancing:

Highland Dancing - Reel

Among the marketplace stalls there were also displays for various clans, woodworking, jewellery, and even medieval services and events. Having recently been introduced to swordplay, these booths were incredibly interesting:

Falcon from Blood & Iron Martial Arts

Blood & Iron were supposed to do a falconry demo, but it was cancelled due to the rain.

Swordplay (rapier duel) demo by Academie Duello

I had been planning for a while to sew a pleated skirt in my Clan tartan, but I didn’t have enough time. In the end, I decided to use a modern plaid fabric (which is also more affordable) and I sewed a circle skirt. I wore it to the Highland Games—despite the rain—but the photo is from Sunday.

I can’t find the tutorial I used (I printed it from a PDF a looong time ago and there is no URL on it) but this explaination from WhatTheCraft is similar. If you need a little more detail, check out this tutorial by Dana Made It.

I’ve loved horses since I was a little girl but haven’t been riding for a few years. It felt so good to put on my paddock boots and slip into the familiar rhythms again.

I went for a two-hour ride with Langley 204 Stables, located directly across from Campbell Valley Park. Unfortunately, the sunny Sunday turned into an overcast Monday with a few drizzles. But the good thing about Campbell Valley, is most of the equestrian trails are under cover of trees.

In just two hours we managed to walk, trot and canter along the Shaggy Mane Trail, a 14 kilometer trail circling the perimeter of the park. I was on a lovely Arabian-Quarterhorse named Quincy, who I also got to groom before and after (one of the best parts about riding in my opinion). There were five of us on the ride, one of whom was the owner of the equestrian centre. It wasn’t really a guided trail ride, but they “accompany” riders so we didn’t get lost or take off with the horses.

Fields were a little waterlogged, but it made the birds happy. Can you see the duck?

Throughout the park there were trees marked for removal, stumps chopped up, and then new saplings planted. Sometimes they didn’t bother clearing the stumps away if they were rotting inside since they made great hosts for new trees. Our guide told us that Campbell Valley was doing general maintenance; clearing thousands of trees out and planting hundreds of new evergreen saplings.

New saplings planted

Cross-country equestrian fields (closed for the winter I believe)

The only downside to the day wasn’t the weather. It was the small pony, Ebony, in front of me. The rider was also celebrating her birthday, but her pony didn’t have a very quick canter or a long stride. When we were trotting or cantering I kept having to rein back on Quincy so he didn’t run up into Ebony’s butt. I still had a great time but would have loved to go running a bit more.

After our ride, I gave Quincy a treat and brushed him again. Then I went to visit with some of the other horses on-site. Above is Reno, the big black and white Paint. He was so huge and kept going under the roof and then lifting his head too high and bashing it on the underside. Poor guy didn’t realize how large he was. The other little mare was just in a box stall at the end of the stables. She was super friendly but there was no nameplate on her stall.

Quincy posing for a photo

One of my favourite parts of riding isn’t just hopping on a horse and running, it’s bonding with the horse and pampering it. During grooming you can really get to tell a horse’s personality and also how it’s feeling that day — if it’s grumpy or jumpy or excited or playful.

Brushing the horse before tacking up is essential to make sure they don’t get saddle sores or rubbed raw, but brushing afterwards is like giving the horse a good scratch and saying “thank you”. I like to brush, pet, and scratch the horse to let it know that I appreciate the ride.

Literally.

Today was the day — the official yarnbombing of Joy Kogawa’s cherry tree. I contributed about 100 blossoms and arrived this afternoon to help install the yarn blossoms (and bark!) on the tree.

The executive director of the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society managed to get a fire engine with ladder to help install the blossoms in the higher branches. My dad also dropped off a ladder and I made my way up into the tree (I probably should have signed some sort of liability waver first, eh?).

It was a gorgeous sunny day; the first day of Spring in my mind. And the tree looked absolutely fantastic. There were well over 500 blossoms by my guess, and it was amazing to see the literary community collide with the yarn community. Fantastic day.

Photo above of me in the tree taken by my friend, Jason Vanderhill of IllustratedVancouver. Photos below taken by me.

Finishing touches on the cherry tree bark | My “tag” with one of the blossoms I made.

Finished tree full of blossoms. Even started covering the apple tree beside it and the neighbour’s tree!

Well, it took us a while to end up working out a date/time, but we did it! And although I was under-dressed for the weather, it was a lot of fun. Reminder to self: long-sleeved shirt and fleece vest does not cut it in the winter.

Richmond's Olympic Oval on a sunny winter day

I met Abby at 1:00pm at the Richmond Olympic Oval, which marks the beginning of Richmond’s West Dyke Trail, and off we went.

North Shore Mountains and YVR Airport

Viewpoint along Richmond's West Dyke Trail

Abby kept pace with me since I am less fit (and have asthma) but we still had a good pace. Slow and steady wins the race and we certainly got our heart rate going, which is the whole point.

It took us about an hour and a bit to get to Steveston village, a neighbourhood in Richmond.

Steveston is well-known for it’s seaside location and fisheries. You can get lots of fresh seafood at the Steveston markets as well as stop for a coffee and bite to eat, which is what we did.

As we passed through Minoru Park, we stopped in awe of the sight we found. What looked like a giant ice rink was in the middle of the park.

We quickly agreed that it must be a frozen puddle. For one, it really doesn’t get cold enough in Vancouver to freeze even a pond thick enough to support skaters. And for two, Minoru Park doesn’t have a pond.

Frozen puddle in Steveston is a makeshift ice rink

We took a break at Waves and basked in the sun outdoors despite the cold air.

As the sun began to dip in the sky we finished our coffee at Waves, put our helmets back on and kicked up our bike stands. Every day gets a little bit longer, but the sun was going to begin setting around 4:30 pm and it was already at least -2°C in the sun.

Heading east with the setting sun on our backs

The return trip, albiet colder, seemed quicker. Maybe it was our desire to get home or perhaps it was just knowing the distance having already done it in the opposite direction.

We still stopped for the occasional photo, or to watch the wildlife. This Blue Heron below was catching his dinner. We watched him gobble down a fish (the photo of him eating it didn’t turn out). We saw a couple more blue herons along the dyke too.

Blue Heron catching fish in the dyke

As we got to the end of the trail, dusk was setting in and you could see the sunset colouring the horizon. Then, we heard squawking and watched as, literally, a swarm of birds flew overhead.

Eastern horizon with tinges of sunset

Swarm of birds flying towards us

Birds taking over the dusk sky

I pulled out the bird book when I got home and tentatively identified them as Bonaparte’s Gulls. They were wintery white with grey-tipped wings. My other guess would be some kind of loon, but I don’t think they flock like gulls, and these birds were squawking, not hooting like a loon does.

Me at Abby after cycling the West Dyke Trail

All in all I had a fantastic day and can’t wait to go on another bike ride with Abby. I already messaged her with interest in doing Chilliwack’s Slow Food Cycle in the summer!

P.S. We cycled 24km round-trip!

I went on Thursday with my friend Evan. We didn’t have any kids to bring along on the Family Pass, so we gave them to a family standing in line. Good karma I guess. We wandered around a looked at the lights and historical displays before biting the bullet and crossing the suspension bridge.

Entrance to Capilano Suspension Bridge park

Canyon Lights decorating Capilano Suspension Bridge park

Native totems part of the historical display at Canyon Lights

Initially built in 1889, the Capilano Suspension Bridge is 446 feet long and 230 feet above the Capilano River in North Vancouver. The bridge has been rebuilt several times over the years and the original structure is no long intact.

View of Capilano Suspension bridge (circa 1905) Photo from the Vancouver Archives online database

Vancouver mayor L.D. Taylor and unidentified man on the Capilano Suspension Bridge (circa 1930) Photo from the Vancouver Archives online database.

There is a family story that my mom brought us to the Capilano Suspension Bridge when we were kids, and barely made it onto the bridge before she turned back due to fear of heights. My older sister—who was walking already—was so excited she ran back and forth across the bridge resulting in it swaying. People got mad at my mom but she was trying to control her fears as well as two small children.

Capilano Suspension Bridge all lit up during Canyon Lights

I may have inherited some of my mom’s fear of heights. While I have climbed a 30 foot ladder to rescue Henry from a tree, I think I prefer the idea of a suspension bridge more than in practice. Less than halfway across I was desperately holding on and thinking, “holy crap why did I want to do this again?” We crossed around 7:30 pm or 8:00 and it was very busy in the park — I’m surprised they don’t limit the number of people crossing at one time (although that could be my jelly-legs talking)

Once on the other side, we let our jelly legs settle (which felt like sea legs) and looked around. They’d decked out the area in lights, including Treetop Adventures. The Treetop Adventures are a series of footbridges and platforms 30 feet above the forest floor among majestic Douglas Firs.

Twinkling walkways around Capilano Bridge park

Lights and lanterns reflecting of the pond through the Eco Rainforest walk

Treetop Adventures at Capilano Bridge park

Footpaths through the trees, 30 feet high at Treetops Adventure

I managed to make it back to the other side, safely and relatively calm. Although during the Treetops Adventure I was cursing the small children jumping on the footbridges. And on the return trip across the Suspension Bridge, some girl got freaked out or just didn’t think about everyone else and she started running across the bridge resulting in it swaying and shaking; they even played the Do Not Run warning instead of the calm twinkly Christmas tunes.

Capilano Trading Post

Part of the prize pack that I won included a glass ornament by Malcolm Macfadyen. I was so excited to have this added to my collection as I have a glass ornament that Malcolm helped me make at Circle Craft Christmas Market 2009. The third part of the prize was $100 to spend at The Trading Post souvenir and gift shop. I was so overwhelmed by this and took quite a lot of time to select a gift… and you’re just going to have to wait to see photos of those! In the meantime, here are all my photos from Canyon Lights on Flickr.

Jewel Box of Lights display at the Bloedel Conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park

The Friends of Bloedel managed to save the Bloedel Floral Conservatory by partnering with the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association and making a successful bid to take over from the Vancouver Park Board.

The Jewel Box of Lights event marks the conservatory’s 41st anniversary as well as the first year of lazer lights, twinkling bridges, waterfall lights, and thousands more. The Jewel Box of Lights began on December 5th with a special fundraising event with an a capella quartet, a trio of tubas and a visit from Santa.

Fountains outside of the Bloedel Conservatory

When I heard about The Jewel Box of Lights, a twist on the Bloedel’s traditional poinsettia display, I made a note to visit. I stopped by earlier this week with my friend Eka. We took a Self Guided Tour (brochure provided) and a fun “Can you Find All these Birds/Plants” list for kids.

Deer inside the Conversatory

Twinkle bridge inside

Giant Plantain Banana trees

Art, the gold and blue Macaw

India Fig tree reaching the ceiling

Rosie, an African Gray Parrot

The twinkling lights were beautiful at night, but the birds were all sleepy. See all my Jewel Box of Lights photos on Flickr. For awesome videos of the birds at the Bloedel Conservatory, check out the Friends of Bloedel on YouTube. The lights and poinsettias will be on display until January 2nd.