- Crosscountry Skiing, Downhill Skiing, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Random Thoughts, Sea to Sky, Trips with Kids, Urban
Activities with an Active Toddler with a Toddler’s Fracture
December brought some extra challenges into our lives. It happened on December 2nd, when Gili took Neil skiing on their second day of the season. Neil was excited about skiing and was keen to go. I wasn’t able to go with them and was home when they returned. It seemed odd to me that Gili was carrying Neil to give me a hug and then he told me that Neil had injured himself and can’t put weight on his leg. I would never have guessed, since Neil seemed to be in a good mood… Since it was a few hours since the fall and he still couldn’t put weight on…
Looking for America while Cycling in Washington and Idaho (Video)
In May 2017 we went on a two week road trip from our home in Vancouver, British Columbia. We crossed the border to Washington and drove to Clarkston, at the south-eastern corner of Washington. We did two bike trips – a five day trip which we named the Snake River Loop, which was very scenic and included quiet roads, bike paths and small town America in both Washington and Idaho. On the second trip we followed the Centennial Trail from Spokane, Washington to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and back over three days. It was our first trip to the States post Trump and in a way we went to “look for…
Vernon: A Real Canadian Winter Experience
As we were driving towards Vernon we started wondering what have we gotten ourselves into? Why for heaven’s sake, did we choose a cold destination for our Christmas break? We are much more summer weather people, especially in winter. If we go on an extended skiing vacation, we’d much rather do it in the spring, when the days are longer, and skiing usually involves sun and blue skies, and not -20c temperatures. Then we started thinking we must be getting soft, or old… we remembered one skiing trip where we camped (!) in -30c. If we could do that seven years ago, we figured there was no reason that we…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Hiking & Scrambling, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
Mt. Seymour: A Surprising Last Taste of Summer
October in Vancouver can go either way. Sometimes it’s more like November, with the constant rainfall and dreary dark days of the Fall. Other times it’s more like September, with blue skies, sun rays that actually feel warm, and the last taste of summer. It’s kind of like the Forrest Gump saying: “October is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”. Our good friend Yaron was visiting from Israel, always a good excuse for a hike. Mt. Seymour, with its exquisite views that are easy to get to, is a common choice for us – it’s hard to beat such good “bang for the buck“.…
Family Cycling Close to Home: Vancouver Island, Hornby, Denman & The Sunshine Coast (Video)
In September 2017 we left our home in Vancouver on our bikes with our toddler in tow and cycled for ten days on Vancouver Island, hopped over to Denman and Hornby Islands and went down the Sunshine Coast. We took eight ferries, stayed with three Warmshowers hosts, camped, swam at many beautiful beaches and ate an endless amount of blackberries. There was something very magical and yet simple about leaving home on our bikes and returning ten days and 330 kilometers later on our bikes. This video gives a taste of this amazing trip.
- Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island-Sunshine Coast Loop: Blackberry Summer Ride
All great trips start with a single idea, and we had been thinking about this one for quite some time. Although we have visited most of the southern Gulf Islands, many of them several times, we had yet to explore the northern Gulf Islands. They are a bit farther away and more complicated to get to from Vancouver. In addition, a weekend, or even a long weekend is not enough time to do a decent bike tour there. The stars finally aligned in early September when we decided to take off for ten days. While it didn’t make sense to fly anywhere, combined with the fact that we don’t have…
Steveston: Along the Arbutus Greenway and the Dike
The ride to Steveston is one of our favourite local rides, but it just got a whole lot better. Now, with the new Arbutus Greenway we can leave our place and to ride all the way to Steveston, 25 km away, almost all on designated bikeways, aside from a short section in Richmond. It’s been a while since our last ride there, and so we decided to make it into a day trip, which was also good preparation for our longer cycling trip starting the weekend after. Neil also enjoyed riding a long section of the Arbutus Greenway. The opening of this Greenway is one of the best things that…
Pemberton & Whistler: The Art of Moving Slow
Once again we decided to do the Slow Food Cycle Sunday in Pemberton. Our last time was three years ago, and this time Neil joined us, which made the ride even slower, which I didn’t think was possible after last time. We also didn’t exactly start early. We only left Vancouver at around 9am, and made it to Pemberton around lunch time. It actually made more sense because by the time we got there we were ready to eat. It didn’t take long to get the bikes and trailer set up and we started riding from our car, Neil on his balance bike. We had a lot of good things…
Park Butte Lookout: A Smoky Weekend in the Mountains
It was hazy and smoky in Vancouver for a few days before the BC Day long weekend, but we still decided to go ahead with our weekend plans of hiking around Mt. Baker in the US. We honestly didn’t give too much thought to the smoke and didn’t really think it was a big issue in Vancouver. Maybe we also thought that the smoke would magically disappear once we crossed the border. It turned out however that the smoke in the US was much worse, and that’s not just a a metaphor. We managed to leave reasonably early on Friday and headed east. We originally planned to cross the border…
Brandywine Meadows: Plenty of Time to Smell the Roses
The forecast was calling for another sunny weekend and we were both itching to get out of the city and do something outdoors. A good friend invited us for a picnic on Sunday afternoon on the beach and we really wanted to go, so whatever we were doing, we had to be back quite early on Sunday. At first we were thinking of doing something around Mt. Baker across the border. Luckily we came to our senses at around 10:30am on Saturday when we realized that the drive would take us about 3 hours + we’d need to cross the border and the hike wasn’t as short as we thought.…
