Big White: Ending the Season on a Good Note
Neil didn’t have the best start to his skiing season. On the second day he was up on Cypress he broke his leg and was off his legs for 3.5 weeks, and off his skis for about six weeks. However, aside from this (very) bumpy start, this season was great. We managed to go up to Cypress about once a week mid-week during the winter, and a few more times on weekends after we got back from Hawaii. Neil doesn’t seem traumatized and was excited about skiing again (to say the least). Last year on the Easter long weekend we headed to Big White for the season finale. I checked…
Hawaii: Maybe Not the Maui You Had in Mind?
A few times during this trip I had to stop, rub my eyes and ask myself where were we? Were we in Maui when I encountered a cow on the side of the road? Were we in Maui when the road became narrow, unpaved and deserted? Were we in Maui when already on the first day we found a hole-in the-wall place for our first poke bowl, or when we climbed out of the city into the countryside, with beautiful views and very few people? This is definitely not the image of Maui that I had in mind. We booked our tickets to Maui a couple of months before since…
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“.…
- 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.…
Salt Spring Island: Mini-Vacation in (our) Style
My birthday was coming up and all I really wanted was to wake up in our tent by the ocean. I remembered years ago that we spent my birthday weekend on Salt Spring Island and how magical the place was. We camped at Ruckle Provincial Park twice and it’s definitely one of my favourite campgrounds. With the huge space there you never feel it’s overcrowded even when the campground is completely full. Of course there is the extra advantage that it’s a walk-in campground, so no need to worry about cars, hearing generators and car doors slamming. One can just enjoy the sounds of the ocean and the occasional ferry…
