The Tower of Ritter
Early this summer we found ourselves with an astonishing collection of Ritter Sport bars. This wasn’t exactly planned – we had a few bars at home, and when friends visiting Germany offered to bring us some more, we of course took them up on the offer. It turns out Ritter Sport is about a third of the price in Germany,…
More Explorations of Seattle and Nearby
In early December we headed to Seattle again. Not exactly a place of sunshine and warmth this time of year, but a city with many attractions and good food to offer. Tal, Gili’s brother, was assigned to work in Seattle for a few weeks. He visited us in Vancouver for a week and after his first week at work we…
The Lonely Planet on Beer Sheva
Friends were visiting recently and had an older Lonely Planet guidebook for Israel. While looking through it, I looked up a few favourite places. I found that Ramle was labelled, somewhat aptly, as “off the beaten track”. But I was surprised to find out that the authors make fun of Beer Sheva, the town Maya and I spent three years…
Best Travel Insurance for Canadians
You like to travel, right? But, what if you are involved in an accident or serious illness, who will pay the bills? It might be a good idea to get some travel insurance. Since we’ll be leaving on an extended trip soon, I’ve been busy doing some research on insurance companies, which I’m sharing so that it can hopefully save…
Wreck Beach: A Different Kind of Trip
UBC is the only university I know of that has a nude beach. Imagine yourself, on a mid summer day, clambering down the wooden stairs to Wreck Beach, through pristine forest, coming out to a scene in the spirit of the free love atmosphere of the 60’s. There are volleyball nudes, beer hugging nudes, sunbathing nudes, ice cream selling nudes…
Tel Aviv the Bike City
When I was in high school I used to cycle everywhere. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do in Tel Aviv, although this city is actually perfect for cycling: it’s flat, the distances are short, and the climate is convenient. However, riding my bike was always a battle between the parked cars (sometimes parked half or fully on the sidewalks),…
Plums, Plums & More Plums
We always say that my friend Mari knows everyone, and in a way it’s sort of true. So when I mentioned at work how much Gili and I love picking fruit, and that we would be happy to pick some plums, she immediately connected us with friends of hers in Burnaby. We cycled to their place on a beautiful Sunday…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Hiking & Scrambling, Sea to Sky, Trip Reports, Varsity Outdoor Club (VOC)
Hanging Lake Trail: The Gratification of Trail Clearing
British Columbia contains some of the wildest wilderness on Earth, and yet very few trails run through it. For us, outdoor fanatics, there is constant tension between wanting more trails to access the back country contrasted with wanting less trails to keep the wilderness as it is. Those few trails are generally maintained by volunteers, at least the ones outside…
What to do with 130 pounds of Cherries?
A few weeks ago we had a crisis. While driving back from the Rockies we stopped at friends in Creston and returned with about 130lbs of intensely purple cherries. Like my sister said, it’s like we drove home with a whole person worth of cherries. And a very tasty person at that. We had to figure out what to do…
Tenquille Lake: Summer Grand Finale
This has been an amazing summer. It started kind of slow with a very wet June, but July and August were pure sun. We’ve been lucky enough that this sunny weather continued on into September. On the first official day of fall, Gili and I headed for a three day trip to Tenquille Lake, as a finale of this wonderful…
