Posts by: WantsToTravelMore

The Harrison Hot Springs Info Centre is on Highway 9 as you head into town. As you approach Harrison Hot Springs, you will find that the Sasquatch (a.k.a. Bigfoot) is a big part of Harrison Hot Springs’ Tourism. The area is also home to the Sts’ailes band who have a long history with Sasquatch as indicated by paintings of “Sa:sq’ets” dating back thousands of years. The creature is considered super natural. See www.sasquatchcrossing.ca/our-lodge/history/story-of-the-sasquatch for more. There are many non natives who believe Bigfoot is a real as yet undiscovered primate living in the Pacific Northwest. This little museum in the […]

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We were driving out of Vancouver on a weekday morning and wanted to have breakfast out and avoid rush hour traffic. Because I can’t make waffles to save my life, I looked for a waffle place. We found Yolks on West Broadway between Ash and Cambie. Around mid-morning on a weekday, it was pretty busy. There wasn’t a wait for a table but it was full. We were driving and managed to find street parking, but it’s a short walk from the Cambie Skytrain station, making it easy to reach from downtown Vancouver. Waffles, pancakes and granola were the choices […]

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When I lived in Toronto in the 80s, there were a ton of places where you could get desserts late at night and really hammer that glycemic index. When I moved to Vancouver, the overall tone was either more about fitness or more about how you looked and, either way, there were fewer super powered dessert places. However, True Confections at Broadway and Alma, which is in the very western edge of Kitsilano, is a wonderfully high calorie place to truly shove one’s diet and health plans down the drain. We were there on a rainy Tuesday around 8:30 and […]

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What do you think of the renovations to the Empress Hotel in Victoria? On our recent trip to Victoria, we wanted to walk through the Empress Hotel to see what’s changed after it’s 60 million dollar renovation. (See www.timescolonist.com/business/empress-hotel-owner-celebrates-60m-renovation-1.20818547) It’s a significant change but the stately and grand nature of the place is still there. You now enter through a different entrance with high ceilings and a crazy chandelier. Where you have tea seems unchanged but it’s the front that really strikes you. Here’s the current new exterior. The main feature in the old exterior was the endless ivy. Of […]

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We stayed at the Chateau Victoria this past New Year’s and it was a functional choice in a fantastic location. It’s on Burdett Ave with an interesting topography due to it being on the side of a hill. When I was using Booking.com’s link for Victoria, it showed me square footage for the various choices. This was important for me and Chateau Victoria was consistently showing more space than others. We had a suite with a queen bed and another room with another queen and a pull out. This served our family of four well. We did not have time […]

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At while ago I complied a list of Victoria breakfast places and I’ve been meaning to actually try them all. Eventually. We lucked out on a Wednesday morning and squeaked into the Blue Fox Café on Fort Street in downtown Victoria. It’s a smallish place and rather popular. A couple of years ago, when we were compiling the list, the line-up was too big and we did not try. It was worth the wait, even though it was a three-year wait. The staff is attentive and they managed to squeeze us into a table. We had arrived around 10:30 AM […]

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The Teahouse in Stanley Park is a stunning location for a fancy brunch, lunch or dinner. It’s located on the west side of Stanley Park off of Stanley Park Drive. Assuming you aren’t visiting on the swampy day we visited, the views from the restaurant and the grounds are spectacular. The restaurant itself has that English country style to it and looks festive at Christmas time. We attended at brunch to celebrate a birthday. There’s a large wine list, which we did not take from (we need to sun to be a bit more over the yardarm than that). I […]

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Joe Fortes Seafood and Chop House on Thurlow Street in downtown Vancouver is a rare downtown eatery that combines a decent lunch special with a cool venue. It was a slow Friday where a bunch of us decided to go out for lunch and catch up. A co-worker suggested Joe Fortes because of their Blue Plate Lunch specials for $9.95. On this particular November day they were offering any of their blue plate specials. This meant that you weren’t stuck with the Tuesday Thai BBQ Chicken special if it were Tuesday. You could have it on Friday. We were seated […]

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Urban Fare is an upscale grocery store in Vancouver with many extras. There are four locations in Vancouver: 177 Davie St. (Yaletown), 1133 Alberni St. (downtown beside the Shangri-La hotel), 305 Bute St. (Coal Harbour), 1688 Salt St. (Olympic Village). The chain is an offshoot of the more aggressively priced Save-On Foods. But Urban Fare is not the place you go for grocery deals. What it does have is higher quality products than you might see elsewhere. It’s definitely the emergency “Honey get me something on the way home from work I’m making pasta sauce” destination. However, at lunch time […]

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Each year the miniature train in Vancouver‘s Stanley Park puts on a ride through the woods where they make a family friendly spooky adventure. This year’s theme is Alien Invasion, which gives nods to all the famous alien abduction themes from the 1950s to the X-Files. The train itself is a small sized replica (hard for my tall body to squeeze into) of Canadian Pacific Railway Engine #374. This is the first engine to arrive in Vancouver and the original full-sized engine is on display at the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre in Yaletown. But the fun is the […]

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