Posts by: WantsToTravelMore

It seems we have a tradition with Parksville. It’s Lefty’s Fresh Food, which is a restaurant on the Island Highway. It’s right beside a Thrifty Foods in the same strip mall. We never manage to leave Vancouver early enough to stock up for our stay at Thrifty Foods and have the energy to cook something back at where we stay. Part of the reason that we end up late in Parksville is because of a) we aren’t morning people and b) BC Ferries is odd. BC Ferries charges you extra to book a sailing but they only allow bookings for […]

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Kitsilano is a Vancouver neighbourhood that begins on the south west side of the Burrard Street Bridge. Kitsilano Beach Park, or Kits Beach as it’s known locally, has a great beach, wonderfully upgraded concession stand and a huge swimming pool. An additional feature of Kits Beach is the Kitsilano Showboat which, this year, celebrated its 80th anniversary. It’s an outdoor theatre on the south side of Kits Beach Pool. (Were it on the north side, it would be in the ocean!) In 2015, Kitsilano Showboat ran from June 22 through to August 15. We caught the last show which was […]

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I don’t think anyone who’s been paying attention to the Vancouver news lately can go to the Vancouver Aquarium and not wonder about the conditions for the animals. However, if you’ve been going to the Aquarium for the last couple of decades you will have noticed a large shift from public amusement to animal rehabilitation. Last year there was a significant conflict with the Vancouver Parks Board about whales in captivity. In the end the Parks Board thought they were proposing a compromise by saying the whales could stay as long as they didn’t breed. This had a lot of […]

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This is possibly one of the easiest and most scenic bike rides in Vancouver. It was a hot summer day when my daughter and I set out on the 5.7 km (each way) bicycle ride from Kits Beach. We wanted to try the relatively new (18 months old) bike path along Point Grey Road and see how it connects to Jericho, Locarno and Spanish Banks beaches. This was the view from where we started. As you ride west, following the markings for bikes, you then follow a short stretch of Point Grey Road, which then turns back to where Cornwall […]

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The morning before starting to write this, I asked a friend, “Did you know that Vancouver was a pinball machine playing mecca?” “Really?” was his reply. Truly. I did not know until a friend of mine came in from Calgary, ostensibly to attend Folk Fest, but said “we have to check these places out.” Between the two of us and a few Google searches we came up with a short list of places. Pub 340 at 340 Cambie Street The Cobalt at 917 Main St Movieland Arcade at 906 Granville St I ruled out The Cobalt because it has the […]

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In the spring of 2015, Vancouver had an unusual run of dry weather — milimetres of rain, not the usual feet of rain. So when our work team decided to do our second (now annual) team bike ride around Stanley Park we were expecting to work up a sweat. Of course it rained. Not hard and not for long but it was cool and damp. Another expectation I had was that it would be crowded on the sea wall walk, which is a 10 km scenic trail around this massive park. I’d heard of incidents of cyclists, inline skaters, pedestrians […]

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A lot of people drive along Marine Drive in West Vancouver. They are heading to shop or heading towards 15th Street to access the Upper Levels Highway. But there’s something else you really ought to take a half-hour or so to do. If you want a coffee, you can hit the Starbucks at 17th Street and Marine Drive. There is 2 hour free parking on Marine Drive, which is handy. Then as you exit Starbucks, head right, and right again (south) on 17th Street. Go to and cross Bellevue Ave. You then get to walk over the BC Rail tracks […]

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As much as we were impressed by the drive to Revelstoke, we had many eye popping vistas greet us as we headed to Calgary. Golden BC has the whole Kicking Horse Mountain resort going for it, which is about 14 km from Golden, and completely not on our itinerary. One thing to keep in mind, which we didn’t, is that you lose an hour going into Mountain Time in Golden. So we grabbed snacks at the Highway 1 Tim Hortons, a facility that has seen better days, and headed east. Field BC, is the last outpost for British Columbia and […]

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The Best Western PLUS Revelstoke opened in 2011, which makes it a fairly new property. Best Westerns are highly varied in quality even with the PLUS designation the brand has been pushing for the last few years. I loved the rock and wood decor, which seemed to fit into the overall outdoors-y feel that Revelstoke has. We were only there one night, but the room was spacious enough for two adults and two kids. There are key amenities such as high speed Internet, free breakfast, a pool, pets friendly, a fitness centre and a hot tub. What did seem lacking […]

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After a long day driving, you are often too tired to think and the thought of a complex dinner with kids is too much and since we’re not the organized types who have a picnic dinner on standby. The Best Western we were staying at, although a new construction, did not have a restaurant, but was willing to shuttle us into town. As we weren’t sure what we wanted to eat and I had no intention of drinking (I knew even one beer would put me to sleep), we returned to the car for the 5 minute drive into town. […]

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