Diner en Blanc Vancouver

A spectacular evening for me; I went to Vancouver's first ever Diner en Blanc.

I was invited by my favourite client to help staff media & was truly delighted by the invitation! 

To explain: Diner en Blanc originated from France and it's essentially an all white pop-up dinner party with style. Obviously the dress code is all white and guests need to bring their own table, chairs and dinner ware too as it's an entirely sustainable affair. Check out my white attire: 

What's also fun is that no one knows the location. Leaders meet groups of guests at different

areas in the city and walk them to the secret location. Think of 'Step Up to the Streets' with a twist. The venue was Jack Poole Plaza, an iconic place in the city. As the light dimmed, this was the party scene:

There was lots of rules regarding etiquette too. For example, you cannot stand up during dinner; the dinner ceremony kicks off with everyone waving serviettes; the dinner ends with guests lighting sparklers. Fabulous idea. Worth a repeat visit in 2013.

CS

Deep Cove & Maplewood Flats - Round Two

We took our visitors (Dee & Bob) to some of our favourite haunts in the North Shore today (Sarah Spain, this itinerary may sound familiar to you...).

We began by circling Maplewood Flats, a hot spot for wildlife, before heading to Deep Cove, a stunning & popular village. Typically Deep Cove is a quiet place - today, it was packed - as locals competed to travel as far as possible in the cardboard boats they'd created (yep, that kind of contest draws a big crowd here).

We finished off with a trip up Seymour Mountain to check out the views over the city.

Still no bear sightings despite our best efforts. We'll continue on our quest. However we did spot pretty starfish:

Here is Bob, Dee & David chilling out in the Maplewood Flats...

I'll confess; the leaves weren't falling down around us. We staged our romantic scene:

A few birdies...there were many in Maplewood Flats...

An Osprey...our first sighting of one of these...

CS

Golden Ears Provincial Park

With the arrival of Dee & Bob (David's parents), we had a good excuse to seek new adventures.

Today we tackled Golden Ears Provincial Park, to add to our collection of park visits (e.g. Yoho, Banff, Jasper, Wells Gray, Manning, Garibaldi to name a few).

We printed off a trusty map (here for reference) & hiked the Lower Falls Trail. Here are some of our snaps:

We also briefly stopped at Alouette Lake, however it wasn't as calm or serene as we'd hoped. People covered the sand & Stag-style parties were taking place on boats. Good to know where to go when looking for a wild weekend.

CS

Ladies night at the races

An interesting evening for us: my company (Peak) took us all to the races - at Hastings Race Course!

Admittedly it wasn't quite Ascot, but we dressed up for the occasion none the less:

It was an evening of frolicking and fun, betting and booze. 

We even sat in the commentator's box for a few minutes. Quite an experience; the commentator can talk at an impressive speed.

David and I betted six times between us - and didn't win a single cent in return. Gambling isn't our strong point. 

CS

EC Manning & Windy Joe

The final day of our weekend venture - and it was spent tackling a 16 km hike up 'Windy Joe Mountain' in EC Manning Provincial Park.

We did everything we could to attract bears; we carried peanut butter sandwiches and walked in silence, but the bears refused to take the bait (I am joking - we're not that stupid). Instead we were spoilt by the presence of chipmunks, squirrels and many, many mosquitos.

It was an intense, rewarding hike - made all the more impressive by the thunderstorm that broke out while we were on the summit. We took shelter in a hut and watched lighting strike.

Here is proof of our efforts:

Me marching with intent up the mountain.

Looking pleased with ourselves, we've reached the summit - and we're waiting out the storm in a hut.

A view of the rolling mountains from the summit.

CS

Okanagan to Manning

A mixed day of adventure for us.

We began with a wine tour of Nk Mip winery in Osoyoos, the first First Nation winery in Canada. We did tastings and a tour - at 11am in the morning:

Nk Mip was a great place, but if we're honest, the wine was a little too sour/dry for us.

We then visited three other wineries, buying bottles of our favourite Okanagan wine, including Desert Hills.

This was followed by a random driving mission (primarily to avoid the intense heat) north to Penticton for lunch, before we moved onto EC Manning National Park.

Amazingly we got a camping spot in Mule Deer campground inside the park. We were delighted - no more sleeping in the car for us.

With not much of the day left, we did a short hike up Dry Ridge Trail. Despite our limited efforts, we were rewarded with stunning views:

After the heat of the Okanagan, it felt great to be back in the mountains. We had a substantial dinner of tinned spaghetti and cherries before crashing in our tent.

CS

Okanagan by bike

We ventured to the Okanagan, one of the hottest and most popular tourist destinations in B.C. It's renowned for its sun, fruit and numerous vineyards.

We headed for Osoyoos, a small town close to the US border. At this time of year, it's hot - very hot - 39 degrees hot.

We'd planned to do a bike ride; despite the heat we stuck to our plan.

We stopped off at three vineyards on route, Burrowing Owl (which had the most spectacular views), Stoneboat (which had the best Pino Gris and dessert wine I've ever tasted) and Silver Sage (which was the most fun - it served fruit wines and the host was a hoot!).

In total we cycled 30+ km and drank 22 wines. Here are some of my favourite snaps:

Yep - Osoyoos is renowned for selling fruit, and I was delighted to see 'Sherrys Berrys' on sale. Perhaps I should suggest we go into business together.

This is the view from The Burrowing Owl winery - truly spectacular.

Me cycling through the vineyards quite happily...

We finished the day by jumping in the lake near our campsite followed by a BBQ.

CS

Why it's important to plan

A three day weekend here = an opportunity to go away.

We left on Friday night (after work) and blitzed the highway, only stopping briefly at Hope for dinner (looks like a good place - more to explore).

Where we faulted was with our planning. The August bank holiday is understandably one of the busiest weekends of the year. We didn't bother to book a campsite - adopting our usual 'turn up and hope' theory.

For the first time ever, it failed us. There wasn't a single campsite free in an entire park that we'd planned to stay (Manning Park for those Canadians who know where this is).

Thankfully, Monty, our trustee vehicle, came to our rescue once more:

Yep, we gave up driving late into the night and slept at the side of the highway. We set up our camping gear in the back of the car...squashed between our two bikes...and fell asleep to the peaceful sound of traffic.

Lesson learnt for us; book a campsite when travelling during high season.

CS