Exploring Vancouver’s Stanley Park in early January

by Keith and Heather Nicol

    On our recent trip to Vancouver we had a chance to explore Stanley Park and do some “summer” activities in early January 2014. We were staying at the conveniently located Times Square Suites Hotel (http://www.timessquaresuites.com/ ) which is at the corner of Denman and Robson in downtown Vancouver. We started our exploration of Stanley Park by heading to Spokes Bicycle Rentals (http://www.spokesbicyclerentals.com/) where we rented a tandem bike. Although the weather called for sunny skies there was frost on the grass as we headed out. We were joined by our daughter, Kristie and set out pedaling in a counter clock wise direction around the park on Vancouver’s famous Seawall. We stopped to photograph some of the sculptures and iconic landmarks like the Lion’s Gate Bridge. We even saw 2 harbour seals! We cycled about 10 km to the Inukshuk statue before returning our bikes and having lunch.  Stanley Park also has many kilometers of hiking trails to explore and we plan to walk some of those on our next visit. 

Spokes is a convenient place to rent bikes

Kristie passes under the Lion's Gate bridge along the Seawall

The Inukshuk is just one of many pieces of outdoor art along the waterfront in Vancouver

There was a large display of jelly fish at the Aquarium

In the afternoon we headed back to Stanley Park to see the impressive Vancouver Aquarium. It has many shows to take in as well as many aquariums with a variety of exotic and local fish as well as other marine organisms. We really enjoyed the seal and sea lion presentation as well as the dolphin performance. For more information on the Vancouver Aquarium see:   http://www.vanaqua.org/  .  

The Pacific White Sided Dolphins put on a great show

Don't miss the Callaghan Valley near Whistler for great cross country skiing

by Keith and Heather Nicol    

The Day Lodge is impressive

We recently had a chance to ski some of the Olympic cross country ski trails at the Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley near Whistler, B.C. and were bowled over with the scenery and great skiing conditions. Despite the general lack of snow in this area, the skiing at Whistler Olympic Park was very good and they had lots of trails open for both snowshoeing and cross country skiing. Our first trip was on Friday, January 3 and we were lucky be able to be shown some of the trails by our neice Sandra and her husband Scott. They also had baby Erik in tow in the chariot and our first trail was Sandra’s favourite- the Olympic Biathlon loop. We also skied the Neverland trail which is ideal for beginners since it is quite flat. We loved day lodge and the views of the surrounding mountains were impressive. 

Heather skis in front of the Olympic Rings

 

 

Scott pulling son Erik in the chariot

      We enjoyed skiing there so much that we returned with our daughter Kristie and her boyfriend, Eric on Sunday, January 5. Again the weather was perfect and it was an ideal day for skiing with temperatures just below freezing. One of the distinctive programmes for this area is its biathlon programme which takes advantage of the Olympic biathlon facility. We took part in the 30 minute “Experience Biathlon” session and although it wasn’t hard to hit the grapefruit sized targets from the prone position it was much harder to hit the plum sized targets that you would normally shoot at from this position. And this is without doing any skiing to get your heart rate up and chest heaving. Another nice feature of this area is the dog trails and we liked skiing on these trails since they were relatively flat and had amazing views. When we were there there were 64 km of cross country ski trail open and 13 km of snowshoe trails available.We just sampled a small portion of the trails available and vowed to come back to seeing this incredible facility on another trip. For more information see: www.skicallaghan.com 

 Instructor Bill Moore showed us the basics of shooting in the biathlon range

Kids can slide at the base of the Olympic Ski Jumps

The scenery is stunning in the Callaghan Valley

 

Kristie skis in front of a warm up hut

Cypress Mountain has good skiing despite low snow and warm temperatures

by Keith and Heather Nicol

We were impressed with the skiing conditions

     We had brought our cross country and downhill skis to Vancouver with the hopes of doing some skiing over the Christmas holidays. It has been quite an unusual ski season for the mountains around Vancouver over the 2013 Christmas and early January 2014. The warm temperatures and lack of snow meant that some areas were closed and others had reduced operations. But on our recent visit to Cypress Mountain on Saturday, January 4 we were impressed with the good ski conditions despite the reduced number of lifts and runs open. Saturday was sunny with cloudy periods and we did several runs off of the Eagle Express Quad Chair with our son Michael.  Cypress had been making snow like mad we enjoyed carving turns on the fresh “man made” powder. It was also visually stunning with the clouds moving in and out and views of Howe Sound were impressive. We also did a couple of runs on the sunny Midway Chair. Lets hope this area gets some more snow soon since Cypress Mountain has great terrain and is quick to get to from the Vancouver area. For more information see: www.cypressmountain.com season.

Michael carves a turn on Panorama

Cypress was the site of the Freestyle and Snowboard Events at the 2010 Olympics

Activities to check out in Victoria and Vancouver over the holidays

by Keith and Heather Nicol

     We decided to spend the Christmas holidays in the Vancouver-Victoria area of British Columbia and have been enjoying a variety of activities in between visiting friends and family. In Victoria we saw the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit at the Royal B.C. Museum. We saw the 2012 presentation last year in Victoria and were pleased to see it back again with a whole new crop of exceptional images from some of the world’s best wildlife photographers. Of the over 40,000 images reviewed only about 100 make the final cut so you know you are seeing the cream of the crop. This exhibit runs until early April, 2014 so you have lots of time check it out. For more information see: http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/

                                                       Photo by Douglas Seifert, USA
Swimming in front of a dugong in the Red Sea are golden trevallies, riding the pressure waves created by its nose.

      

The Aquabus heading to Granville Market

      In Vancouver we had a great time riding the Aquabus ferry (http://theaquabus.com/) to Granville Market which was full of Christmas gift ideas as well as lots of good things to eat. The Aquabus ferry system plies the waters of False Creek and we hope to get back to see more of this area by ferry. We also had a chance to check out the new FlyOver Canada experience which is located at conveniently located Canada Place. FlyOver Canada is a simulated helicopter flight over some of Canada’s most scenic areas and we were impressed to see many images of Newfoundland starting off the show. The full show is 30 minutes long and showcases many varied aspects of Canada. The simulated flight itself is 8 minutes and is complete with wind, scents and mist. It is geared for all ages and see: http://www.flyovercanada.com/ for more information.

The helicopter used for filming FlyOver Canada flies over a herd of horses in Alberta

     Our next visit was to VanDusen Gardens (http://vandusengarden.org/) and their amazing Festival of Lights show. For many people in the Vancouver area this is a must see event and runs from December 11 to January 4. There are almost 1.5 million twinkling lights on display as well as various shows throughout the gardens.  The Festival of Lights starts at 4:30 pm and runs until 9:00 pm and we recommend that you allow 1.5 hours to fully appreciate the lit up gardens. We saw the Festival of Lights on Christmas Eve and it was a real highlight.

The Festival of Lights is well worth seeing