A Tribute to Winter

March 31, 2015 / Maria / Leave a comment

What does winter look like to you?

Growing up in Newfoundland, winter means lots of snow, chilly weather, and long months of dark, cloudy days. I picture driving to school in the morning after a fresh snow, when the roads are white and the snowflakes still cling to empty tree branches and weigh down the needles on the fir trees. The snow banks pile up until they’re towering over your head and small mountains are created in the mall and university parking lots. Downtown becomes an unmanageable maze of streets, where your worst fear is forgetting the overnight street parking ban and waking up to a fresh, new ticket on your windshield.

Winter is blizzards and blowing snow and wearing your pyjama’s inside out in hopes of a snow day. It’s waiting in anticipation to the closures on the radio and knowing that if only metrobus or the Avalon mall will shut down, then you’re home free for the rest of the day! Snow days are a rare time to bunker down for some quality time with your family or bundle up in your snowsuit to trudge up the street to visit your childhood friends.

Jasper Street Dec. 2013

Winter is back-breaking shoveling and kind neighbours who snow-blow your driveway for you. It’s waking up in the morning and cursing the snowplow for leaving a pile of wet-snow-turned-to-ice at the end of your driveway that you’ll have to chisel through to get to work. It’s edging your way to the corner of the road until you can just see around the snow bank and crossing your fingers that no one hits the nose of your car. If you’re a walker, it means putting your life in the hands of God each and every day as you attempt to navigate the sidewalk covered roads.

In St. John’s, winter can be long months of the rain-snow cycle which usually ends in piles of dirty, brown snow and slush. But it’s also the fun of going sliding down Pippy Park hill, building snow forts in the backyard, visiting the CONA Winter Carnival, and hitting the road for a weekend of skiing at White Hills or Marble Mountain. It’s the Christmas lights decorating the parkway, the signal hill star shining across the city, the childlike glee of waking up to an unanticipated school-free day, and snowy nights spent playing games and eating pizza with your family and friends.

If I could be in a relationship with winter on facebook, it would probably be ‘it’s complicated’, but it’s the winter I’ve grown up with and begrudgingly come to love.

This year I got to know a whole new side of winter. Nostalgia aside, it was pretty awesome!

It snowed once in Vancouver in November and I was sure winter was on the way. I came back after my Christmas break expecting to see snow covered mountains and feel that winter chill in the air, but it never came. I feel like I was waiting for winter to arrive and then I finally woke up one day and realized that it was spring and that evidently, winter had decided to skip over the west coast this year. I was a little nostaglic from all the epic pictures of snow in St. John’s, but I quickly realized that Vancouver’s mild winter has some definite benefits!

It’s officially spring and the temperature has been flirting around the 12-15 degree zone pretty regularly since February. The cherry blossums and magnolias have already come and gone and after a three week sun marathon in early March, Seth and I decided to trade in our snow boots for hiking boots. We’ve been out hiking around the lower mainland several times over the last month and love that the beautiful BC wilderness is just a short drive from the city.

Lynn Creek Trail

We started off our hiking season with a circuit around Burnaby Mountain – the highest point in Burnaby and home to Simon Fraser University. There’s a great view of Vancouver from Burnaby Mountain Park and we spent an afternoon hiking around the back of the mountain through second-growth forest looking out over Burrard Inlet. We had a great day out in the sun and finished with an exciting near-encounter with a black bear! Apparently they’ve been coming out of hibernation early this year on account of the warm weather.

We also did two hikes in the mountains of North Vancouver. The watershed and reservoirs for the lower mainland are located in North Van, so I spent a lot of time working up there over the summer and there are a ton of great hiking trails along some of the rivers. Karen and Grant joined us for one of the hikes and we ended up getting immediately lost. We’re not the most observant and missed a sign telling us that the bridge we were trying to cross to start our hike had been removed after a landslide upstream flooded the area (including the trail we were planning to hike). We ended up doing another hike, which I’m sure was just as nice, but it wasn’t until the following week when I tried to do the same hike again with my friends Amy and Steph that we finally noticed the sign informing us of the landslide. So I ended up doing two unintended hikes, but they both ended up being gorgeous!

Fisherman’s Trail

Seth and I had another little adventure in February when we decided to make a trek down to Washington to go on a camel safari! That’s right, I did say ‘camel safari’. Seth found one of the funnier groupons I’ve seen, advertising a ‘Camel Encounter and Segway Tour’ and purchased them on a limb. We decided to make a day of it and had a great time learning all about camels and how to ride a segway. They’re pretty intuitive and we had a good laugh driving them around the farm. We finished off the tour by bottle-feeding some of the younger camels!

The “babies”

In other news, I’ve been making some pretty good progress on my bucket list (see the right side of my blog for a full update). We went to see comedian Tig Nataro in January and we saw our first NHL game! The Canucks played the Jets and won in overtime, making for a pretty exciting first game. We caught our first concert of the year at the end of February when we saw Hey Rosetta! play at the Vogue Theatre. I also bought a new vegetarian cookbook, so I’ve been having some fun cooking as well. I tried out a few recipes and our favourites so far were a thai vegetable pizza, homemade samosa patties, a hearty edamame salad, and delicious spinch-baked manicotti.

Unfortunately, you can’t win at everything; the warm weather has resulted in the skiing around Vancouver being very bad this year. There’s three ski hills right outside Vancouver that have been closed almost all winter and Whistler has really been suffering on the bottom half of the mountain. We decided to try Whistler a few weeks ago since we didn’t think we’d have many more opportunities, but other then that, I haven’t accomplished any of my winter-related bucket list items. Whistler was pretty bare on the bottom, but it was completely covered in snow on the top and we still ended up having a pretty good day on the top half of the mountain. It’s a huge resort, so we stuck just to Whistler and didn’t even try to ski any of Blackcomb mountain, which will have to be a trip for next year.

Whistler

I decided to add a new item to my list and saw Vancouver’s soccer team, the White Caps, play this week. They played their rival, Portland, and didn’t let us down with a win in the last few seconds of play! It’s Easter this weekend, so we’re off to Ontario to spend some time with family. After that, my trip to Brazil will be less than three weeks away, so I’m looking forward to getting some international travelling in!

In conclusion, I didn’t get my traditional winter this year, but the warm, sunny weather in Vancouver more than made up for it! I know spring might still be a while away for my family on the East Coast, but I’m looking forward to more outdoor activities on this side of the country. Appreciate what you can about the snow my friends and come visit me if you’re looking for a little break!

Love Maria

A Year in British Columbia

January 31, 2015 / Maria / Leave a comment

It’s officially been a year since I moved to the West Coast!

It’s been a pretty eventful year and I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by! Looking back, I realized I’ve actually done very little writing about my time in BC over the past year and decided to reflect on some of the adventures I’ve had. Despite the lack of blog entries, I have been pretty busy and decided to make a list of some of my favourite things I’ve done in BC over the last year to share with you. Here are the top 12 highlights of my year on the West Coast:

12. Annual Festivals in the Lower Mainland

Enjoying hot cider at the Christmas Market

I’ve discovered there’s always something going on in and around Vancouver and there are tons of events and festivals to check out throughout the year. There’s the Celebration of Lights firework shows in July, the rotating Food Cart festivals around the city, the Pacific National Exhibition in August, Fright Night at Halloween, and the many Christmas light festivals and Christmas Market in December. We recently did Dine Out Vancouver as well, a 2 week festival in January where restaurants all over the city offer three course meals for $18, $28, or $38.

Skiing on Seth’s Birthday

11. Skiing Cypress

I have to admit that the ski weather isn’t always the best outside Vancouver, but I love having access to skiing so close to the city! I’ve been up to Cypress three times since I moved here; they do seem to struggle to get enough snow and to keep it on the mountain (although I’ve been told it’s been a bad season), but it’s a great size mountain and only 30 minutes away! I am hoping to get out to Whistler this year though!

10. Hiking in the Okanagan

HIking in Summerland

Over the Labour Day long weekend Seth and I drove out to the Okanagan and spent three days camping in Okanagan Lake Provincial Park. We spent our time swimming in the beautiful lake, visiting wineries in BC’s premier wine region, and hiking along the train tracks of an old steam train. It was a pretty relaxing weekend and we loved all the beautiful scenery in the Okanagan and along the drive.

Canadian Women’s Soccer

9. Sports and Concerts

Living near a city that actually attracts popular artists and has several home teams in multiple sports has been a real pleasure, although one that I still haven’t really taken full advantage of. We saw the women’s Canadian soccer team and the Vancouver Giants play this year and we’re planning to catch a Canucks game soon. Hopefully this summer we’ll also get a chance to see the Vancouver White Caps (soccer) and the Vancouver Canadians (baseball) play. I only went to one concert last year, Elton John, but there’s always someone putting off a concert downtown and I plan to pay closer attention to who else visits this year!

8. Hiking the Chief

View from the Chief

One of BC’s more popular hikes in the lower mainland is The Chief. We decided to hike it when my Dad visited in early June. As challenging as the hike proved to be (it’s about a 700m elevation gain in just a few kilometres), the view from the top was amazing! The Chief has three peaks that you can hike to, but we were so exhausted after the first one that we decided just to do one. Pretty much the entire hike is rock steps and near the top there’s a fair bit of climbing using chains attached to the rock, but it’s well worth the effort once you reach the top!

Cherry Blossoms in April

7. Spring weather

Spring is actually a real season in BC and this was the first year I’ve ever appreciated it! I couldn’t believe when the cherry blossoms starting budding in April and that it was 22 degrees outside when we had a team BBQ outside at work in early May. Sorry Newfoundland, but I do not miss snowy May 24 or Juneuary.

6. Kayaking the Sunshine Coast

A little starfish I found

My parents came to visit in September and we made a little journey over to the Sunshine Coast and ended up going kayaking in Porpoise Bay. It was probably one of my favourite times kayaking! Porpoise Bay is completely sheltered, so the water was super calm and we saw all kinds of interesting things, from starfish and sea cucumbers, to harbour seals and river otters! We didn’t even need a guide because it was so easy going, so we just spent the morning exploring several bays.

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

5. Trips across the Border

Vancouver is so close to the US border and I love being able to hop across the border when it strikes my fancy! In April Emily came for a visit and we went down to Washington to see the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival and to visit Seattle. Then in August, as you probably know from my previous blogs, my friends came from Newfoundland and we went on an epic road trip from Vancouver all the way down to San Francisco! We decided that Oregon is the undiscovered gem of the west coast.

4. Camping at Cultus Lake

Grilling burgers on our camping trip

Camping was my new discovery this year. We went camping for a weekend at Cultus Lake, but honestly, I don’t think it mattered where we went, I just loved it! My parents gave me their old tent from the 80’s and we bought little bit of camping gear and just had a great time soaking up the sun, swimming, having campfires, and cooking outside. It’s so nice to get out of the city, especially in a place like BC where there’s so much gorgeous landscape to explore!

Alouette Lake

3. Exploring Alouette Lake

We didn’t get a chance to go camping at Alouette Lake, which is located in Golden Ears Provincial Park, but we went there for a day trip in July and loved it. The lake is located right at the base of the mountains and just has the most beautiful backdrop! You can rent canoes there, which was tempting, but we opted instead to go for about a 5km hike along the river next to the lake up to a waterfall. It was a great day and we hope to go camping there this summer.

2. Adopting the Vancouver Lifestyle

My first race!

Don’t worry, I’ll never stop being a Newfoundlander, but one of the things I love about Vancouver is the active lifestyle that people try and live. I really took ownership over my health this year; I started running and hula hooping and made a big effort to adopt better eating habits. Like Newfoundland, everyone here loves the outdoors, but there’s a bit more of an opportunity to enjoy it (weather-wise), so I made every effort to get out and enjoy nature!

Trying some Ethiopian Food!

1. Trying all the restaurants!

Vancouver is so incredibly diverse and there are so many amazing places to eat here! One day I was just thinking about all the restaurants here and realized that I’ve barely eaten at any chain restaurants in the last year! I love trying new foods, especially those that are not easily available in St. John’s, and have been busy trying out as many new foods as possible. My favourites are probably Indian, Thai, and, of course, sushi, but I’ve tried a lot new foods since I’ve been here and love that most of the restaurants are locally owed and pretty authentic. I currently have a tie going for my favourite restaurant between this wonderful vegetarian mexican restaurant at Commercial-Broadway, Bandidos Taqueria, and a delicious sushi restaurant at Royal Oak that my friend introduced me to, Sushi Oyama.

A Week in Vancouver

October 11, 2013May 21, 2015 / Maria / Leave a comment

The last six weeks have been pretty crazy for me and unfortunately I haven’t found any time to write. I said good-bye to my sister and my boyfriend at the end of August when they both moved up to BC and I agreed to spend the month of September working up in Labrador with my company. For those of you that might not know, Labrador is the beautiful, but sometimes forgotten, other half of my province. It’s a little embarrassing, but I’ve never actually been to Labrador, so I was happy to get the opportunity to visit! I spent the month living in a hotel in Happy Valley – Goose Bay and every morning I would make the hour drive up along the Churchill River to the Muskrat Falls construction site for the Lower Churchill Project. I’ve never worked on a construction site before, so I definitely appreciated the work experience. When I arrived, we would cross the river every morning just as the sun would start to rise over the river, and by the time I left, I was enjoying the beautiful fall colours as the leaves on the trees started to change.

I’m back to my job in St. John’s now, but I had a week off before going back to work, so I decided to make a quick trip up to Vancouver to visit Emily and Seth. Seth and I spent the week hanging out in Vancouver and on the weekend, Emily came in to visit us from Victoria. The weather wasn’t great during the first few days, but we tried to make the best of it! We spent a day visiting Stanley Park, which is a huge park located on a peninsula roughly the size of downtown Vancouver. The size of it looks a bit daunting on a map, so we were going to rent bikes to explore the park, but we decided there was no rush to see everything and instead chose to explore by foot. It was definitely the right choice and we ended up covering a lot of ground anyway.

The Vancouver Skyline

I love Stanley Park because even though it’s right in the middle of the city, you can feel like you’ve completely left it behind while you’re there. We spent the afternoon walking through the woods, admiring the lush green colours and the tall trees. Seth’s always on the lookout for birds and we even managed to spot a blue heron and a woodpecker while we were there. We walked up to the far end of the park to Prospect Point, which has a beautiful view of the harbour, North Vancouver, and the Lion’s Gate Bridge. We rounded off the afternoon by walking back the length of the park along the old seawall by the harbour.

Since Vancouver is known for it’s sushi, we made sure to stop into a small sushi place near Seth’s apartment in Burnaby. It ended up being some of the best and cheapest sushi I’ve ever had! We managed to have a small feast (with enough leftovers for another meal for both of us) for the low price of $25! We spent another evening exploring Granville Island; I love the shopping on Granville Island, everything is pretty artsy and interesting and there’s tons of fair trade and organic products to be found. It also has some delicious seafood to try, albeit, the food is a little more on the expensive side.

Seawall at Stanley Park

I’ve never stayed in a hostel in Canada before, but when Emily came for the weekend, we found one in downtown Vancouver to try out. The selection of hostels to choose from was definitely way smaller and more pricey than the cities I visited in Europe. The backpacking community is definitely way different in North America and I found the hostel atmosphere and the value for money wasn’t as good. That said, Vancouver probably has more hostels than any other Canadian city, so at least we had a few to pick from!

To start off the weekend, we met up with a few of my friends living in the area on Saturday morning and we all went hiking up in North Vancouver! The trail was called the Capilano Pacific Trail and it starts at the harbour and follows a river up through the woods to a dam and reservoir. Luckily, the weather cleared up for the weekend and we had a great time hiking up through the woods. We ate our picnic lunch at the top of the dam and had a gorgeous view of the mountains around the reservoir lake and the canyon on the other side of the dam. The hike ended up not taking as long as we thought it would, so we spent some time enjoying gelato at Kitslano beach in the late afternoon and had supper at a delicious vegetarian restaurant called The Nom. We only asked two people to recommend restaurants, and they both suggested The Nom, so we felt we had to try it out. They had a pretty varied menu, but it was fun trying out some new things.

Capilano Pacific Trail

Cleveland Dam Reservoir

Sunday was my last day in Vancouver, so me, Emily, and Seth all went back to Stanley Park to go to the Vancouver Aquarium. Beluga whales have been my favourite animal since I was little, so I was really excited to see them. They had a beluga show right when we arrived, so we made sure to check that out first. The aquarium had tons of other cool animals as well: dolphins, penguins, seals, sea lions, otters, etc. I’ve seen most of the animals before, but what I liked about the aquarium was that the animals were all rescue animals. The aquarium is a non-profit organization that rehabilitates rescued animals using the money they make off entrance fees. It’s a great way to support the animals and educate people at the same time. Throughout the day, they have tons of short shows called “spotlight on otters” or “spotlight on seals” where they just take 15 minutes to teach you about each animal. With the exception of the dolphins, it wasn’t about making the animals do tricks or shows, but about highlighting interesting things about them while just watching them eat and swim around. Parks like Sea World have been criticized for their animal training and shows; I liked that the Vancouver Aquarium was a non-profit and that their number one priority was the animals, not making a profit.

The Olympic Cauldron

Overall, it was a great week off, but I am happy to finally be back home after almost 6 weeks away. I’m back to working a regular work week, so I’d love to catch up with friends in the evenings and on weekends!

Love Maria