News: Edmonton’s Silver Skate Festival Lights Up the Weekend

Posted on February 17, 2012 by avatar

Edmontonians can head down to Hawrelak Park this long weekend to enjoy the Silver Skate Festival, the city’s longest-running (and some say best!) winter festival.

Athletics are scheduled side-by-side with a wide variety of entertainment. Cheer on competitors in the winter triathalon, speed-skating marathons and Dutch Kortebaan races, take in a figure-skating demonstration, or participate in an orienteering course. Then there’s the toque toss, the snow sculptures, and the Heritage Village (cabane sucre! bannock!), not to mention the many free activities in the Intact Insurance Free Family Fun Zones.

The fun doesn’t stop when the sun goes down. Night Works in the Park is a series of musical and theatrical performances, and includes the first-ever Silver Skate Folk Trail, Baba Yaga & The Firebird Trail, created by acclaimed local artist Memi von Gaza. As a finale, stick around for the Fire Sculpture installations, burned at 8 p.m on February 18th and 19th.

Oh yeah, and there’s an ice slide.

Visit the festival’s official site for event times and more. 

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News: A taste of the Island with Dine Around Comox Valley

Posted on February 13, 2012 by avatar

Locals, Courtenay, BC

If the Comox Valley isn’t already marked on your foodie map, it’s time to stick a pin in it. Find out why from February 17th to March 18th, when restaurants across this north-central Vancouver Island region curate prix-fixe menus to show off three courses of the best they have to offer.

The event is Dine Around Comox Valley, now in its third year. Twenty-five restaurants are participating this time around, including the always delightful Atlas Cafe, the surprisingly stellar Chalk Lounge/River City Cafe in the Best Western (candied salmon chowder – need I say more?), and Cumberland’s historic Waverly Pub. Depending on the restaurant, the bill will run $15, $25 or $35 per person, sans drinks.

And don’t be afraid to enjoy a bottle of wine or two with your meal: accommodation partners have signed up for the Dine Around for the second year in a row, so diners can enjoy a true night out on the town. A total of four hotels and motels are offering special rates for the festivities.

As a small agricultural region situated on the sea, the Comox Valley produces seafood, produce, dairy products, honey and other edibles. The restaurants here aren’t shy about showcasing local ingredients, and Dine Around is the perfect opportunity to taste everything the area has to offer.

Dine Around Comox Valley 2012 participants

Restaurants: 

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Guest post: Vancouver Island, for the first time

Posted on February 12, 2012 by avatar

Guest post by Rueben Releeshahn

With the windows of the van rolled down, I was able to hear them from the highway. Happily barking at each other, prodding and shooing, pushing and flapping, the sea lions were lazing about on a massive, anchored raft of some kind just out of reach off the pier. There was barely a footprint on the beaches of Fanny Bay, making it a perfect resting point for the rather large and loud group of mischievous mammals. Those sea lions were the first of many treats I discovered on my first-ever solo trip to Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

My journey started in Courtenay in 2011 and ended  a short week later in Courtenay in 2012, but my destination was a 50-minute drive south: Parksville. I took the Old Island Highway, which runs along the Salish Sea from Courtenay to Nanaimo. Along the way are a few coastal towns at which a person can take a break or take in the view of the ocean.
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Flavour: The Atlas Cafe in Courtenay, British Columbia

Posted on February 9, 2012 by avatar

Sixteen years ago, the Atlas Café threw open its doors in downtown Courtenay, brightening up the Comox Valley dining scene by giving fresh, local flavours an international twist.

Today, it meanders from Mexican and Middle Eastern through Italian and Japanese and beyond, blending Vancouver Island’s regional ingredients into these culturally distinct cooking styles to create a menu of worldly, inspired dishes.

It’s a concept that just doesn’t get old. In 2010, Atlas took home WestJet’s up! Magazine Value Award for Top Restaurant in Canada by reader’s choice.

And it’s easy to understand why people love the place: its cozy, homey atmosphere mingles with its beautifully presented, high-quality food to offer a superior, unpretentious dining experience.

Warm red walls and creaking hardwood floors glow as the server fills our water glasses from an old wine bottle, moist with condensation. The lighting is dim, and the closely crowded restaurant becomes an atmospheric, shadowy backdrop beyond the circle of candlelight enclosing me and my family.
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News: Glacier Discovery Walk approved in Jasper National Park

Posted on February 9, 2012 by avatar

Brewster Travel Canada, a century-old tour company headquartered in Banff,  has received Parks Canada approval for its proposed Glacier Discovery Walk in Jasper National Park, Alberta.

It’ll be located where the Tangle Ridge Viewpoint along the Icefields Parkway now lies, near the Columbia Icefields. Once completed, a 400-meter interpretive boardwalk and glass-floored observation platform will stretch 30 metres out over the Sunwapta Valley. The design won a 2011 World Architecture Festival award in Future Projects.

Brewster describes the Glacier Discovery Walk as an “immersive, interpretive guided experience focusing on the wonder of the unique ecosystem, glaciology, natural and aboriginal history of the Columbia Icefield area in the Canadian Rockies.”

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5 Kelowna Restaurants for Foodies

Posted on January 23, 2012 by avatar

Tucked into the centre of British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley and surrounded by productive orchards, fields, vineyards and farms, Kelowna is quickly growing into one of Canada’s great foodie destinations. The area’s recent explosion of culinary hotspots and renowned chefs gives visitors to this popular tourist destination yet another facet to explore.

Carrot and Brie soup – Image from wildapplerestaurant.com

Wild Apple Restaurant at Manteo Resort

A British Columbia native, acclaimed Chef Bernard Casavant has crafted a special menu of “wine country cuisine” for the Wild Apple Restaurant (3762 Lakeshore Road at Manteo Resort) including his roasted carrot & Brie soup, his mountain berry “T” roast duck breast, and his pan-seared star anise-infused wild salmon fillet. On the menu, all mains are listed with a suggested wine pairing. Seasonal market vegetables, Terrace Mountain morel mushrooms, and Little Qualicum Brie are a few of the menu’s regional ingredients. The Wild Apple Restaurant also offers a three-course option, with a choice of appetizer, main and dessert, available with or without wine pairings.

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Kamloops, British Columbia: An Age-Old Meeting Place

Posted on January 22, 2012 by avatar


Sheltered inside a 19th-century replica pit house with a belly full of bannock, berry jam and candied salmon, I listen contentedly as Sepwepemec Museum manager Daniel Saul describes the hectic summer scenes of the annual Kamloopa Powwow.

He’s friendly and open, happy to share his Native American heritage – and snacks – with visitors. But his affability doesn’t surprise me; everyone I meet in Kamloops seems to share Saul’s positive nature.

Leaving the pit house, our group heads up the apple-tree-lined path and towards the museum. We cross paths with a gang of small children, buzzing around the knees of their schoolteachers. “Weytk!” they call out as they pass; the adults smile widely.

“Language teachers,” explains Saul with pride. The greeting is Secwepemcstín; it translates as “welcome.”
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Destination: Mount Washington Alpine Resort, Comox Valley, B.C.

Posted on November 22, 2011 by avatar

IMG_1237
Vancouver Island’s lowlands may receive more wet, rainy stuff than frozen white stuff, but at its higher altitudes, there is no shortage of snow for winter activities. Need some proof? Take a trip up to Mount Washington Alpine Resort, a popular British Columbia ski resort located in the Comox Valley. (I did – read about it here.)

Mount Washington boasts over 1600 acres of terrain open to skiers and snowboarders, 20 percent of which is for beginners, 35 percent of which is of intermediate difficulty, and 45 percent of which is reserved for experts. A total of nine chair lifts service its 60 runs.

Ski conditions at Mount Washington can be exceptional. In late December 2010, barely into its season, Mount Washington had already accumulated a base of 5 meters, which allowed it to claim the title of deepest snowpack in the entire world.
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