Mountains to meadows, waterfalls to farm-gate shopping, there’s so much to explore and enjoy right here in the Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley area. Staying local for leisure and vacation time has its benefits, on top of discovering and experiencing your own backyard. Photo by John Bollwitt A recent TD survey found that for Canadian […]

After a very long work week, on a Friday that seemed never to arrive, my sister picked me up in Downtown Vancouver and we headed for the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal. A little black rain cloud carrying the stress of the week followed us up from the car deck to the onboard cafe as we […]

The last time I was in the South Okanagan was during the harvest in October. Winemakers with hands stained purple, the scent of late season flowers in the air, and the hum of de-stemming equipment as the bounty of the year was pumped into tanks and poured into bottles. Now that buds are returning to […]

As the first snow started to fall last autumn, John and I got to experience the rugged beauty of the Rockies (along with its culinary and craft beer culture) in between end-of-season adventures. Now as the ice thaws and the snow melts, the Rocky Mountains come alive once more with activities just waiting to be […]

On the first sunny morning after a string of rainy days, my sister and I set out for a brisk morning hike from our home base at Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort in Parksville. Little Qualicum Falls was our destination, just 20 minutes away up Inland Island Highway with a turn onto Highway 4 towards Port […]

An American History Walking Tour in Concord, Massachusetts: The Concord Museum, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Old North Bridge and more.

At 5.3 million square feet, and with approximately 30.8 million visitors each year, West Edmonton Mall has been Alberta’s top tourist attraction for the past three decades. However, as John and I discovered on our recent tour of wild rose country, there’s much more to Alberta’s capital city than its epic shopping mecca. Where to […]

We stood out on a dock at Lac Beauvert in Jasper, on an October night so clear that the only clouds around were the ones we made with our breath. Across the lake, the bass from a wedding party thumped at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge and above us hung a moon so full we […]

Photographs from our morning helicopter tour in Canmore, Alberta with Alpine Helicopter. […] This has been my summer of helicopters and each time the door is shut, headsets are adorned, and the rotor blade spins, my heart races and prepares for not only the amazing scenery I am about to witness, but for the thrill of the ride.

Stepping off the plane at YYC airport you’ll find that the terminal is full of friendly White Hat volunteers, wearing the signature cowboy hats you may associate with the Calgary Stampede, and the city of Calgary itself. Stetsons, steaks, sprawl, and steeds, that’s what one might purely think of this Albertan metropolis, unless they’ve visited […]