There’s the feeling of adventure you get while taking a floatplane flight. Skipping along the water before taking off and flying just high enough to top the Lions Gate Bridge or the tallest timber in Stanley Park. Waching the pilot’s careful movements, taking photos of a propeller spins so quickly it’s nearly impossible for the iPhone to capture it, and landing alongside boats in a bay with a friendly harbour seal popping up to greet you.
John and I participated in a flight around the Comox Glacier with Harbour Air earlier this season when we were in the area for the BC Shellfish Festival and I have to say, a scenic tour has never been so fun. Climbing to 6,000ft, from the tips of the Salish Sea’s waves to the snow-capped peaks that surround the Comox Glacier. One minute you’re looking out the window at clearcut pastures and lakes, and the next there’s a giant pillar of rock just off the tip of the wing. We definitely had our cameras our for this unique ride:
Harbour Air offers several scenic tours around Vancouver, Victoria, Whistler, Nanaimo, and Sechelt. The Comox Glacier Tour is not on the regular schedule but it can be requested. The tour was just 20 minutes long but it was absolutely thrilling to experience.
An international quidditch championship, featuring a competitive sport from the wizarding world of the Harry Potter books and movies, will be hosted in Burnaby this Saturday. 7 countries will take part in the tournament, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Mexico, the UK and the USA.
It’s been 10 years since the first Harry Potter film was released and 17 since the first book hit store shelves in the United Kingdom. However the made-up game of quidditch (well, Muggle Quidditch) is gaining momentum, especially in Vancouver. Local leading social media dashboard company HootSuite has a quidditch team, as does tech company Mobify, Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, and other organizations around town.
There’s even a National Organization of Quidditch in Canada. “Our brooms don’t fly and our Golden Snitch is in fact just a person with a tennis ball attached to the back of their shorts, but the magic is real.”
Follow the International Quidditch Association Global Games on Twitter for more information and find the full 2014 Global Games Quidditch schedule online.
Theatre Under the Stars (“TUTS”) returns to the historic Malkin Bowl at Stanley Park for a new summer season of musicals. In one of the most beautiful venues in the city, you can enjoy two shows this season under the cool canopy in Stanley Park.
Legally Blonde: The Musical and SHREK: The Musical are on now (alternating nights) until August 23, 2014 and thanks to TUTS, I have a pair of tickets to give away to each, starting with Legally Blonde.
Pretty-in-pink princess Elle Woods can handle anything. When her boyfriend, Warner, breaks her heart and dumps her, she decides to follow him to Harvard Law School and win him back. With some help from her new-found friends and her chihuahua Bruiser, she learns that it’s so much better to be smart than pretty. Full of irresistible song and dance, this blonde-tastic musical was the hit of 2013!
Tickets are available now for $20 to $45. VIP experiences are also available for groups. All shows start at 8:00pm except on fireworks nights (July 26, July 30, August 2) when they will begin at 7:00pm.
TUTS Tips
Going to TUTS is unlike any other theatre experience in Vancouver. Mainly, there’s no roof – you’re outside at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. This allows for offerings like a grilled salmon dinner or the option to bring your own picnic. I attended my first TUTS performance last summer and put together the following tips for maximum enjoyment:
- While the sun is shining and temperatures are high, it does cool off quite a bit at night. You can bring blankets in or light jacket like a hoodie for after the show.
- You can also pick up some seat cushions on site (by donation) for comfort as the seats are just plastic patio furniture.
- You are in the middle of a sloped grassy field in the park so an application of bug spray is recommended.
- Dress is casual, I even saw some sweatpants last night, but I’d say jeans are fine.
- Just past the entrance there is a “TUTS Museum” with programs, posters, and costumers from decades of TUTS at Malkin Bowl. It’s worth browsing around to get a sense of the history of this Vancouver institution.
Jocelyn Gauthier is Elle Woods. Photo Credit: Tim Matheson
Win Tickets to Legally Blonde: The Musical
Here’s how you can enter to win a pair of tickets to see Legally Blonde: The Musical this season from TUTS and Miss604:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner next Monday, July 21, 2014 at 12:00pm. Follow Theatre Under the Stars (“TUTS”) on Facebook and Twitter for more information.
Update The winner is Nikki!
The Surrey Night Market joins the lineup of open-air, summertime markets loaded with local merchants, food vendors, and live entertainment on Friday and Saturday nights.
- When: Open as of July 5th, until August 30th. Fridays and Saturdays from 6:00pm to 11:00pm.
- Admission: $2 for adults, children (under the height of 48″) are free when accompanied by their families.
- Location: Across from the Agriplex Complex, within the Cloverdale Exhibition Grounds, at 17726 62 Avenue, Surrey. Free parking is available.
The first weekend of the Surrey Night Market saw an impressive attendance of about 7,500 people, which caused organizers to provide additional parking, ticket booths, and other amenities to accommodate crowds.
According to the website, the following types of food can all be sampled from Surrey Night Market vendors: “Western, Chinese, Nepalese, Mediterranean, Philippines, Vietnamese, Fijian, African, Pakistani, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, Latin American, Korean, First Nations, Greek, and Indian cuisines and dishes, Burgers, Hotdogs, Sandwiches, Subs, Deli Sandwiches, Soups, Fish & Chips, Salads, Wraps, Poutine, Fries, Chicken Tikkas & Pakoras, Veg Pakoras, Fish Pakoras, BBQ, Ribs, Samosas, Curries, Sweets, Jalebies, Chaat, Alloo Tikki, Gol Gappe, Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt, Waffles, Kulfi, Puri, Kulche, Dosse, Idli, Sambar, Uttapam, Tea, Lassi, Pop Corn, Mini-Donuts, Cup Cakes, Baker’s products, Coffee, Smoothies, Slurpies, Shakes, Lemonade, Fresh Juice, Fresh Fruit and others.”
The performance schedule is posted on the website in advance (currently last weekend’s calendar is posted). Follow the Surrey Night Market on Facebook and Twitter for more information, news, and updates.
This post has been contributed by Don Enright, Volunteer and Past President with the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost a decade ago and I have been a member for two years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they contribute and share stories with my audience once a month.
Red and Black and Fun All Over!
Comical oystercatchers entertain along Stanley Park seawall
One of the great benefits of living in Vancouver’s West End is being near Stanley Park. Almost every day, I step out my front door, smell the sea air, and whisper to myself, “I can’t believe I live here.” It’s a far cry from the chilly suburbs of Calgary where I grew up. And every chance I get, I head out along the seawall to listen to the tide crash in, to relax and breathe and clear my head, and look for some of the wild creatures that call Stanley Park home. There’s always something: eagles overhead, a seal bobbing off Ferguson Point… a couple of months ago we even had dolphins offshore. And as I walk, I always keep an ear out for my favourite birds of the intertidal zone: the beautiful, comical, excitable black oystercatcher.
Photo by Don Enright
You can’t miss them, once you learn what they look like. They’re all black except for their long pink legs and their huge orange beak. A friend of mine remarked that they look like a crow smoking a carrot. And if you don’t see them, you’ll almost certainly hear them. They whistle. And we’re not talking about a sweet twitter of a songbird—these guys’ calls are raucous, and almost anything will set them into a frenzy of excited hooting and whinnying. Eagles flying overhead, the arrival of their relatives from up the shoreline, a change in the weather, anything. Once you learn to recognize the call, you’ll hear it a lot. Listen for it between Second Beach and Siwash Rock.
Photo by Don Enright
It turns out that it’s not easy being an oystercatcher, and it’s not just because they have to climb around on cold rocks in their bare feet all day. First of all, it takes remarkable skill to outwit the clams, mussels and other mollusks that make up their diet. The oystercatchers of the world have two different styles of hunting: you’ve got your stabbers, and you’ve got your hammerers.
Hammerers use their big orange bills to pound their way through the shell of their prey to pull out the juicy insides. Stabbers are a bit more refined; they wait until the mussel or clam relaxes a bit and opens up, and they quickly stab their big beaks into the opening to eviscerate their prey. Our oystercatchers are stabbers, and it’s a skill that they need to learn and perfect over time.
Most birds are quick to fledge their babies; a sparrow can boot the young ‘uns out of the nest within weeks of their hatching. But oystercatchers are the Generation Y of the bird world, taking several months to move out on their own. They need the extra time to learn their hunting skills from Mom and Dad; they won’t develop their full repertoire of techniques until they’re about three years old. Parents mate for life, which is up to 15 years for these birds.
Next time you’re out on the seawall, look for oystercatchers that have black colouring on the ends of their orange bills; those are this year’s hatchlings, recently arrived from their nesting grounds not far away.
Photo by Milva DeSiena
Learning to eat isn’t the only skill that a young oystercatcher needs—they also have to master the fine art of not getting eaten. Peregrine falcons are a major predator. These raptors are powerful and fast, and can outfly almost any bird on earth. Our oystercatchers have a tricky defence: they fly away low over the water, just skimming the waves. The falcons won’t risk getting that close to water. Clever birds.
Black oystercatchers are completely dependent on the thin strip of shoreline along our coasts for their entire life cycle. The intertidal zone of Stanley Park is a very busy place, and oystercatchers (and all the living things they depend on) are best left undisturbed. Keeping your dog on a leash at all times is a big help. Fortunately, they’re easy to appreciate from a bit of a distance, given their larger-than-life personalities.
I think it’s remarkable that despite the 10 million-odd people that visit the park, we still have oystercatchers making a living on our shores. May they live and thrive and hoot and squawk for generations to come.
