WinterBites Music and Winter Festival in the Comox Valley runs January 16th to January 31, 2014 with a series of activities and events that will warm your spirits and entertain the family this season.

WinterBites Music and Winter Festival

The Comox Valley is known for its farm-to-table restaurants and fresh seafood, outdoor adventures, its arts scene, family fun along with the popular Filberg Festival each summer, and much more.

During WinterBites there is a full two-week lineup of events, from face painting and ice skating to live music and dancing, ending with a film festival on the final day.

Concert Lineup

Tickets are available now for WinterBites concerts.

• Rockin’ the Filberg with Chilliwack
  January 16 at the Florence Filberg Centre
• West African Dance Night with Alpha Yaya Diallo
  January 17 at the Best Western Plus the Westerly Hotel & Convention Centre
• Pianorama with Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne and David Vest
  January 18 at the Best Western Plus the Westerly Hotel & Convention Centre
• An Intimate Evening with Barney Bentall
  January 22 at the Crown Isle Resort & Golf Community
• Country, Blues ‘N’ Soul Night with Jim Byrnes and the Sojourners
  January 23 at the Best Western Plus The Westerly Hotel & Convention Centre
• Rockin’ the Filberg with The Grapes Of Wrath and Odds
  January 24 at the Florence Filberg Centre
• Ashley MacIsaac
  January 25 at Native Sons Hall
• Acoustic Blues Double Header with Blind Boy Paxton and Suzie Vinnick
  January 29 at Crown Isle Resort & Golf Community
• Rockabilly Boogie! Dance with Cousin Harley
  January 31 at the Best Western Plus The Westerly Hotel & Convention Centre

Enjoy the Winter Fun Zone and the Pond Hockey Jamboree, and if you’re visiting the area, take advantage of some great deals on Concert + Stay + Ski Packages that are available throughout the festival as well.

Comox and Courtenay are just over an hour north of the Departure Bay ferry terminal in Nanaimo. To find out more, follow the tag #CVWinterBites on Twitter along with the Vancouver Island Visitor Centre on Facebook and Twitter. You can also download the free Comox Valley app for iPhone.

There are the vacations you take to get away, to explore, or to experience something new, and then there are those that make you feel right at home even though you’re rather far from your front step. When John and I settled in for an (extra) long weekend at Hastings House Country House Hotel on Salt Spring Island it felt as though we were visiting our very our country house on the hill above Ganges Harbour.

In the morning, when fresh-baked muffins were delivered from the kitchen downstairs, we built a fire in our room overlooking the property’s meadow on one side, and the lush lawn that tumbled down toward the Salish Sea on the other. Opening the hinge on the wrought iron windows, I would poke my iPhone out of our second-floor suite in an attempt to capture the way the sunrise illuminated the tall and twisted Arbutus that clamped itself to the hillside.

The Manor House

This was our first time staying in the Manor House, having previously booked a luxury cabin and the farmhouse for stays over the years. Built in the 1940s, with renovations in the 1980s, the Manor House resembles an 11th century Sussex-style family home. There are two guest suites above its main floor, where you’ll find the kitchen, dining areas, and sitting room with inglenoook fireplace where afternoon tea is served.

Our suite had three rooms. The living room with fireplace on the harbour side of the manor; the bedroom that looked out onto the meadow and pathway toward the farmhouse, reception, and parking; and the bathroom stocked with Saltspring Soapworks amenities.

If you’re ever wondering where an ingredient in your meal comes from on Salt Spring Island, the answer is usually “right out back on our farm”.

We stayed in our room most of the time but I took a quick walk around the grounds to photograph the forest trails and my favourite Arbutus, and we walked down the hill to Ganges Village in the evenings for dinner.

During the winter months Hastings House provides a full breakfast (with delicious fresh apple juice and maple-soaked bacon) and afternoon tea but the kitchen is not open for supper, only special events or by request. No bother though, it gave me time to show John around the village and introduce him to some of the restaurants, mixologists, and chefs I had met during the Glowtini Competition earlier in December.

One morning we drove over to Ruckle Provincial Park for a quick hike, after hearing about it at breakfast from Kelly McAree, General Manager at Hastings House. It’s home to record-setting maple leaves, lush forest trails, rocky cliffs, and a steady stream of boat traffic off in the distance passing from island to island.

Wellspring Spa at Hastings House

On our last full day at Hastings House we enjoyed an in-room couples massage from the Wellspring Spa which is located on the property. While we enjoyed afternoon tea in the sitting room downstairs, two practitioners setup in the living room area of our upstairs suite in the Manor House. We climbed the staircase to see two massage tables, a dreamy sunset, and a crackling fire. The next hour melted away as we sunk into the warmth and comfort of the treatments.

Simple Pleasures

While we do enjoy our hikes, bike rides (like the 20km island loop we did last time), and other adventures, we’re also very content sitting in front of a roaring fire with glasses of wine. Each night the window behind us on the couch would paint the room in various shades of pink and red as the sun dipped into the sea – as though competing with the fireplace in front of us to see who could burn the brightest.

We love escaping to Hastings House. No wake up calls, no one else running around in the hallway, no shared ice machine, and no elevators. Just complimentary WIFI, baked goods, English breakfast, tea and scones, iPhone chargers, televisions (if you can tear yourself away from the views), fireplaces, warmth, elegance, simplicity.

In the summer I can picture us renting a kayak, going to the beach and heading up to Mount Maxwell to scope out the Gulf Island vistas. In winter, there’s just as much to enjoy on Salt Spring Island (we made it to Saltspring Soapworks, several restaurants and pubs, Ruckle Park, and Saltspring Island Ales) but we didn’t feel guilty at all for staying in and enjoying the comforts of our room at Hastings House.

We usually fly Saltspring Air (our favourite option) from downtown Vancouver to Ganges Harbour but our flight was canceled due to weather. We did make it to the island in great time on the ferry instead, via Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, then around the u-turn loop and back over to Fulford Harbour on Salt Spring Island. The flight is 40 minutes and the ferry work-around is about 2.5 hours.

Follow Hastings House on Facebook and Twitter for more information about their accomomdations year-round.

The PNE Forum building at Hastings Park holds its share of history, from hockey and lacrosse, to war-time injustices, roller derby and Nirvana.

1931: Archives# CVA 99-4015. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.

Vancouver Exhibition Forum

This 45,000 gross square foot building was constructed on the Vancouver Exhibition grounds in 1931.

1931: Construction of the Forum. Archives# CVA 99-3865 & CVA 99-3863. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.

On January 21, 1935, Vancouver had a record 24-hour snowfall of 43 centimetres (17 inches). As a result, the roof of the Hastings Park Forum collapsed, luckily there were no injuries.

1936: Archives #Bu N521.3

When the Denman Arena, where the Vancouver Millionaires won the Stanley Cup in 1915, burned to the ground in 1936 the Vancouver Exhibition Forum at Hastings Park picked up where it left off. While it didn’t have 10,000+ seats like Denman, it had enough for 5,050 spectators for hockey and box lacrosse.

1935: Archives# CVA 99 – 3152. Photographer: Stuart Thomson.

During WWII, the Forum served as a temporary relocation shelter for Japanese Canadians before they were sent to internment camps. Ottawa interned all BC residents of Japanese descent in the months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

1942: Men’s dormitory. VPL# 14918. Photographer: Leonard Frank.

On September 25, 2013, Vancouver City Council offered a formal apology for the City of Vancouver’s Role in the 1942 Internment of Japanese-Canadians.

1948: VPL# 84106G & 84067B. Studio: Artray.

The Forum hosted the Pacific Coast Hockey League’s and Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Canucks from 1945 to 1968. In 1969 The WHL Canucks moved to the newly-completed Pacific Coliseum which was located close by on the PNE grounds.

Bing Crosby, named Chief Thundervoice by the Chief Joe Mathias of the Squamish First Nation, hosted a radio show at the Forum in 1948. VPL# 80679 & 80679B. Photo: Art Jones.

The building was refurbished as a concert and exhibition space in the early 1980s. The hockey seating was removed to create more floor space and the ice plant was moved to the PNE Agrodome, located beside the Pacific Coliseum. The Forum still hosts concerts today along with PNE exhibits and trade shows.

Book Week continues as I offer up another pictorial history of Vancouver, courtesy of Lani Russwurm and my friendly competition over at Vancover Is Awesome (“V.I.A.”). Lani runs the local history blog Past Tense Vancouver and contributes the Vancouver Was Awesome posts to V.I.A. — check out his 10 Intoxicating Events in Vancouver History on The Tyee too.

Vancouver Was Awesome: A Curious Pictorial History contains an introduction by V.I.A.’s Editor-in-Chief Bob Kronbauer along with 150 black & white and colour photographs.

Vancouver may be a youngster among major cities, but it has a rich and beguiling history.

Russwurm collects stories of the people, places, events, and phenomena that collectively have infused Vancouver with a distinct flavor and flair and which laid the foundation for the eclectic city we know today. Although not without its share of social issues and contradictions, this cosmopolitan port city has long been a magnet for creative and determined types in search of opportunity and willing to rise to the challenges posed by the Terminal City. And at this moment in Vancouver’s history, as it grapples with the divisive issues of rapid gentrification and overpriced real estate, Vancouver Was Awesome offers readers an opportunity to relive the city’s past and to remember what was, and what might have been.

From vaudeville to beatniks, Rudyard Kipling to Charlie Chaplin, violent squirrels to train-hopping dogs, Lani Russwurm’s book is an entertaining, informative, and at times jaw-dropping tour of one city’s awesome past. [Arsenal Pulp Press]

Book Week Giveaway

Here’s how to enter to win today’s featured Book Week title — Vancouver Was Awesome:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)

I will draw one winner at random from all entries on Thursday, January 16, 2013 at 12:00pm. Follow Lani Russwurm’s Past Tense Vancouver and Vancouver Is Awesome on Twitter for more fascinating stories.

Update The winner is Hannah!

Free concerts and the CBC in Vancouver go hand-in-hand, and while it’s a little too chilly — and soggy — to host their popular outdoor Musical Nooners at this time of year, they are bringing back the CBC Toque Sessions free concert series.

Now in its 5th year, the CBC Vancouver’s Toque Sessions free concert series runs each Thursday and Friday beginning at 7:30pm in Studio One at the CBC Broadcast Centre at 700 Hamilton Street (between Robson and Georgia) from January 23rd until February 28th, 2014.

There are 12 shows lined up for this season and reservations are not available so be sure to secure your place in the rush line by 6:30pm each show day.

For more information on the CBC Toque Sessions follow @CBCVancouver or #cbctoques on Twitter.