Over 40 local and Vancouver Island trucks will take part in the Surrey Santa Parade in Cloverdale at 5:00pm on Sunday, December 8, 2013 where they will then travel west on Highway 10, and turn north onto King George Boulevard. They’ll arrive at Holland Park for approximately 6:30pm.
Once at the park, located on the corner of Old Yale Road and King George (between Surrey Cental and King George SkyTrain stations), there will be face painting, live music, food by the North Surrey Lions Club, and a special visit the Mr. and Mrs. Claus.
Families can check out the lighted trucks and vote for their favourite by donating loonies and toonies by each vehicle with proceeds in support of the Surrey Food Bank and the Surrey Christmas Bureau.
This week I’m heading over to Salt Spring Island to enjoy the third annual Glowtini competition. Bartenders and mixologist from the lovely isle will compete to tantalize taste-buds with a custom cocktail created specifically for Salt Spring Islanders and guests this holiday season.
The Glowtini contest will begin at 8:00pm on Thursday, December 5, 2013 and those in attendance with us at Harbour House can make a donation to Salt Spring’s Copper Kettle Community Partnership to try the cocktail that gets crowned as this year’s Glowtini.
Get out your drink card for the 3rd Annual Glowtini Contest and find out who will win bragging rights for the best signature holiday cocktail on Salt Spring Island. A packed house is expected at the Harbour House Hotel where five mixologists will shake up their best recipes to impress the judges and take home the coveted “Glowtini Trophy”. Past winners have included Tom Messer from the Salt Spring Inn and Jesse Anderson, who won on behalf of Moby’s last year.
This year the winning Glowtini will be awarded to the contestant who best incorporates local ingredients and captures the Christmas on Salt Spring theme: ‘Get Your Glow ON!’ Last year mixologists came up with a rich assortment of candy coloured favourites, and unique elements such as sugarplums, brulee lemon and homemade ginger beer.
A celebrity panel of judges experienced everything from a watching a blowtorch put the finishing touches on one Christmas cocktail, to smelling a local tea before it was infused into the winning Glowtini.
Emcee for this year is writer and radio personality, John Bateman. He is thrilled to be part of the action, “I am excited to be hosting an event where it is not only acceptable for the crowd to drink martinis, it’s almost expected of them. It’s refreshing to see an event on Salt Spring that is strictly for fun and doesn’t involve saving the world in some way.”
On the judging panel this year I will be joined by Art of the Cocktail winner, Victoria based mixologist Jayce Kaduschuk from Clive’s Classic Lounge, and community-builder Janis La Couvée, also from Victoria — it’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it! This is just one of many Christmas on Salt Spring events happening this month.
Christmas on Salt Spring Island Getaway
Salt Spring is such a beautiful West Coast destination that John and I absolutely adore which is why I’m excited that they have once again partnered with me for a campaign. For the last two years the Salt Spring Christmas Committee has offered up an amazing getaway for one lucky Miss604 reader and their guest and we’re doing it all again this year.
Your prize starts with a round trip flight for two, departing from floatplane docks at either the Pat Bay Seaplane base, or from downtown Vancouver courtesy Saltspring Air. Destination Ganges Harbour on beautiful Salt Spring Island. Hastings House Country House Hotel will meet you at the seaplane dock and escort you to the hotel where you will spend two luxurious nights in one of Canada’s best hotels. Your prize also features a morning breakfast hamper, afternoon tea and a complimentary fireside massage. Settle into your deluxe accommodation overlooking Ganges Harbour. Your hillside room features a king size bed, gas fireplace, large bathroom with deep soaking tub and separate shower, heated floors and a covered balcony to drink in the views.
That evening your dinner reservations will be at one of the Island’s favourite dining establishments, Auntie Pestos. The following day you will discover a morning hamper at your door, inside are freshly baked muffins and coffee to help awaken you. A full English Breakfast served in our Manor House will complete your visit and prepare you for another day of discovering more fabulous adventures on Salt Spring. Before you leave you will also be treated to a Fireside Massage, courtesy the Wellspring Spa at Hastings House. Enjoy the crackling fire as we bring the spa experience to you.
I have two previous winners, from 2011 and 2012, who each wrote about their prize experience:
Roshena Huang: “In Miss 604′s original post, she described Salt Spring Island as “magical”. There is truly no better word to communicate the feeling of being in your presence…” “…Salt Spring Island, this was my first visit, but it will certainly not be the last. We loved your easygoing attitude and quiet pride. Locals and fellow tourists alike were singing the praises of your community in the summer, when the market is bustling and the outdoor adventures of kayaking and hiking become a real possibility.”
Wanderlust Megan: “It was tough leaving Hastings House on Sunday, I wanted to move into the Heather Suite, soak away in their tub and enjoy the property more, but our adventure on Salt Spring was over until next time. The accommodations, the service are the best that I have ever experienced. I’ll miss walking around the grounds and all the little details that made this weekend extra special.”
Leave a comment naming a Christmas on Salt Spring event (as listed in the online calendar) (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
RT to enter to win a #GLOW @HelloSaltSpring getaway from @Miss604 http://bit.ly/604GLOW2013
Follow Salt Spring Island Tourism on Twitter and Facebook for more information throughout the year.
I will draw one winner at random from all entries on Wednesday, December 11, 2013 at 12:00pm. Must be 19+ to enter and claim. Prize includes and is limited to the items listed in the prize recap above. The winner will have to claim their prize between January 15th to April 15th, 2014, based on availability of flights and accommodation. The winner will also agree to be disclosed and do any follow-up interviews/ or media related activities. Hastings House Country House Hotel, Salt Spring Christmas Committee, and Saltspring Air are sponsoring this prize pack.
There have been some pretty remarkable structures erected in Vancouver and one of them has to be the ski jump that was installed in April of 1958 at Empire Stadium. Constructed for the Centennial Invitational Tournament, it was the fourth-largest ski jump in the world at the time.
Using 22.5 kilometres (14 miles) of tubular steel, it reached 50 metres (165 feet) above ground with a landing area measuring 12 metres (40 feet) wide and 27 metres (90 feet) high. “That tower was quite high,” jumper Rudy Maki of Ishpeming, Mich., recalled in an interview. “It was quite spooky walking up there. I didn’t really care for the heights, but it was a spectacular sight. It was majestic when you think about it.”
The top jumpers in the three-day event soared 43 to 46 metres (140-150 feet), among them Finnish star and world champion Juhani Karkinen, who captured two of the four competitions and the aggregate crown. While the event, held over three nights and a Saturday afternoon, attracted 24,928 paying customers, The Vancouver Sun reported more than 60,000 “free-loaded from parked cars, camp chairs and apple boxes. Sloping streets above the [east side of the] stadium provided strategic locations for field glasses.” [Vancouver Sun]
Searching the City of Vancouver Archives, I found a few other photos of a pop-up ski jump that did not appear to be at Empire Stadium and it was not as large. However, these photos — also from 1958 — are still pretty great.
When jewelry designer Peg Steley was approached by the owner of the Back Gallery Project, Monica Reyes, about an exhibition Steley says she suddenly viewed her work in a different light. “It made me perceive it as a body of work and motivated me to push the envelope,” she says.
Before a career in jewels, and before raising children, Steley had a career producing major international spectacles, including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for World Expo 1986. And when you look at each piece, they explode out like fireworks and crackled with non-stop surprises.
At her opening last Thursday night, Ohhhhs and Awwws could be heard throughout the gallery.
For “Rock” Star, Steley uses unique stones and gems (including Brazialian opals, Swarovsky crystals, Indian peacock druzy, and Tibetan charms) that she has collected from all over the world (including Bali, Morocco, Mexico, Rjasthan, and Tibet), assembling them in an almost unimaginable way.
“I guess I’m still entertaining people with extravagant spectacles,” she says. A native of Sydney, Australia, Steley says that her diverse parentage has also had a huge influence on her work. “My mom and grandmother were very glamorous fashionistas. I think I inherited that for element. My father was an adventurer and loved to travel to remote places alone. I love to do that, as well.”
This duality that lives within her can also be seen in her pieces–they are glamourous yet edgy, raw yet refined, high-art yet completely wearable for every woman… an easy way to inject a little of the spectacular into everyday life.
The Back Gallery Project is located at 602 E Hastings Street and you can follow the gallery on Facebook and Twitter. Find out more about Peg Steley online.
December in Vancouver means holiday shopping at the market, ice skating at Robson Square, light displays and city views from the ski hills. Here’s a quick glimpse of this festive month throughout the last century thanks to Chuck Davis’ History of Metropolitan Vancouver:
1936: City Hall prior to opening. Leonard Frank Photos. Archives# City P19.1
December 1, 1936: Vancouver’s new city hall opened for business.
December 3, 1929: The Commodore Cabaret opened on Granville Street.
December 3, 1949: A photograph appeared in the Province showing the site for something called a “shopping centre” on the north shore. It would be called Park Royal. It was Canada’s first shopping centre.
December 4, 1972: Minimum wage for adults in British Columbia was set at $2 an hour, the highest in Canada.
December 9, 1962: Elected on this day, Bill Rathie was the first Vancouver mayor to have been born in the city.
December 9, 1985: The third iteration of the Cambie Bridge, that we use today, opened.
December 16, 1931: Elizabeth “Betsy” Flaherty, a buyer for Spencer’s department store, got her flying license. She was about 53, making her the oldest female pilot in Canada.
December 17, 1903: BCER pushed a button and this began to flow of electricity into Vancouver from Indian Arm.
December 20, 1911: Denman Arena opened at Georgia and Denman, welcoming professional hockey to Vancouver. With a capacity of 10,000 it was the world’s largest artificial ice rink.
December 24, 1951: Named “most beautiful woman in the world,” Yvonne De Carlo visited Vancouver (her home town).
December 28, 1968: Chuck Davis had a note that the thermometer dipped today to -.2 F, “the only sub-zero temperature ever recorded in Vancouver.
Over 40 local and Vancouver Island trucks will take part in the Surrey Santa Parade in Cloverdale at 5:00pm on Sunday, December 8, 2013 where they will then travel west on Highway 10, and turn north onto King George Boulevard. They’ll arrive at Holland Park for approximately 6:30pm.
