Best Buy is known for its great deals on televisions, smartphones, computer accessories, and video games which we pick up at their Cambie, South Vancouver, or Metrotown locations around here. Now, they’re branching out online with their new VIVA from Best Buy lifestyle brand. Whether you’re looking for a new yoga mat, vitamins, lip gloss, or a baby stroller, you can now find it at Best Buy online.
To help promote VIVA from Best Buy’s online health and beauty products I have two gift baskets to give away. The first is filled with Live Clean baby products and the second contains Live Clean skin care and body care products.
Many of these items are either plant-derived or made from natural, sustainably-sourced ingredients. They do not contain any petroleum, fragrance, parabens, or phthalates. Here’s how you can enter to win one of these gift baskets:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
Follow VIVABestBuy on Twitter to find out more about the latest health, wellness, and beauty offers from Best Buy Canada. I will draw two winners, one for each basket, at 12:00pm on Friday, July 5, 2013.
Update The winners are @radicalradhika (personal care) & Harjit (baby)
Vancouver loves its food trucks and after being ranked 3rd in North America when it comes to street eats, word has quickly spread about our delicious selection of curb-side dining options. To celebrate, the City of Vancouver is hosting Street Food Day in Vancouver tomorrow at City Hall.
What Street Food Day in Vancouver
Where 12th and Cambie, north lower parking lot
When Thursday, June 27, 2013 from 11:00am to 2:00pm
There are 114 food truck permits in Vancouver and about 65 are regularily open, according to @StreetFoodApp who mentioned the stat to Erin Ireland on Twitter yesterday. A handful will be on location tomorrow to celebrate Street Food Day.
Food Cart Fest
Aside from ordering up goodies from local food trucks before, during, and after your workday downtown you can get a taste from over two dozen vendors at the annual Food Cart Fest which takes place every Sunday (12:00pm to 5:00pm) from now until September 22nd at 215 West 1st (between the Olympic Village and the Cambie Bridge).
The Food Cart Fest has communal tables, lovely False Creek views, a community market, live music and DJs, crafters, and more. Admission is $2 and children 13 and under get in free. Maximum rate for families is $5 and Vancity Credit Union members get in free.
The BC Entertainment Hall of Fame is giving you the chance to tour The Orpheum Theatre this summer. Take a 90-minute guided walk around the “Grand Old Lady of Granville Street” and learn about all of the city and entertainment history it contains (and maybe a ghost story or two).
1946: The Orpheum on Granville. Archives# CVA 1184-2290. Photographer: Jack Lindsay.
Where The Orpheum’s Smithe Street Entrance (between Granville and Seymour)
When 11:00am on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays July 2 to August 31, 2013
Cost Admission is a $10 donation to the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame
Photo credit: K D Photos & K D Photos on Flickr
Here are just a few historical tidbits about The Orpheum and you’ll definitely learn more during a tour:
- The theatre was built for $1 million in 1927, hosting Vaudeville acts and the latest motion pictures from Hollywood.
- “Architect B. Marcus Priteca is recognized as the most accomplished theatre designer of his era in the American Northwest and Western Canada. This is the only surviving Canadian theatre designed by Priteca.” – City of Vancouver
- Over the years names like Garbo, Gable, Bogart, Bacall, Hepburn, Monroe, Olivier, Lancaster, Bette Davis, Jack Benny, and Alec Guinness graced the stage.
Orpheum Tours are limited to a maximum of 30 people on a first come first served basis. However you can guarantee yourself a spot by calling the reservation line: (604) 665-3470. All proceeds will go to further the work of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame which honours British Columbians who have excelled in all disciplines of entertainment.
I had just completed my Abbotsford Circle Farm Tour post when I read that Minter Gardens, a Chilliwack Chilliwack Circle Farm Tour location, was shutting down in October.
“Minter Gardens has been a huge part of our lives,” Minter said in a press release. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime dream to create one of the most beautiful gardens in the world.” Since opening its gates 33 years ago, Minter Gardens has been a popular destination for gardening enthusiasts of all ages.
In recent years, however, the Minters said attendance was down, in part because of “a changing climate that offers up more cold, rainy days than the abundantly sunny ones that attract visitors to the grounds.” This has “significantly impacted the long-term viability of operating an outdoor destination garden,” the press release said.
What will become of the property is not certain but the Minter family is exploring options to develop it in an eco- and community-friendly manner. [Chilliwack Times]
I’ve enjoyed my recent visits to Minter Gardens, with a self-guided tour of the beautifully crafted and maintained groves, shrubs, flowers, trees, plants, and ponds. Before this 32-acre show garden closes its gates, I highly recommend taking the drive down the highway and stopping in to Minter Gardens for the day. The have a Garden Cafe, Nature Preserve, Gift Shop, and more on-site.
The gardens are open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 6:00pm; Saturdays from 8:30pm to 5:30pm; Sundays and Holidays from 11:00am to 5:30pm. Admission is $38 (Family Rate, 2 adults and up to 4 youth under 19); $17 (Adults); $15 (Seniors); $9.50 (Youth 12-18); $6.50 (Children 6-12); Free (Children 5 and under)*.
Find them at 52892 Bunker Rd in Chilliwack once you take the Agassiz exit from Highway 1 (and visit the Garden Centre just down the road from there too at 10015 Young Road N). Follow Minter Gardens on Facebook and Twitter for more updates leading up to the closure.
*These rates may or may not include tax. Official rates are posted at the gardens.
Ever since my first Circle Farm Tour in Harrison and Agassiz back in 2009 I’ve been hooked on these free, self-guided farmgate programs that can be found in Maple Ridge – Pitt Meadows, Langley, Chilliwack, and Abbotsford as well. These tours introduce you to the great people who cultivate the bounty that grows in our region as they open their barn, shop, and studio doors to the public.
Abbotsford Circle Farm Tour Stops
Plan your route accordingly by following the suggested routes and maps that are provided online and in brochures that can be found at each Abbotsford Circle Farm Tour destination (14 in total). Tourism Abbotsford along with the Vancouver Coast & Mountain regional tourism authority invited a group of Vancouver media to do a tour last week and despite the drizzly weather, we had a great time at the following locations:
Taves Farm & The Applebarn
Website, Twitter, Facebook
This family-owned and operated farm is celebrating its 22nd anniversary this year. They have 10-12 acres of pumpkins and about 18 acres of apples. Inside the warm, sweet air of the greenhouse we passed row upon row of peppers, heirloom tomatoes, and eggplants that were to be grown, picked, packed, and sent to local grocery stores. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
