The rules are simple: Show up at 7:45pm, purchase your fare, and follow the conductor down to the train where you’ll party it up on a the SkyTrain with other costumed revelers. The party will return to Waterfront and from there, the VPSN invites you to an after party.
Remember to clean up any garbage you might have and do not bring any open alcohol containers. Tag your photos and tweets with #skytrainparty, RSVP on Facebook, and follow @VPSN on Twitter for updates. The Vancouver Public Space Network is a grassroots, volunteer collective engaging in advocacy, outreach & education on public space issues in Vancouver.
Free The Children, the non-profit organization behind the amazing We Day event, is hosting the Halloween for Hunger campaign. Instead of trick-or-treating for candy on October 31st, they’re suggesting that youth collect non-perishable food items that they can donate to their local food banks.
To help your spread the word, they have an online and downloadable guide for groups, schools, and individuals so that they can prepare and promote their own campaigns. In 2010, over 182,825 youth participated by donating over 609,225 pounds of food to their local food banks.
Suggested non-perishable items include canned meat/fish, peanut butter, bags of whole wheat pasta/rice, pasta sauce, canned fruit/vegetables, cereal, baby formula, and baby food. Up to 25,000 people receive food from the Greater Vancouver Food Bank each week including the working poor, single parents, new immigrants, and elderly on fixed incomes. 41 percent of the 14,000 to 15,000 monthly recipients at the Surrey Food Bank are children. For more information visit the Halloween for Hunger sign-up page.
Hot on the heels of my post about a poutine crawl around Vancouver, you can follow up with dessert at the Cupcake Bike Ride.
What Join others as you cycle from one cupcake shop to another around Vancouver When Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 1:00pm Cost None for the ride itself but you can purchase cupcakes at the stops
The event is organized by Hyedie Hashimoto who has been operating “Girls’ Cupcake Rides” in Toronto for the last two years during the spring, summer, and fall. In an interview last June, Hyedie told the Toronto Star that she wanted to get more women out cycling in the city and while cupcakes aren’t just for women, they do fit perfectly into bike baskets for transport.
While the gender gap of riders may not be as wide in Vancouver, both men and women are more than welcome to peddle with the group and enjoy these sweet treats along the way.
If you would like to take part just show up at the first stop, Original Cupcakes on Denman at English Bay, on the day of the event. From there, riders will go to Kreation Artisan Bakery (3357 Cambie) then end up at Cassia Cupcakery (1706 Commercial). Since Hyedie is a visitor to Vancouver, she’s open to cycling route suggestions for these stops.
Comments5
by John BiehlerDisclosure: Review — John's experience was courtesy of Fairmont Hot Springs. He was not paid to write this recap and it is formed of his own opinions. Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
When I was a kid, growing up in Kelowna and Northern BC, my parents took our family on a lot of road trips. We went all over the place in the car camping, hoteling, etc. back in the days before iPads, Nintendo DS and seatback dvd players made road trips easier for us kids in the backseat.
Strangely though, we never visited any of the province’s hot springs. Because of this fact, I jumped at the chance to visit Fairmont Hot Springs, BC in the Columbia Valley which is located on the eastern edge of the province (Google Map), just south of Banff. About an hours drive from Cranbrook or 3.5 hours from Calgary.
For this trip, I flew into Calgary and drove to Fairmont Hot Springs.
I want to clarify one thing that was a little confusing to me at first: Fairmont Hot Springs is the name of the BC town, that has a hot springs resort that is named after the town, and not part of a hotel chain of the same name.
The main attraction of the area is, of course, the hot springs with the main ones being located at the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort:
The resort features Canada’s largest natural mineral hot pools, with over 1.5 million gallons of naturally heated water flowing daily through a (39C/102F degree) soaking pool, a large swimming pool (31C/88F) and a diving pool (30C/86F) with high & low diving boards that are open year round.
Nearby is 45 holes of walkable golf courses. Two championship 18-hole courses (Riverside and Mountainside) and a 9-hole, Par 3 course at Creekside. There is also a family friendly ski area with 14 downhill runs and snowshoe tours. There are also a wide variety of restaurants around the resort and nearby to suite any taste and budget.
The area is considered to be an all season destination and it’s easy to see why no matter what your favorite outdoor activities are. The resort features year round “BC Rockies Adventures” where you can go on guided hikes, mountain bike tours, kayaking and lots of fun kids activities at the Base Camp. I’ll cover my kayaking adventure in an upcoming post.
A local bear cubs seem to like the resort too
During the four days of my stay, on a daily basis we came across numerous bears, deers, and other wildlife. I’m used to seeing wildlife on a regular basis in BC but it seemed to be much more frequent than usual.
I stayed at the Fairmont Ridge Residences which is just a short walk down the road from the resort. If you decide you’d like to spend more time in Fairmont, the Residences have a number of ways to stay including rentals, full and fractional purchase options of these stunning homes:
A surprisingly well kept secret is the location of the ‘hidden waterfall’ hot spring which is just a 5 minute trail walk from the residences:
As you can see, it’s a natural wonder that I still can’t believe is located in British Columbia and not some other exotic location. The waterfall is fed from the same source as the resort’s hot springs and was quite warm when I went for a dip.
I could have easily stayed in there all day…it must be magical in the winter time.
It was a little surreal to stick my hand into the stream just down from the waterfall and instead of the usual glacier chill I’ve come to expect in BC, to have the water be quite warm.
I really enjoyed my time in Fairmont Hot Springs. It truly is a unique corner of the province that I look forward to visiting again.
Yesterday I asked the followers of my Facebook page what the theme of the next Archives Photos of the Day post should be. I had some great suggestions and decided to go with Robert White’s idea of street fashions. While the images were not categorized under a “fashion” tag, I did a little digging and pulled out some street scenes that do the trick.
1900’s – Granville. Archives item# CVA 677-659. Photographer: Philip Timms.
