The Vancouver Trolley Company and the Vancouver Police Museum have teamed up to present this year’s series of Haunted Halloween Trolley Tours. A tour guide will share spirited tales as you cross town to visit the Mountain View Cemetery graveyard, the autopsy room at the Vancouver Police Museum, and more mysterious locations during this 2.5 hour tour.
Dates Running nights October 12 to 31, 2011 Times 5:30pm, 6:30pm, 7:30pm, and 8:30pm (9:30pm Fridays & Saturdays) Depart Meet at Canada Place for your tour Disclaimer Suitable for those 13 years of age and older Rates $35
What I love about the Haunted Halloween Trolley Tour is that you not only get to enjoy a night out seeing dark sites around Vancouver, you get a dose of local history with each story from your guide.
Reservations are required for all tours and can be made by calling (604) 801-5515 ext 100. You can also book a whole trolley for a private group at the rate of $560 plus tax (maximum 33 passengers). Departure times for these group bookings are on the hour from 5:00pm to 9:00pm).
Like last year, I have partnered up with the Vancouver Trolley Company to offer a $5 discount to my readers. Call them up right now (or anytime before October 12) to book your tour between October 14 and 21, 2011 and give them the code “Miss604”.
I also have a pair of tickets for a tour up for grabs. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment on this post. If you have a story about a haunted Vancouver attraction I’d love to hear it too. (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I entered to win a pair of Haunted #Halloween Trolley Tour tickets from @VanTrolley & @Miss604 http://ow.ly/6JQvk
I will draw one winner at 10:00am next Friday, October 7, 2011. Follow the Vancouver Trolley Company on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr for seasonal highlights and tour information.
Like a switch, the weather can turn from sparkling sunshine to soaking and soggy. Fall is here and with it comes a bundle of events to enjoy with your family whether it be out in a pumpkin patch or in a dark and scary amusement park.
The following event list has been compiled thanks to emails received from my readers. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post to read about a $100 restaurant giveaway this month.
You can probably find several of these events listed on the city’s latest user-generated events directory, Vancouver Now. Having launched this week, the site hopes to serve the community by supplying up-to-date event listings, submitted by users. This month I have partnered with them to do a special giveaway.
Vancouver Now’s has offered up $100 to use at any participating BC Hydro Power Smart “Candlelight Conservation Dinner” restaurant. The dinner –you guessed it– by candlelight will take place at various restaurants around Vancouver on October 27, 2011. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays. Our family would gather at my Oma’s house and while the windows steamed up and the aroma of roasted turkey filled each room, we’d head outside to rake leaves. The ample limbs of the lone one oak tree across the street provided enough fuel for the giant leaf pile into which we repeatedly rode my brother’s old BMX. We’d enjoy non-traditional favourites on the table like Oma’s coleslaw and sauce-covered cauliflower, along with turkey, cranberries, and other seasonal staples.
What: Art in the Barn at Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm & Meadery
When: October 29 to 30, 2011 from 10:00am to 4:00pm
Featuring: A variety of artisan vendors, including pottery, painters, photography, jewellery, glass art, fibre art, art metal, woodcraft and more.
What: Pumpkin Patch at Maan Farms
When: September 10 to October 31, 2011
Featuring: 25 popular pumpkin varieties, free admission.
Langley
What: Fort Langley’s 15th Annual Cranberry Festival
When: October 8 to 9, 2011 from 9:00am to 5:00pm
Featuring: A pancake breakfast, contests, live music, cooking demos, a fashion show, and over 80 vendors showcasing a marvelous selection of products.
What: Grave Tales at Fort Langley National Historic Site
When: October 7 to 30, 2011
Featuring: The Fort’s past depicted at night by expert storytellers.
What: Grape Stomp & Harvest Party
When: October 29 to 30, 2011
Featuring: Grapes from the vines will be stomped in a competition as visitors enjoy a harvest lunch, new fall releases, and live music.
Chilliwack
What: Petey’s Pumpkin Patch
When: October 2 to 31, 2011
Featuring: Pumpkin patches and over 5,000 square feet of indoor activities for family fun, including a concession with hot and cold food, a train or wagon ride, farm animals, and more.
Agassiz Harrison Mills
What: Harvest Celebration at Limbert Mountain Farm
When: October 8, 2011 from 11:00am to 5:00pm
Featuring: U-pick hazelnuts, and a stroll through the orchards. Food samples, recipes, squash, chestnuts, and more.
The Limbert Mountain Farm kitchen
What: Kilby’s Annual Thanksgiving Celebration
When: October 9 and 10, 2011
Featuring: Kilby Historic Site’s Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner including roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, brussel sprouts, homemade rolls, cranberry sauce and gravy, and a beverage with dessert. $15.95 per adult, by reservation only.
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows
What: Bruce’s Apple Festival
When: October 15 and 16, 2011 from 10:00am to 5:00pm
Featuring: Various varieties of new and heritage apples grown in BC, apple pies and crisps, with live local entertainment.
Richmond
Off the Circle Farm Tour path, there are a few noteworthy spots to explore in Richmond.
What: Richmond Country Farms Pumpkin Patch
When: October 1 and 2 (preview weekend) 10:00am to 4:30pm
When: October 8 to October 31 (officially open) 10:00am to 4:30pm
Featuring: While there is a cost for admission, once you’re in you can enjoy a hay cart ride, live entertainment, a corn maze and farm animals.
What: Thanksgiving Tea at London Heritage Farm
When: October 8 and 9, 2011 from 12:00pm to 5:00pm
Featuring: Homemade treats, cookies, and of course plenty of tea.
Vancouver
What: Sustenance: Feasting on Art & Culture Festival
When: October 8, 2011 (opening night) from 7:00pm to 9:00pm
When: October 8 to 19, 2011
Featuring: Art exhibit at the Roundhouse Community Centre that will celebrate 125 Years of food & agriculture in the City of Vancouver. Presented by FarmFolk CityFolk.
You can also check out a variety of corn mazes throughout the Fraser Valley and stop by JD Farms Turkey to pick up ingredients for your big meal. Read my sister’s “Pumpkin Patch Tips” before you head out to ensure you select the very best.
The Vancouver International Film Festival starts tomorrow with the opening gala screening and will run until October 14th. As a sponsor of the festival, I have the pleasure of co-presenting the world premiere of the film Everything & Everyone on October 12th.
This charming and emotional drama from talented local director Tracy D. Smith was shot in Maple Ridge, B.C. Smith brings us an engaging ensemble film starring Gabrielle Rose as a mother quietly coping with dementia and Ryan Robbins as her grown son Noah who still lives at home.
Directed By: Tracy D. Smith
Executive Producer: Victoria Bennett
Producer/Screenwriter: Ian Tang Website, Facebook
A part of the Canadian Images series at VIFF, the film feature a star-studded cast of local talent including Ryan Robbins (“Sanctuary”), Gabrielle Rose (“The Sweet Hereafter”), Chad Willett (“Cole”), Lane Edwards (“Smallville”), Chelah Horsdal (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”), and Sean Michael Kyer (“Fringe”).
If you would like to attend the world premiere with us (and the folks who made this film happen), I’m giving away two pairs of my sponsor tickets. Here’s how you can enter to win:
The switch was thrown on Vancouver’s first neon signs on Granville in 1924 and the craze erupted in the 1950s when 19,000 neon signs illuminated the city. Some though it was a sign of being a booming, bustling, progressive metropolis. Others thought they were the biggest eyesores and took away from Vancouver’s stunning natural surroundings.
Did Vancouver’s flashing neon signs signal glamour, excitement and big city living? Or was neon part of a tawdry display that disfigured Vancouver’s natural beauty?
People were of two minds in Vancouver in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Neon signs that we now love were at that time, objects of deep civic controversy.
Neon was one highly visible sign of Vancouver’s transition from a sleepy west coast port into a striving, happening city. Neon became a lightening rod for critics of change, and at the same time, became the focus of a civic conversation about values in Vancouver.
Neon Vancouver begins October 13, 2011 and it will run until late summer next year with curator talks this November and December. If you haven’t been to the Museum of Vancouver recently, this would be a great way to explore their urban archives, displays, exhibits, and artifacts.
The 10-month exhibition will kick off with an opening party Wednesday, October 12, 2011. If you’d like to attend, here’s how you can win a pair of tickets:
Leave a comment on this post about your favourite neon sign in Vancouver (past or present) (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I entered to win tickets to the Neon #Vancouver Ugly Vancouver opening party @MuseumofVan from @Miss604 http://bit.ly/n7IwIV
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Thursday, October 6, 2011.
