This Friday No More Strangers, BeatRoute Magazine and Winniecooper.net will be hosting a boat cruise party around Vancouver on the Abitibi and they have kindly invited a Miss604.com reader to join them.

This isn’t your regular dinner and dancing boat cruise however, it has a jam-packed lineup of local dance acts as well as live performances from Humans and SuperCassette.

Local DJ’s My!Gay!Husband! and Erik Devereux/Genie, Hunk the Drunk and Christian Flores will be making sure the party is lively and entertaining. There will also be an afterparty at the Cobalt.

For additional information about the event, you may join the No More Strangers or BeatRoute Facebook groups or follow @winnie_cooper on Twitter.

Leave a comment on this post to enter to win admission (for you and a friend) to the boat cruise party. I’d love to hear about how your summer is going so far or why you would like to party it up offshore in Vancouver.

Since the event is only two days away, I’ll run this contest until 8:00pm today. This is open to those 19 years of age or older.

Update I have a bit more time to find a winner so I’ll do the draw at 9:00am tomorrow, August 26th.

Update The winner is Shawn R, have fun!

On this day 50 years ago, Premier W.A.C. Bennett officially opened the Second Narrows Bridge. This was the second “Second Narrows Bridge” replacing the other that was built in 1925.

The First Narrows being the Lions Gate Bridge, this additional crossing provided broader access to the North Shore and Coastal Mountains and contributed to Vancouver’s leg of the Trans Canada Highway.

Construction began in 1956 and the bridge would be completed in 1960. However, two years before the project was done, a collapse of the North Arm killed 18 men on June 17th, 1958. One rescue worker also lost their life and 20 others were injured. [source].

From the Vancouver Police Museum:
“Many people questioned what failure in oversight had led to this terrible tragedy. Could the bridge’s collapse have been prevented? An inquest was held, in our own Coroner’s Court, now the main gallery of our museum. It was where that the jury learned that a company engineer had been on the bridge at the time of the collapse; he had been taking measurements because someone had raised concerns that the bridge had shifted – he was trying to ascertain if there was any danger. He died that day, as the bridge fell. Thanks to that inquest, recommendations were adopted that changed the way steel truss bridges were built, and those same rules help to protect our modern bridgeworkers.”

While a memorial was erected in their honor (located on the South side), it wasn’t until 1994 that the bridge was officially renamed the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.

Local Bridge Timeline…
Pattullo Bridge opened 1937
Lions Gate Bridge (First Narrows) opened 1938
Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Bridge opened 1960
Port Mann Bridge opened 1964
Alex Fraser Bridge 1986

Those who grew up in Metro Vancouver or the Fraser Valley might still call it “Flintstone’s Bedrock City” (home of the 40-foot Fred) but Dusty’s Dinotown — North America’s only cartoon dinosaur town — will soon be extinct.

The attraction is set to close September 6th and they’re currently offering unlimited rides and a blowout on other activities before it closes its sabre-tooth gates forever.

After 35 years of business the pre-historic park in Bridal Falls, between Chilliwack and Hope, has sold off its 18 acres to a developer who will turn the area into an RV Park. It was recently reported however, that the City of Surrey is eying Dusty, pedal cars and all.

Owner Rob Ell told the Surrey Leader that he’s been approached by the City of Surrey, South Surrey, the Aldergrove Zoo, the City of Burnaby and even an ostrich farm to see if he would like to relocate Dinotown.

Photo cydonia1978 on Flickr

Though the popularity of dinosaurs has never waned, one wonders of the success a new cartoon Dinotown venture could achieve. Nevertheless, our childhood times spent at Bedrock City (in Mister Slate’s office and on the driving range) created lifetime memories.

September 2012: Here are the 2012 listings.

It was almost a decade ago that I heard the term “Maize Maze” and since that time, I’ve had the chance to explore one for myself at the Bose Family Farm. Little did I know that we actually have three corn mazes all within a manageable distance of Vancouver.

Bose Corn Maze
Website
Open: August 2 – October 11, 2010
Update Open: August 13, 2011 – October 16, 2011
Location: 64th Ave and 156th Street in Surrey, BC
Admission: Adults $6.75, kids & seniors $5.50 and children 5 and under are free.
Activities: The corn maze, marshmallow roasting, slide, hayjump, pumpkin patch, and farm fresh veggies for sale.

Meadows Maze
Website
Open: July 31 – September 6 then September 7 – October 11, 2010
Update Open: August 13 – September 6, 2011 then September 7 – October 10, 2011
Location: Hopcott Farms, 13672 Reichenbach Rd. Pitt Meadows, BC
Admission: General admission is $11.00 while children 4-12 are $8.00. They also have a special rate for dusk.
Activities: Two corn mazes, a petting zoo, Meadows Mountain, Corny’s Hay Pile, bee observatory, picnic area, wagon rides and a maze train.

Chilliwack Corn Maze
Website
Open: August 20 – October 31, 2010
Update Open: August 19, 2011 – October 31, 2011
Location: 41905 Yale Road West Chilliwack, BC
Admission: Adults are $9.00 $10.00, kids $7.00 $8.00 and children 2 and under are free (cash only).
Activities: 10 acre corn maze, hay rides, pumpkin patch, corn sand box, indoor hay bale maze, corn train rides, petting zoo.

These mazes all have unique designs that usually change up each year. It’s a great chance to check out some local family farms and even pick out that pumpkin come October.

Aspen Clean is a 100% natural, ECOCERT certified and vegan friendly sustainable cleaning product company based in Vancouver and tomorrow they’re hosting a product swap campaign.

Stop by either of the locations listed below to exchange your harmful, chemical household cleaning products for a bottle of Aspen Clean.

When:
August 25, 2010 2:00pm – 6:00pm
Location 1:
Park Royal Whole Foods Market
Location 2:
Capers on Robson Street

The goal is to exchange 2,010 bottles of harmful cleaning product in Vancouver within the year 2010. There’s no fee, just a straight up swap, and all chemicals collected will be recycled responsibly.

All of their products are manufactured locally, in BC and their bottles are made of at minimum 25% post consumer materials. They are also custom made locally in Vancouver (so the shipping is minimal) and are recyclable and re-usable.

You can read up on Aspen Clean (and their cleaning services) online and they also disclose every ingredient that goes into their cleaning solutions.

If you can’t make it down to Whole Foods or Capers I have an Aspen Clean Whole House Cleaning Kit to give away which is valued at $49.95. Here’s how to enter to win:

I will draw one winner Thursday, August 26th before I travel home from Toronto.

Update The winner is Katherine. Thanks everyone and I hope you made it down to the swap.