When I was little we would drive through New Westminster every Sunday and pass the big, intimidating and scary-looking Penitentiary. Its high walls up on the hill above Columbia street over looking the Fraser were dark grey and seemed to span for miles.
In 1878, the Government of Canada opened the British Columbia Penitentiary, the first federal penitentiary west of Manitoba. “BC Pen” or simply “the Pen” as it was known… It housed maximum security prisoners for the next 102 years, closing in 1980. [wiki]
I can’t remember the year the walls were torn down but all that is left today are the main gates and the centre building with a memorable blue roof.
The original centre block (reputedly haunted) of the Pen still stands and has been revamped into condominiums and a fancy restaurant, while the rest of the Pen’s grounds have been filled with newly-built townhouses and condominiums. [wiki]
I thought about The Pen recently when I visited with someone who lived in the condos on the hill, right atop the old grounds. Actually, when I got out of the car I snapped a picture as I had never been that close to the structure before. My mother has been to the Cafe many times and says it’s really lovely and the serving staff all wear little striped shirts to look like jailbirds.
I also remember that The Keg Restaurants used to have an item on the menu called the “Billy Miner Pie”, maybe they still do, but my dad told me that Bill Miner was a prisoner who escaped from the B.C. Penitentiary and was responsible for the first train robbery in Canadian history.
The views from the hillside where gold rush convicts roamed are beautiful and if you are in the vicinity, can maneuver your way around all the cul-de-sacs and get over the heebie jeebies the entire place emits, then you should definitely try out The Pen Cafe and experience a bit of B.C. history up close.
On a side note, Sapperton Days are this weekend, another area of New West that is rich in history. John and I attended last year and that’s where I first met Fin *sigh*. More details about the weekend-long neighbourhood festival are available at ShopSapperton.com.
I think we should have invited her to drunkcamp01…
My boss sent me an IM on Skype the other day talking about how fun it would be to work with the following people – and I wholeheartedly have to agree. I mean my office is pretty fun, very relaxed, but this is just hilarious.
So thinking about what my office could do, if we had maybe 20 more people and were so bold, John suggested the Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby [Audihertz]. This would be particularly fun since our realtime payment management suite is built using Ruby on Rails. Somehow though, I find it highly unlikely that my office would put together something like this, now Bryght on the other hand, I can see. That, and I think we all might get a kick of out “karaoke Boris”.
Speaking of offices and work, I’ve been at my new job just over a month now and I think it’s going pretty well. I’m not excruciatingly bored and they’re not tired of me yet so that’s a good sign. I’ve been tinkering so much with WordPress that I’m going to start applying some of my new tricks to Miss604.com and see where that gets me. I’ve had this current theme for almost a year and I might just spruce it up a little. I really enjoy the minimalist look and feel and I think I can probably make this here site a little more fancy by way of a couple plugins. It’s really great that John is expanding his knowledge, in the realm of WP and Drupal, as well.
Although my blogging has slowed down a little recently I think it’s the “Facebook Syndrome” as Corinna [GusGreeper.com] pointed out to us the other day. Ever since Facebook came on the scene traffic’s been a little slow in blog-ville. I think the two can play together very nicely and I haven’t even begun to lose faith. All of these tools are just that, tools to help grow social networks and it’s all about cross-promotion. Now, it’s back to the land of WordPress for me and I must admit, I’m growing more and more envious of Dave’s shirt (above) with every passing day.
Duane and John picked me up from work on Friday afternoon then we all headed East on HWY 1 and didn’t stop until we saw Cottonwood Mall. No, we weren’t camping out in the Wal-Mart parking lot, we just needed to get some provisions. We bought two sleeping bags, tarps, rope, a tent, chairs and stocked up on food for the weekend. By the time we got to the campsite we realized by looking at our wallets that we could have just flown down to Vegas for the weekend for the same amount we just spent.
Friday night was overcast but the rain held off. My sister and her kids were camping at the same grounds and their site was only about 200 meters away. The kids would come running up to our site, completely over stimulated by being out of the city, in the woods, near a lake and well, full of marshmallows. We had some good times, played some badminton, kicked around lots of dirt and scoured the paths nearby for the biggest juiciest slugs.
Saturday morning Jen and the kids packed up and headed home, while we got a visit from Duane’s dad and his wife who brought us morning coffees and a new tarp. The tarp we originally setup over our eating area was less than ideal and upon first glance Duane’s dad said something along the lines of, “So I brought you a new 20′ tarp to replace this one, what is this a 2 x 2?”. He then proceeded to string it up from the trees spanning across our entire site – it was the best tarp-job ever and we agreed that next time all we need to do is pack a “dad” and we’ll be okay.
Later on that day Duane’s mom and grandma stopped by – their hometown of Chilliwack is only a few minutes away from the lake. He and his mom have such good-humoured relationship and the same dynamic spans all generations in his family. His grandma is hilarious and would really like to see Duane with a nice girl so ladies… head over to www.duanestory.com to find out more.
For lunch I made the boys some sandwiches, which John immediately tossed on the fire to toast. Best. Idea. Ever. Campfire toasted ham and cheese bunwiches mmmm, we’re so going to have to do those again. A short while later we were joined by Duane’s sister and her family. His niece and nephew experienced the same joys mine did just the day before. With their uncle Duane to take them down to the lake they were in heaven – exploring, climbing and of course giving us all heart attacks when they got too close to the drop off to the lake or the crackling fire. His family really was hospitable, although I think they were just worried about us being out in the rain. We were then brought dinner and treated to more dry firewood before saying goodnight.
John and I went for a walk that evening and decided it was time to jump in the lake – at this point we were so dirty and full of campfire smell it was for fun and our own wellbeing, really. We grabbed Duane and walked down a neck-breakingly steep path to a private stretch of beach below our campsite. Jumping in was easy, trying to regain feeling in your frozen limbs was tough. Being the troopers that we are, we stayed in for quite a while and enjoyed the scenic mountain views from across the calm and foggy lake. Climbing back up the path was a challenge, but having done it a few time already during the trip we knew just what root systems to grasp to pull ourselves up and which rocks were steady enough to be used as footholds.
The final night around the campfire was dry, the skies let up for a bit and allowed us to relax and enjoy drunken campfire ramblings. It was a great time but we’re glad to be back home and showered – I tell gotta tell ya, you probably didn’t want to share the car ride home with the three of us being dirty, stinky, and campfirey. There will be another trip as after purchasing all this gear we decided that we are now committed to at least another camping expedition this summer. Big thanks to Duane’s family for stopping by, to Duane for driving and initiating this little trip, and to John for not harming himself with the hatchet while chopping wood (we haven’t got him a Care Card yet). Here’s to another drunkcamp and remember, what happens at drunkcamp stays at drunkcamp.
*A few of my pics are up on Flickr in the drunkcamp set, and I’m certain official photographs of the weekend will soon be up on Duane’s Flickr as well.
For a while now I’ve been adding to my “Cheap Fun” and “Cheap Things to Do” blog post categories. Cultural festivals, ice skating, swimming, and taking advantage of the hundreds of parks in the Lower Mainland are just a few off the top of my head. I’ll try and add more items to this as the summer progresses and I have to give big thanks to DaveO [Uncleweed][HockeyNW] for his contributions to the list.
Part 1 of this guide was mostly about events happening on specific dates, things to mark on your calendar and be sure not to miss. Part 2 is for those ongoing activities, some of which you can take part in year-round.
UBC Museum of Anthropology
Although this usually costs about $9 for adults, they do have a FREE night Tuesdays from 5:00pm to 9:00pm. “The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is world-renowned for its collections, research, teaching, public programs, and community connections. It is also acclaimed for its spectacular architecture and unique setting on the cliffs of Point Grey.” [MOA] (Listen to our archive podcast including audio from the Museum on RadioZoom / Read about Cheapie Tuesdays on Metblogs)
UBC Pacific Museum of the Earth
I really didn’t know this existed so this is definitely thanks to Dave – and it’s completely FREE. “The Pacific Museum of the Earth is the result of the amalgamation of two pre-existing Museums: The M.Y. Williams Geological Museum and the Pacific Mineral Museum.” [PME]
Fort Langley
[FortLangley.com] The village itself is full of unique shops, antiques and diners but then there’s the actual Fort, which is a National Historic Site with interpretive center , as well as various other attractions in the area like Aldor Acres and the Fort Wine Co. Follow Hwy 1, just East of Surrey – about 45 minutes from downtown. (Listen to our archive podcast soundseeing from the fair on RadioZoom / Read my blog post about the Fort Wine Co’s “Very Berry Fair” last year on Metblogs)
Ambleside Park
West Vancouver’s seawall with sandy beaches, walkways, golf and it’s transit accessible. [WestVancouver.com]
Steveston Village
The Southern portion of Richmond, just minutes from downtown. Village, museum and seaside views, check their website for events throughout the summer. [StevestonVillage]
Bowen Island
Day trip on ferry from Horseshoe Bay – parks, village, artisans, food, brewery and much more. [BowenOnline]
Canucks Equipment Sale
Saturday June 23rd, 11:00am to 3:00pm [Canucks.com]
Vancouver Canadians Baseball
Vancouver’s own professional baseball team playing at the historic and incomparable Nat Bailey Stadium. Tickets start at only $7! Home opener June 19th [CanadiansBaseball.com] (See last year’s post about a game we attended)
I also have an ongoing list of posts pertaining to Summer events and good eats at the top of my sidebar. Stay tuned for Pt. 3 where we’ll cover festivals, lots and lots of festivals.
