Wine group on the road

Over the course of living in Saskatoon, we have become part of a great group of friends who take pleasure in wine tasting. That’s a fancy way of saying a group of us gets together a few times a year to enjoy wine, usually with food, sometimes on someone’s patio and sometimes in a favourite wine store in Saskatoon. We open a few bottles, then a few more, and the laughs begin to flow. Over the pandemic, we turned our group virtual for a spell and those zoom wine tasting nights felt like nights out and kept us going until things returned to normal. In those zoom wine tastings, we talked a lot about wine travel and as a group have now attended the international wine festival in Vancouver on two occasions including last year.

For this most recent wine trip, my wife and I headed to Vancouver a day before our group activities started for a bit of “us” time. On a cold, rainy night, we tucked into the cozy Chickadee Room cocktail bar for a couple of happy hour drinks and the free gluten free fried chicken that comes along with your order. This was a great first stop – excellent cocktails, tender juicy chicken all in a retro vibes bar that warmed us up.

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Murals of Mount Pleasant

Among my favourite neighbourhoods in my favourite cities, Mount Pleasant in Vancouver stands out. On just about every trip, I will spend at least part of a day hanging out at one or more of the excellent craft breweries (Brassneck, 33 Acres, Faculty Brewing, Main Street Brewing, Electric Bicycle) and combining that with some exploring of the murals that decorate the buildings and alleyways up and down the hill.

On my most recent trip, armed with the excellent Vancouver Mural Fest map, I dug deeper into this neighbourhood’s art than I had previously and came away with some new favourite murals….

"Intersect" by Cara Guri; Mural in Mount Pleasant neighbourhood; Vancouver BC
“Intersect” by Cara Guri
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A neighbourhood approach

Across a few trips to Vancouver last summer and fall I sampled the bounty that is that city’s craft beer scene. Vancouver is a favourite city of mine for a number of reasons – the direct flight from where I live, the ability to see mountains and water in the same place, the varied food scene, and definitely the abundance of craft beer.

Using a neighbourhood approach to exploration, I got one day kicked off in West Van at the earliest to open patio at Parallel 49. I created a tasting flight of a selection of hazy IPAs from that brewery and also from a couple of guest taps they had of Superflux. Luckily I was doing this neighbourhood tour by public transit and by foot, because these were all potent (and delicious!).

Parallel 49 Brewing Company
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The tradition continues, kind of…

One of my favourite travel traditions is taking an annual self-indulgent, solo trip to satisfy my inner baseball nerd. Over the years, that now has me sitting at visiting 16 of the 30 major league ballparks with my brain constantly working on the logistics to tick off the final 14. The pandemic years put a halt to my progress that I’m glad is changing this year as I have plans to visit Detroit and Cleveland later this summer.

Last summer, looking to scratch the itch of live baseball, I decided to take the relatively short trip to Vancouver for a few nights of minor league baseball. The Vancouver Canadians, an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, play out of the cozy and idyllic Nat Bailey Stadium. For the low cost of $25 you can have the best seat in the house behind home plate. A beautiful Vancouver summer evening, cold local craft beers and the crack of the bat….. couldn’t be better!

Vancouver Canadians game
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Tofino in three beaches

There was lots to love about Tofino – the food and the whale sightings being prime examples – but what sticks with me most almost a year later is the time wandering along three beaches over my stay. After seven years living in the middle of the country, any time I can be near salt water feels a little more special than when I took it for granted when I lived in Halifax. So while I will always carry with me great memories from Tofino, the story of Tofino, and what will draw be back again is really the story of visiting these three beaches

Tonquin Beach

I hiked here early in the morning from our glamping pod right on the harbour. I picked this beach for its ease of access and location and it ended up being more special to me than I would have ever expected. The beach even came with this arrival preview during a short walk through the woods which pulled me to the water immediately.

Tonquin Beach
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Dreams of Tofino

For a very long time I had made up my mind that I would fall in love with Tofino when I was finally able to visit. That really isn’t much of a stretch as I have always been partial to west coast locations with their beaches and wonderful sea air. When we planned out our Vancouver Island trip last summer there was no doubt that a significant portion of it would be based out of Tofino. While the warm up acts of a few days in Victoria and spending some time at a cottage on the east coast of the island were splendid, I was giddy when we pointed our car toward the west coast and Tofino.

On our way there we made a few stops to break up the drive. First up was MacMillan Provincial Park and Cathedral Grove. Finding a parking spot in the tight highway lot was a bit of a chore, but after that was sorted out, our hike through the forest was perfectly serene.

MacMillan Provincial Park
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Some needed time beside the water

A bit of a warning… You’re going to see a lot of beach photos coming up below.

By the summer 2022 portion of the pandemic, my Atlantic Canadian soul needed to spend some significant time sitting beside a fairly substantial body of water. With that in mind, we planned out our Vancouver Island explorations with a few days at a cottage overlooking the Strait of Georgia. Immediately on driving up to the place I could feel my pulse slowing down. My wife and I glanced at each other and with no words passing between us we both knew we had made a perfect decision on location.

As the sun set on our first night in Qualicum Bay we walked the beach with the tide starting to go out. This was a walk we would do a number of times.

Qualicum Bay, BC
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Gone to the birds

My wife and I over our years of traveling together maintain a friendly, slightly tongue in cheek banter about one aspect of our travel plans for every trip. When we’ve settled on a location, her internet sleuthing very quickly goes to searching out zoos, aquariums and other animal-related adventures we could get up to. Somewhere on our life journey together I issued an edict…. only one zoo per year. Don’t get me wrong… I love animals. An occasional zoo, especially a renowned one like in San Diego, say…. I’m all in. But given the choice of spending part of a day looking at animals or wandering a new locale, I’m going to opt for the latter 99 times out of 100.

When we were making plans for our time on Vancouver Island my wife found a wildlife sanctuary focused on birds of prey that was serendipitously located just off the highway on our way to a cottage as we travelled to Qualicum Bay. As she dug further into it she discovered that not only could we walk around and look at hawks and owls and such, but we could also get up close experiences with a variety of raptors. I’ll admit, that sounded pretty cool. So my 2022 “zoo” was going to be something called “The Raptors” just outside Duncan, BC.

The Raptors, Duncan BC
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Back to a coast

Our summer west coast adventure around Vancouver Island kicked off with a few days in Victoria. On account of the pandemic and a less frequent travel schedule, we both were looking forward to some time on the coast. This was my second and my wife’s first visit to this beautiful city. We had incredible luck with weather in what can be a very damp, grey and dreary climate. Our stay came during an extended heat wave and perfectly blue skies, perfect for exploring Victoria on foot. What’s a trip to Victoria without a walk around the inner harbour and a stop to gaze upon the Fairmont Empress?

Fairmont Empress hotel in Victoria, BC
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