White Rock and Vancouver

Saying farewell to NY, we flew out of La Guardia and into Vancouver.  Well, if the airport was anything to go by, this was going to be a gorgeous place.  Beautiful wood carvings greeted us in the terminal, there was even an internal waterfall.

James and Arlene, our friends from White Rock, British Columbia met us with a

surprise… they took us to an amazing B & B near them called ‘Dancing Firs‘. We were greeted by Mary, the owner, and her little Yorkshire Terrier Malee who sported a little red jacket.  The B & B was really a little apartment/unit, fully equipped and with all the creature comforts as well as set up for optimal good health and sustainability.  It was absolutely divine and beautiful…just see some of the pics. The place overlooked the sea and was a short walk through the forest, down to the water’s edge.  Mary arrived each morning with a sensational and healthy breakfast….apple pancakes,  french toast, lovely fruit platters….great and delicious fuel for the day ahead.  If you go to BC, you GOTTA go here! http://www.dancingfirswellness.com

James is an affiliate marketer (www.jamesmartel.com) and Arlene is involved in the business too and has an excellent site, www.epilepsymoms.com.  We had dinner with the Martell family of 6 and what a gorgeous family they are.  We had a great night playing Wii Rock Band (Ed loved the drums but found it very different to being behind his kit!) and plenty of sports games as well.

Our hosts generously showed us around their town and lent us their car (with Sasha and Lois reminding Ed to stay in the right lane!).  We had a great time exploring Granville island, driving up the east coast from White Rock.

With James and Arlene we went to Stanley Park and saw black squirrels.  (Squirrels have featured heavily on this trip!)  A particularly friendly and chubby one seemed to enjoy stopping and getting his photo taken by us.  We were enjoying teasing James and Arlene as despite their assurances that racoons were around, both the B&B and their house, and everywhere else…we hadn’t seen a whisker!   But our time came in the park, when a family of racoons decided to make an appearance and we saw just how cute and cheeky these lil’ critters can be!  Stanley Park was gorgeous with the fall leaves, it even had a marine exhibit within the park and we were able to watch the a beluga whales swimming around with her calf.

Capilano Suspension Bridge was another highlight.  It was very wibbly wobbly on the bridge, great views of water, waterfalls and the forest.  Once across the bridge there was a series of structures that allowed you to walk elevated amongst the trees, like lots of interconnected treehouses. Just brilliant. They had put up Christmas lights and it looked really pretty.  Later, we had dinner in Gastown.

We explored White Rock foreshore on foot..which funnily enough, does have a

White Rock!  and we went for a walk along the jetty and marvelled at the rocks perching on top of each other at the shore.  What a great place.

James and Arlene took us out to Fort Langley, “the birthplace of BC” and we had a lovely time sauntering around the village. Great shops.  Sasha was delighted to see that it was the site for filming ‘Snow Buddies” (a kids film about dogs) and they even had the town hall and ‘bank’ set up for filming.  We had our eyes peeled for Golden Retrievers, but they must have been in their trailers h

aving a rest.

A dinner party at Dancing Firs’ owner, Mary’s house (on the property) was fun with a lovely group of people and great cooking from Mary, including her “to die for” trifle. Yum.

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Heartfelt thanks to James, Arlene and family and Mary for making our stay so

much fun.  You are all ‘great folks’ ! xxx

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