My husband has become an obsessive golfer, but the kids and I still love to ski and snowboard. With these irreconcilable differences, how can we have a successful winter family vacation?
Fortunately, we can head to the Comox Valley, about three hours north of Victoria on Vancouver Island. There, thanks to two starkly different climate zones in one geographic location, he can hit the green fairways of some top-notch golf courses and we can frolic in the snow -- all on the same winter's day.
January 19, 2006
VICTORIA, B.C. -- We glide past a great blue heron, which stands regally motionless on a tidal rock less than 10 feet away. A few moments later a harbor seal pops his head up and studies us with great, brown, limpid eyes. Meanwhile, cormorants call overheard as they struggle to take flight.
It's hard to believe we are just off downtown Victoria. But a few hundred yards from the city's Inner Harbour, the pleasures that come from a near-wilderness experience abound -- if you are in an ocean kayak.
March 24, 2005
SUMMERLAND, B.C. -- We are 11 reasonably attractive women, but now after a morning of mountain biking in the hot summer sun, we look like hell.
Sweat-caked dust covers our skin in a gritty film, leaving blackened streaks in the bends of our elbows and knees. Helmets and heat have rendered our hair into flattened masses on our heads. We are hot, sweaty and thirsty.
July 8, 2004
Short Trips
I am standing before a menu board listing more than 50 types of tea and desserts, but some of them, to my mind, look a bit scary: rei-pei with white jelly fungus, lotus seed with red bean in coconut milk, chrysanthemum tea with pearl.
No sign of my usual safe choice -- Earl Grey with a splash of milk. But I won't fully experience the vibrant Asian community of Richmond, B.C., a Vancouver suburb, if I am not a bit adventurous.
March 18, 2004
It's no surprise that people of means can enjoy a fabulous ski holiday. But what if you are on a limited budget, someone who loves skiing or snowboarding but lacks the cash flow to go with the obsession?
That was my dilemma recently when my sister (a doctor) suggested we have a family reunion at Silver Star Mountain Resort near Vernon in the British Columbia interior, about five hours northeast of Vancouver.
January 22, 2004
BARKLEY SOUND, B.C. The water was calm and the group quiet as we paddled our kayaks across emerald waters along a rocky shoreline. "Look, 11 o'clock off your bow! A bald eagle in that tree," someone noted.
"Oh, eagle schmeagle," we joked. We'd already seen more than a dozen that morning alone.
Welcome to the Broken Group Islands in Barkley Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island, where wildlife is so abundant that sightings become commonplace.
July 3, 2003
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