Capilano Suspension Canyon Frights

 

Capilano Suspension Bridge Park has been taken over by skeletons for their annual Canyon Frights! The iconic bridge was looking extra scary in the morning fog. On either side of the bridge, there are loads of pumpkins and Halloween decorations. 

I happened to have picked the morning of Vancouver's first fall rain and wind storm, so I was up against the elements too. Not one to let the rain deter me, I pressed on and made the most of my time at Capilano Suspension Bridge. I always go to the park's opening because I get to have the bridge all to myself. There is no other way to do it!

Michelin Guide Vancouver Restaurants Announced

Kissa Tanto - 1 Michelin Star

After months of careful delegation by a team of anonymous Michelin Guide inspectors, eight Vancouver restaurants have been awarded 1 Michelin Star each. In addition to the eight Michelin Stars, 12 restaurants were given the Bib Gourmand and a list of recommended restaurants in Vancouver was also released. Really is about time that Michelin Guide came to Canada, so it is a big deal that Vancouver has received its very first ever Michelin Stars. 

A few of my predictions matched Michelin Guide, so you could say I am pretty much now qualified to join the elite individuals tasked with selecting which restaurant deserves a Michelin star. My personal favourite is Kissa Tanto which is now officially a 1 Michelin Star restaurant! If The Four Seasons Vancouver had not closed, I strongly believe The Yew would have been a strong contender for a Michelin Star. 

Pumpkins after Dark Burnaby Walk Through Experience

Pumpkins After Dark is new to Vancouver, so I was unsure what to expect. I have always appreciated the talent and creativity of professional pumpkin carvers, but Pumpkins After Dark took it a step further by creating massive lifesize displays out of pumpkins. I ended up spending two hours there and it is well worth the price for those looking for outdoor Halloween activities. 

You enter from Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, but the majority of what is to come is hidden from sight in the adjoining forest. I am not one to buy event merchandise, but I could not help myself when I saw the light accessory tent. The light-up Jack-O-Lantern necklace was $10 and in my opinion my impulse purchase was well worth the price! Little did I know I was about to get my mind blown by the lit up real carved pumpkins. 

Birthday Wishlist Fall 2022

October is my birthday month and with the big day a few weeks away, I have been thinking what would I want as a birthday present? With each passing year, there is less and less that I want as I already have so much, but I am not about to turn down a birthday present!

I want cake! A chocolate chiffon cake enveloped in roasted strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream from The Federal Store. For candles, the long skinny Meri Meri ones. A wonderful flower arrangement from Garden Party Flowers in peachy pink and white tones. Hopefully, they have my favourite avalanche white roses, wax flowers, lisianthus, and dahlias! Finally, I want to share blow out the candles and share my birthday cake with my wonderful friends. 

Cake, flowers and friends are what I want every year as a present and truth be told I am happy with just that! Now if people insist on getting me something more for my birthday, there are a couple of things I would be thrilled to receive. 

Do NOT get me a Gift Card

I hate gift cards because I am a gift card hoarder. I have amassed a diverse collection of gift cards from so many stores and restaurants, some probably go back several years. I do not know what is wrong with me and why I cannot bring myself to use them. 

Pumpkin Carving Inspiration from 2021 Designs

I am excited to carve the pumpkins, but I am holding off until closer to Hallowe'en as it is abnormally warm in Vancouver. I do not want my beautiful creations to turn soft and mouldy prematurely before the big night. 

I found some pictures of the pumpkins I carved last year. I also stumbled across pictures from Krause Berry Farms. They had a professional pumpkin carver working on site. The pumpkins he carved were expressive and I loved how he used fun shaped gourds and ears of corn for the noses! I also love when they use the stem of the pumpkin for the nose too! The carvers use a variety of tools like graters, wood and clay carving tools, and massive knives.

Ned Fulmer Fired from The Try Guys for Cheating is October's Biggest Internet Scandal

Blogtober feels incomplete if I did not address the most shocking scandal on the internet. The Try Guys have fired Ned Fulmer from the company because he and Alexandria Herring from The Food Babies, could not keep their hands off of one another. The internet has been left bewildered and confused because Ned Fulmer was the "My Wife" guy!

The internet scandal has caught the attention of major news outlets like CNN and even A-list celebrities like Seth Rogen who tweeted "what is a Try Guy?" 

Most millennials my age are familiar with the Try Guys and have watched the group get into hilarious situations for years! I even went to the Try Guys live show back in October 2019! The Try Guys were comprised of four individuals: Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfeld, Eugene Lee Yang and Ned Fulmer. The Try Guys have always been wholesome and the last people to ever find themselves at the center of a scandal. 

They made their debut on Youtube back in 2014 under Buzzfeed and made videos of them trying random activities as a group which often resulted in comical outcomes. In 2019, the four of them left Buzzfeed and together formed their independent production company, 2nd Try LLC. 

Laity Pumpkin Patch Maple Ridge has a Pumpkin Cannon

This year I challenged myself to go beyond my favourites and visit new pumpkin patches in the Lower Mainland. Laity Pumpkin Patch is in the mountains of Maple Ridge and is so massive that they have two farms across the street from one another - North and South! I went to Laity Pumpkin Patch South. 

The primary reason I made the drive out to Maple Ridge was to see Laity's Pumpkin Cannon in action. The massive air compressor launches a fresh pumpkin at a stacked pyramid of blue barrels. Watching a pumpkin being launched at high velocity and its guts exploding on impact was awesome. Laity Pumpkin Canon launches every hour and everyone near and far on the property hurries over to watch the pumpkin go boom. 

The Eastside Flea: Vancouver's Hipster Community Market

The Eastside Flea is a great community market on the edge of Vancouver's Chinatown. Being my first time visiting, I did not know what to expect. The space was buzzing with energy and laughter because everyone was having a fabulous time. The Eastside Flea has over 40+ vendors, many being vintage and antique sellers. Entry into the market is $4 a person and also gains you access to the cocktail bar. 

The crowd at The Eastside Flea definitely draws a huge hipster crowd with its welcoming and carefree atmosphere. A couple of food trucks keep the masses fed and hydrated. There are brightly painted picnic benches and Muskoka chairs to hang out on. The weather was spectacular on Sunday, so everyone was soaking up the warm fall sunshine. Crack On, Ay! Mamacita, Aperitivo and Disco Biscuits were on site on Sunday and it is constantly changing. 

Family Style Italian at Savio Volpe

I cannot count the number of times I have dined at Savio Volpe and there might already be a blogpost on one of my many pasta-filled dinners there! The menu is continuously updated to incorporate fresh and seasonal ingredients. 

My favourite "Per La Tavola" aka For The Table is Savio Volpe's buttery Garlic Knots which come hot from the oven dusted in pecorino romano and black pepper. Always add the hot marinara sauce! These remind me of my time in Los Angeles when I dined at C&O Trattoria which not only serves platters of garlic rolls to all guests but also has singing waiters! 

Scarecrow Fest at Art's Nursery

The Fraser Valley is filled with pumpkin patches and it is about time someone introduced something new to the Hallowe'en festivities. Art's Nursery has done just that with its Scarecrow Fest! The best part, the Scarecrow Fest is completely FREE at Art's Nursery. Let me reiterate, Scarecrow Fest is FREE and is a wonderful activity for young families and adults. 

The flower and plant nursery is spread out over a massive plot of land and you can tell a great deal of love and care has gone into setting up the property. There are beautiful garden sculptures, fountains, various flowers, fruit trees and basically every plant you could want. For the month of October, scarecrows in every inch of the nursery. These scarecrows are recognizable Hollywood and television characters we have grown up watching and loving particularly from Hallowe'en movies.

Oktober Fest at Braidwood Tavern - Four Seasons Whistler Resort

 

When in Whistler, you dine at the Braidwood Tavern the restaurant situated inside the Four Seasons Whistler Resort! Now until October 16th is the Oktober Fest menu and it is everything German beer, meat and potatoes. The team at Bradwood Tavern makes everything from scratch in-house with a modern take. 

To start we did the Charcuterie Board, but I would argue it is more of a tower. A three-tiered wooden tower arrived laden with dry cured meats, salami, cold cuts and various accompaniments. Two large Bavarian pretzels still warm from the oven topped the tower. There were two types of grainy mustard to enjoy the pretzels with. To balance the salt from the meats, there were pearl onions, caperberries and those tiny little pickles I love called cornichons. 

Train Wreck Hike Whistler

South of Whistler adjacent to the 2010 Olympic Athlete's Village is the unconventional trail - Train Wreck. The short trail takes you directly to the resting place of 7 train cars in the 1956 train derailment and crash. 

The trail is easy to access from the Sea to Sky Highway and is worth the stop when heading to or from Whistler. It is a casual 15-minute stroll to the suspension bridge which helps you traverse the roaring Cheakakmus River to the brightly painted box cars. Cheakakmus River is aggressive white water crashing up against the stones, so you do not want to fall in. 

Fairmont Banff Springs Breakfast at the Vermillion Room

No vacation is complete without a fancy brunch and when in Banff, you head to the Vermillion Room Bar & Brasserie inside the Fairmont Banff Springs - I will be discussing the hotel property in detail in a different blog post! I have stunning pictures of the property to share, but the pictures I took during breakfast are horrid and I regret not being able to retake them. 

The Vermillion Room is almost like a well-kept secret as it is located at the back of the hotel on the second floor. Guests not staying with the Fairmont Banff Springs tend to not venture past the grand entrance, but I encourage you to head up the massive stairwell and across the second floor as you will be rewarded by the expansive dining hall of the Vermillion Room. Though the Vermillion Room itself is impressive, the unobstructed view of the famed Canadian Rockies Mountainscape is the real reason to brunch here. 

The Final Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Harry Potter in Concert

The era of Harry Potter at the Orpheum Theatre has come to an end with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) wrapping up their final shows of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I think most 90s kids would agree that Harry Potter was our childhood. We grew up with the books and the movie franchise so having the opportunity to relive the magic was a magical treat. 

The movie is the darkest of the franchise, opening with the burial of Dobbie the free elf and the wizarding world plunging further into despair as the dark lord continues instill terror into the magical community. The Orpheum Theatre was sold-out, packed to the ceiling with excited Potter Heads. I have great admiration for the work and effort that goes into dressing up as your favourite character. Since it was the final movie, I thought I would channel my inner Hermione Granger by wearing my official Harry Potter Gryffindor Sweater from Universal Hollywood. 

Five Acres Flower Farm Workshops

 

The Fraser Valley is home to many farms, one of which is a small-scale family-run flower farm. The micro-farm is tucked behind Amanda McAllister's family home and every summer, she invites flower enthusiasts to join her for flower workshops. This is my second year attending the Flower Experience at Five Acres Farm and it is safe to say that this is now an annual end-of-summer/fall tradition for me. 

The farm specializes in dahlia varieties. There are rows and rows of dahlias, from small round heads to large dinner plate varieties. So many shades of pinks and oranges! Aside from dahlias, Amanda grows other cut flowers too like cosmos, zinnias, lisianthus, sweet peas, and snapdragons. She is currently working on establishing a field of peonies. I did not know it can take nearly three years for a peony plant to establish its roots which are vital for healthy large peony blooms. Next year might finally be the year that the peonies will be ready! 

Blogtober 2022

October is my favourite month. Granted I am biased considering I am an October baby, but you cannot deny October is the epitome of fall. The pumpkin patches are open, there is pumpkin spice everything and the weather is perfect for cozy oversized knits. The leaves are changing colour, so everything is warm shades of orange, reds and yellows. 

On numerous occasions I have challenged myself to do a month of blogposts and every time that I say I will, I fail spectacularly. Blogging is tough! Carving out time to write write interesting blogposts and editing pictures is not easy. I need to be in a certain headspace to write, so I cannot be exhausted from work or drained from the pain of a migraine.