This story category covers information of interest to Canadian readers, particularly those living in Vancouver.
THE PRICE IS RIGHT | As someone who is at this very moment staring at a mile-high years-in-the-making pile of magazines that needs to be schlepped to the dump, I look forward to switching from print publications to digital ones. Read more
TRAVEL ADVISORY | The province of British Columbia is peppered with posh resorts, and developers keep adding new ones all the time thinking that designer surroundings, celebrity-chef restaurants, spa treatments and 600-thread-count sheets are what make a vacation unique. That is one approach for sure, but it’s not our preference. We like a little less Napa and a little more Mayberry when it comes to summer retreats, which is why we love Cusheon Lake Resort on Salt Spring Island, a perfect example of the latter.
TRAVEL ADVISORY | I never went to a dude ranch as a kid, but my husband did. He and his brother spent a week as buckaroos at The Flying U guest ranch in B.C.’s Cariboo. It was their favourite childhood holiday. “Better ’n Disneyland” is how they described the experience to their friends when they got home, and the way they continued to speak of it years later. Read more
SUPER VALUE | There’s no way my snaps will ever match the cinematographic style of Jeff Wall, Rodney Graham (featured above) or Ian Wallace, three stellar members of the internationally acclaimed “Vancouver School” of photography, but recently I learned how to get a better than average shot with my compact digital camera. For the surprisingly low price of just $25, I received two hours of solid instruction in alternatives to Automatic Mode, the most commonly used setting (and my former personal fave) on the mode dial of digital cameras. Read more
TRAVEL ADVISORY | I flew across Canada the other day. It took a total of 30 minutes to travel from coast to coast. For $20 dollars I dipped, dove and soared in an aerial dance that began in Newfoundland’s surreal Iceberg Alley and ended in the Northwest Territories, where glowing, auroral streamers swirled in the northern light. Along the way, I flew into the misty middle of Niagara Falls, over the top of the astounding cirque glaciers found along ridge crests in the Rockies, and through a procession of other breathtaking Canadian landscapes. Read more
CHEAP & FANTASTIC | Eyebrows can be tweezed, waxed or threaded. Of these three techniques, I prefer threading, and not just because I pay $5 to have them done this way. Threading is quicker than tweezing (typically taking fewer than 10 minutes), less painful overall than waxing and, to my mind, results in a crisper, more finished look than either of the other methods. Read more
FREE IS GOOD | While both Indigo.ca and Amazon.ca offer free shipping on the books you purchase through their companies when you spend a minimum $25, the same is not true for used books they list that are offered by third party sellers. These books always come with an added shipping cost, making what might look like a steal of a deal anything but once these extra charges are tacked on. Read more
TRAVEL ADVISORY | West Vancouver is hardly Amalfi, but like this picturesque stretch of Mediterranean waterfront in Italy, it does have interesting houses terraced into the rocky coastline, some with cascading, tropical gardens of Babylonian intent. And when the days are sunny and calm like they they will be shortly, we like to rent a (reasonably priced) runabout from Sewell’s Marina in Horseshoe Bay and treat our out-of-town guests to a tour of this gorgeous shoreline in one of Canada’s poshest postal codes. Read more
EASY LIKE THIS | How many times have you tried to order something online only to discover that the company you’re ordering it from doesn’t ship to Canada? In the past, I found a way around this problem by having parcels shipped to Blaine, Washington, and then traipsing over the border to pick them up (CLICK HERE for our story). Now I have an even more expedient way to retrieve them. Read more
TRAVEL ADVISORY | While the market for revolving restaurants is hot in the Middle East and Asia, no one is making new ones in North America, and the multitude of revolving restaurants here, most of which were built in the 1960s and 1970s, are shutting down.
What was once the chicest place in town to take your sweetie to eat is now—at least in North America—considered a tourist destination or the spot to dine with old aunties in taste-bud decline.
Too bad about these closures because revolving restaurants offer an unrepeatable experience, a one-of-a-kind way to see a city. In Vancouver we remain lucky: we still have three revolvers open for business. Read more