Each year at the end of January, a whole bunch of restaurants participate in Dine Out Vancouver - a  2 week foodie extravaganza. Each restaurant comes up with a 3-course menu and sells it at $18, $28 or $38. Reservations go very quickly at the most exclusive restaurants but there always seem to be plenty of tables at medium to higher-end restaurants that normally the average person wouldn’t go to because it is on the expensive side.

We’re not going to take advantage of it this year due to having to pretend we are paupers in an effort to save for our upcoming house-purchase (when we will be paupers). But it has been very difficult to resist, especially as there are a few restaurants participating that I have wanted to try out for ages, such as Bacchus, C, Diva at the Met, Joe Fortes, La Terrazza, Raincity Grill and the William Tell Restaurant.

Ah! I’m salivating now. There’s always next year, right? Right?

The snow has finally gone in downtown Vancouver, although it still persists on residential sidewalks over higher ground where it has frozen solid, making pedestrians’ lives difficult. The weather was warming up, we were forecast clear sunny days all week but instead we have been subjected to a few days worth of lingering low-lying fog which is unlike I’ve ever seen in the city. I feel like I”ve been transported to San Francisco but somebody forgot to turn the heat up. It gives the city a special sort of mystic atmosphere but it feels really cold and damp!

We were in North Vancouver on Saturday and it was gorgeous and sunny there as it is well above sea level, but you couldn’t see downtown at all over the other side of the water. It was amazing how different the weather was just a few kilometres away. Apparently it got up to a balmy 12 degrees on top of the mountains.

Alas, I don’t have any of my own photographs to share so I am sharing somebody else’s - most of these are from this flickr website.

This year the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship was played in Ottawa and I got to watch plenty of the games on television. The level of hockey played was surprisingly good and although no fighting is allowed in the Juniors, there was plenty of raw emotion, competitiveness and aggression from all sides. Canada went undefeated throughout the entire tournament, posting wins over the Czech Republic (8-1). Khazakstan (15-0), Germany (5-1), The US (7-4), Russia (5-4 OT/SO) and Sweden (5-1) by a combined score of 45-11, the games against bitter rivals US and Russia being the most electrifying and exciting hockey I have seen outside of a Stanley Cup playoff match.

We thought it couldn’t get much better after the intensity of the matchup between Canada and the US, where Canada rallied back from a 3-0 deficit early in the first period to tie it before the period was over and then dominate from then on, but the Canada-Russia semi-final game was a pure nail-biter from start to finish; each time Canada scored the Russians scored one back straight away until late in the third period the Russians scored their first go-ahead goal with only a couple of minutes remaining. The situation looked futile right up until the point when Jordan Eberle scored with just 5.4 seconds to go in the game. The team and crowd went absollutely nuts, and that was enough to spur the team on through the overtime period and they eventually won in a shoot-out, with Eberle getting the shootout winner.

The best part of it all, though, was the fact that Cody Hodgson quietly went about his business of being the best player on the ice in all situations and ended up being the leading scorer in the whole tournament with 16 points. John Tavares got all the fanfare and the tournament MVP award for all his goal scoring prowess, but Hodgson got the nod from many analysts of the game, including TSN’s Bob McKenzie.

I am so incredibly happy that Mike Gillis drafted Cody last year and I can’t wait to see him on ice in a Canucks jersey, hopefully as early as next season., because he’s way too good for another year playing in Junior and he’s not yet old enough to play in the AHL. I haven’t ever been as excited about a player’s development - he’s the first player I’d consider blowing $225 on a named jersey for!

This year for Christmas we endured an extremely hairy drive through the snow and ice in a very ill-equipped hire car (no 4-wheel drive, no snow tires, no snow chains) up Highway 99 to Brackendale, just north of Squamish. We had booked into our favourite B&B in the area - Meadowbrook Bed and Breakfast - for 4 nights and were determined to celebrate in style.

We first visited Brackendale last January for Monkey’s birthday and really fell in love with it. It is a small residential community but with all the conveniences of a big town because it is just next to Squamish with all its shops and services, and it is only an hour to Vancouver if you need to go to the city or an hour to Whistler if you need to go world-class skiing. Four of its best qualities are:

1) Spectacular mountain scenery;

2) Proximity to great areas for hiking, snowshoeing, mountain-biking, climbing and a host of other outdoor activities;

3) Two fantastic restaurants - Eagles Nest and Brackendale Bistro - and two great little pubs - The Watershed and The Shady Tree. More than enough quality establishments for the small population.

4) In winter Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park plays host to North America’s biggest gathering of bald eagles. Back in 1994, a world-record of 3769 eagles were counted on a single day.

In January we went on a Sunwolf Outdoor Centre float trip down the river to look for eagles . It was such a gorgeous, peaceful thing to do on a sunny, cold day. We saw quite a few eagles that day, but were told that we’d practically missed eagle season, so we were determined to go back when there were more eagles about. This time there were plenty.

We spent Christmas Day trampling through fairly deep snow down by the Mamquam river to the Mamquam Spawning Channels. The further we went, the more eagles we saw and the more people we met who had come to watch them.

We hiked in the same area 2 days later and needed snowshoes because the snow had been accumulating at a rate of 30 cm a day. That day we hardly saw a sole on the trails and, probably because of that, down by the spawning channels the trees were just full of eagles. There must have been over a hundred of them in one little area.

When we walked across the bridge over the spawning channels, we saw what they were all there for.

Loads of smelly dead salmon!

Aside from walking along lovely snowy trails every day and eagle watching, we had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas. Although it was only our second visit to Meadowside B&B, it has started to feel much like a home from home. We love the room, we enjoy our morning conversations with the owners - Carol and Wilf, and we spend far too much time in the hot tub in the garden dreaming that it is OUR beautiful house!

We spent our last day in Bella Coola on various hikes around the Bella Coola area on the hunt for Grizzly Bears. We had arranged for a local guide - Doug Baker - to come and pick us up and take us to the areas where there would likely be bear activity.

We searched over a very wide area, we saw loads of signs of grizzly bears and cubs - from fresh poop full of berries, to bear rubbings on trees with fur attched, to recent scratch marks on trees, to paw prints.

At one point we circled back on ourselves and discovered signs of bear activity that weren’t there the first time we had walked past that spot, so it was pretty obvious that particular bear was tracking us rather than the other way around! We were very close to bears all day, but we never actually saw one - in a way I’m glad they were so elusive as if a bear had smelled and heard us coming and not run off or hidden, then it would have been a bear that is not scared of silly humans and their 2 canisters of bear spray, so it might not have been a very nice encounter anyway. There had been a bear attack early in the Spring just a few Kilometres from Suntree Cottages which had shaken the community a bit.

Next time  (because there will be a next time!) I would make full use of Doug’s 4×4 and explore some of the lovely lakes, waterfalls and volcanoes in the area and forget about bear spotting. But we had a nice day anyway, especially in the morning when we spent a good deal of time walking around the huge old-growth cedar trees in Snootli Creek Regional Park.

We also enjoyed walking alongside the various rivers en-route to the edge of Tweedsmuir National Park.

Doug was a very knowledgable, interesting and friendly guy and it was good to hear about all of his experiences of living in the valley. If you ever fly into Bella Coola in the winter and the plane can’t land at Hagensborg airport  due to the weather, then you will land at Anahim Lake at the top of The Hill and in all likelihood it will be Doug who comes to pick you up in a big school bus and drives you down to Hagensborg and Bella Coola. If you’re lucky (or unlucky, depending on your view of things) he’ll share some of his poetry with you.

Petroglyphs are ancient rock carvings - someone, somewhere in the past, dedicated years of their lives to slowly rubbing away at the rock’s surface in order to create patterns and symbols which would tell a story to those who could interpret it. You can go and see the petroglyphs in Bella Coola on your own but the location isn’t widely broadcast and you are supposed to be taken there by a guide from the Nuxalk Nation - mainly because it is private First Nations land and because the experience is much richer when you have someone with you who can show you the best petroglyphs and give you their own interpretation of them based on what they have learned about their creation stories and so forth.

Although we had met Frank on the ferry and he had offered to guide us through the petroglyphs, we were recommended by Cheryl at Suntree Cottages to go with twin brothers Lance and Chris Nelson, because it has kind of been “their thing” in recent years. They don’t ask for any money because they are mainly offering their services to share their knowledge of their culture and they take great pride in doing so. Even so, it seems standard practice that you offer them as much monetary compensation as you see fit, depending on what you personally get out of the experience.

We had booked to go on the tour with Lance, but he didn’t show up so we phoned Chris instead, who kindly agreed to turn up on very short notice with a huge hangover - probably as a result of the same party that led to Lance not answering his phone.

He took us to the area where the petroglyphs were, a beautiful spot on a steep bank alongside a river. I know which general direction it is in, but I wouldn’t be able to take you there now if you asked. Then he proceeded to spend two hours with us, talking about his interpretation of the petroglyphs, telling many of the Nuxalk stories which may relate to them, specualting on the possible connections between these and similar rock carvings in Polynesian countries and the fact that no one knows who made these carvings and so no one claims ownership of them.

He also told us many things of an extremely personal nature, telling of the struggles he had been through to become the man who stood before us that day and telling of his excitement as to what the future had in store for him as he prepared to move to Prince George as a cultural ambassador, to teach kids and help them reconnect with their own culture.

Unfortunately, in the rush to get to us on short notice he had forgotten his drum, but it didn’t seem to make much difference to the overall experience as he went on to sing his heart out totally unacommpanied. In doing so he sent chills down our spines and blew out the cobwebs in his head. By the end of the afternoon he was buzzing and so glad that we had called him as getting in touch with his spiritual and cultural side turned out to be the best cure for his hangover! On our part we were very glad that he had come out because it was an amazing experience that we would have been extremely disappointed to miss out on.

Chris singing - set-72157606566605139

The day we went out on a boat trip of the harbour the weather was lousy. Lucky for us the trip wasn’t cancelled (the float trip down the river that I had initially wanted to go on was cancelled though, so it all worked out in our favour in the end) but it was a farily wet experience.

Fraser from Brockton House Inn took us out and about on his little zodiac, going in and out of all the inlets trying to spot some wildlife - we were specifically looking for grizzlies. Unfortunately, aside from an otter and a couple of eagles, all the wildlife in the area seemed to be staying out of the bad weather, but it was still a nice experience boating about on that lovely milky green water.

The highlight of the trip turned out to be the visit to the old Tallheo Cannery. Two miles across the inlet from Bella Coola Harbour, it was deserted over 50 years ago but a local man, Jim, bought up the land and hasn’t changed much at all so it is like walking in to a 68-acre museum. A rather dangerous museum as half the buildings are in such a state of disrepair and others have crumbled completely, but a fascinating and unique museum nonetheless.

You can actually stay at the Tallheo Cannery Inn as Jim operates a low-key Bed and Breakfast/hostel/Inn there - we met a couple and their child who were staying in the old bunkhouse.

My favourite part of the place was the General Store - left untouched for 50 years, it was fascinating wandering around all the old items - ancient cans of soda, bars of soap, bottles, screws, nails, the old cash register, sealed shut and the old ledger books full of purchases made by the men who worked there, many of whose names we recognised as being the family members of local people we had already met or were about to meet.

Attached was the sick bay, still with disgusting old bed linen and the old communications room with defunct typewriter and radio equipment and many logs and books pertaining to the fishing industry.

Monkey’s favourite part was the Net Loft - filled with fishing nets that men had been mending by hand for months before just being told to abandon their work. Each net had a tag attached to it saying who was working on it and how far they had gotten throught the repair - again, we recognised a lot of the names.

From the net loft, there was a wonderful view of another building - maybe also a net loft - which had completely collapsed a few months before.

Even still, I was in no hurry to leave this beautifully haunting place.

Our first day in Bella Coola we spent orienting ourselves, and driving up and down the main highway with its incredible views.

We popped into the Brockton House Inn in Hagensborg to book a trip for the next day. I wanted to go on a wildlife-spotting float trip down the river but that trip was full so we ended up booking a wildlife-spotting boat tour of the inlets around Bella Coola Harbour with a sidetrip to the old, deserted cannery.

We then headed to Clayton Creek Park  just on the edge of town to have a look at Clayton Falls - a nice little waterfall.

Back in town, we navigated around all the locals with their dogs standing in the middle of the Highway chatting and parked up at Kopas Store, the kind of small town general store that has all sorts of treasures within. Inside we spotted some native art that we liked - we had been on the look out for a paddle, and Monkey found one that he really liked only it was in blue rather than his desired red.  Monkey ignored my scoffing at him and asked the store clerk whether they might possibly have a similar one in red somewhere in the store, and she said “The artist is just over there, let’s ask him”. Thus we met Noel.

It turned out that Noel was very eager to help us out and he would create us the piece of art that we wanted so long as we were willing to wait a few weeks. Then he suggested that we go back to his house to look at his other works of art, to which we readily agreed.  On the way he decided to take us to a very special place - the House of Smayusta.

The House of Smayusta is basically the headquarters of the Nuxalk Nation, where current chiefs meet to discuss matters of import to the band. Unfortunately, because of divided opinion in town over the enviromental impact of logging in the area, the House of Smayusta had been closed up for many months in order to protect the status quo. It was an amazing experience to be invited inside this abandoned place so full of history. The walls were filled with newspaper cuttings of all the environmental protests that the band had been a part of, and Noel told us as much of the history as he could remember.

The big point of our visit there, though, was to see the mask carvings. There were many amazing masks made by members of the Nuxalk Nation over the years, some were really, really old and they are very lucky that they still exist because when the white man came and tried to stomp out their culture they burned most of the masks, and many of the ones left were confiscated and shipped off to museums and galleries around the world. The masks really should be protected in a controlled environment somewhere but the Nuxalk can’t afford it and they are understandably reitcent to part with them. We were in awe, too much awe to take any photographs - it seemed disrespectful.

Afterwards, Noel drove us to his house and showed us his workshop and the many works of art that he had stored in the basement of his home. He really is a talented artist and he is still fairly new to it, having only discovered in the last couple of years that he had a natural talent for it. He is still learning, both the art of carving and all the long-forgotten stories in his culture that inspire the carvings. At the time he was busy working away on a series of masks, rattles and other items that he was making for a Potlach that was to be held at the end of August. During the Potlach the life of his mother was also going to be celebrated and he was also hard at work on the carving that was to adorn her grave in the cemetary.

I can’t ever thank Noel enough for his warmth, openness, generosity of spirit and for letting us in to his life and his culture. Although he is still learning about it himself (since generations of First Nations were subjected to Residential Schools which wiped out their memory of their language and culture), he couldn’t tell us enough about his life and his culture and we couldn’t hear enough about it. The whole experience was endlessly fascinating and by the end of the afternoon we had learned that he was himself a herditary chief and that he was quite sincere in inviting us to the Potlach at the end of the month. We had also found a piece of art that spoke to both of us so much that we snapped it up the next day - not a paddle, but a large panel with 2 orcas, which turned out to be the first panel he ever carved. You would never know. It now proudly adorns our wall at home and everyone admires it.

If you’re ever in Bella Coola and you are interested in the art and history of the Nuxalk Nation then please look this guy up. His name is Noel Pootlass (like the local mountain with the eagle in it) and everyone in town knows him and will be happy to give you his number so you can contact him to see his art. He’s  hasn’t yet had the chance to get a website up and running or any proper gallery space for himself, but he’ll welcome your interest with open arms.

Our accommodation in the Bella Coola Valley was awesome. We stayed in one of the Suntree Cottages, located about a 30-40 minute drive from the Bella Coola townsite and a short walk from the Bella Coola River.

Bear Cottage was wonderfully appointed and had an outside deck which we spent many an hour on overlooking one of the local mountains. It was very hard to tear ourselves away from that view most days.

As well, our hosts - Steve and Cheryl - were great people, very friendly, very helpful and interesting too - and their dogs were equally great. Because they live in such a remote area, they have nature trails behind their house which are used by animals such as bears and cougars. If you go for a walk around there you are supposed to call the dogs to join you, as they are trained to guard you against wild animals. We never actually got round to walking around the property, but we did spend an evening lending our company to the dogs when Cheryl and Steve went out one very rainy night.

It was so calm and peaceful there. Time seemed to run at a different rate and I was so unbelievably happy that I entertained notions of moving there one day. I know the winters are supposed to be harsh there, particularly because of the strong, cold winds that whip through the valley, but it is very easy to imagine yourself holing up for the winter in front of the wood-burning stove with a small mountain of books and a month’s worth of supplies in your kitchen cupboard. The only thing missing was a hot tub!

It might actually be something we attempt later on in life. It would be a wonderful place to spend the first year of our retirement in as it is surrounded by such beautiful wildereness with plenty of trails and backcountry hiking/camping/snowshoeing on offer and all the people who we met there were so friendly.