• About the site
  • About us
  • Magazine
  • Places
  • Villamar PH-G

Flojohn Travels

~ Travel Blog of John & Florence Youden

Flojohn Travels

Monthly Archives: July 2018

British Columbia Summer Visit

29 Sunday Jul 2018

Posted by johnyouden in Canada

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Okanagan, Tofino, Vancouver, Vancouver Island

Vancouver 2014 8

Downtown Vancouver and False Creek basin

For the past few years I’ve been spending the month of July in Canada visiting family and old friends, staying primarily in Vancouver, but also visiting the central region of British Columbia known as the Okanagan, as well as Vancouver Island. I love returning to cosmopolitan Vancouver for so many reasons – many shared also by Condé Nast Traveler readers who continually rate it as one ten best cities in the world. Surrounded by mountains and ocean, its rugged beauty attracts people from around the world, to both live and visit. Vancouver is a city of ethnic diversity. A short walk down any street will have you hearing languages and seeing people from around the globe. And those that have come have brought their culture, especially their cuisine, making it a great food city as well.

In the Okanagan my father has a home that overlooks Kalamalka Lake just north of Kelowna. It’s a beautiful lake that sees very little wind, few boats, making it perfect for paddle boarding. An old school friend has a paddle board rental shop close by (Kalavida Surf Shop) and lives across the street where he keeps 2-3 boards in his garage that he lets me take out whenever I want. It’s also a great area for golfing, with numerous courses scattered around neighboring Okanagan Lake.

Okanagan Lake is called a fjord lake, (long and narrow), as it has been carved out by repeated glaciations that have left it with a steep shoreline and very deep waters; maxing out at 232 meters. It is 135 km long and it is not uncommon for the lake to be 100 meters deep only 10 meters offshore.

IMG_0429Over the past year my father has been working on building a small 15′ wooden (and fiberglass) gaff sailboat in his garage, so I was excited to get the opportunity to try it out and sail with him. But with little wind on the lake, we decided to trailer it down to Vancouver. Once in there we launched the boat at a ramp under the Burrard Street bridge and enjoyed a few days of 14-16 knot winds allowing us to really give the boat a good run. Once out of the mouth of False Creek we sailed into English Bay, following the shores of Stanley Park and Spanish Banks, with the gorgeous skyline of downtown Vancouver behind us.

IMG_2721

After about a week of sailing we headed over to Vancouver Island, visiting friends in Nanaimo before making our way to Tofino on the western coastline of the island. Tofino is Mecca for surfing in Canada, with people coming from all over to put on wetsuits and surf its cold waters. The area is simply spectacular for hiking, fishing and of course, surfing.

Tofino-5

Cox Bay, one of Tofino’s most popular surf spots

 

Tofino-9

Rosie and Chesterman (far background) Beaches

In Tofino we stayed at the Pacific Sands resort which is made up mostly of apartments and townhouses situated along the beach for rent, but there is also a home at the far end of Cox Bay that sits up high on a point that provides spectacular panoramic views of the beaches of Cox, Rosie and Chesterman. We stayed for four nights visiting family and friends, then leaving to make room for the next guest who happened to be Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and family, who would be staying for two weeks at this lovely home. Justin enjoys surfing and the privacy Tofino provides his family. This would be his second time in two years he’s returned to Tofino for a summer vacation.

Tofino is an oasis of old-growth rainforests, wildlife, recreation and exploration. Locals include whales, eagles, bears, salmon, otters, cougars, wolves, herons, ospreys, and steelhead; and visitors are migrating whales and birds. It is also eclectic and bohemian in nature. For those familiar with Sayulita, the surf town just north of Puerto Vallarta, there are a lot of parallels between the two. I’m sure many of the people I saw this summer in Tofino are the same ones I’ll see again this winter in Sayulita – at least in character.

From Tofino I returned to Vancouver for more family/friend visiting, plus a little more sailing, before departing back to Nice.

Categories

  • Canada
  • Caribbean
  • Cote d'Azur
  • Croatia
  • Europe
  • France
  • Greece
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • Mexico
  • Nice
  • Op/Ed
  • Portugal
  • Random
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • Tips/Suggestions
  • Turkey
  • Uncategorized
  • United States

Accommodations Alba Algarve Apartment Ardeche Auron Avignon Balazuc Bergerac Biking Bodrum Bordeaux Bretagne Brittany Cap D'Ail Cap Ferrat Carvoeiro Cinque Terre Cote d'Azur Croatia Dordogne Drone Ericeira Eze Figueres France Gageac Gourdon Great Bike Rides Great Castles Great Drives Great Hikes Great Villages Great Walks Italy L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue La Turbie Lisbon Manoir de la Baudelaire Markets medieval castles Monaco Nice Noirmoutier Nomads Okanagan Paris Pauillac Perros Guirec Piedmont Portugal Provence Puerto Vallarta Random restaurants Rhone Rhone/Alpes Sailing skiing Sospel St. Malo SUP Symi Tofino Torino Turin Turkey Vancouver Venice Ventimiglia Viel Audon Vitré Walks Wine Zaragoza

Recent Posts

  • Exploring Obidos, Portugal
  • Flojohn Travel Magazine
  • Biking Portugal
  • Is a Southern Border Wall Inevitable?
  • Cinque Terre from the Air
  • Visit to Cinque Terre
  • Train (and bike) Ride to Tende, France
  • Our time in Nice has come to an end
  • L’Ile de Noirmoutier
  • British Columbia Summer Visit
  • Weekend in Provence
  • Puerto Vallarta Aerial Video
  • Drone-Filmed Bike Ride to Forte Revere
  • Visit to Lake Garda, Italy
  • Aging and the Brain…
  • Bike Ride to Mt. Chauve
  • Dealing with Portuguese Bureaucracy…
  • Club Naval near (sort of) Ericeira, Portugal
  • Ericeira, Portugal
  • Drone Photography of Puerto Vallarta
  • Obtaining a Driver’s License in Portugal
  • Exploring the caves of the Algarve Cliffs
  • Back to the Algarve
  • Exploring Lake Como & Portofino
  • Cruising the Esterel Coastline
  • Importance of Projects in Life
  • Sailing the Istrian Peninsula
  • Return to Venice
  • Biking & Boarding on the Cote d’Azur
  • Bike Trip to Valberg
  • Bike Ride to the Grande Corniche Park
  • Weekend in Seville
  • Carvoeiro Coastal Walk
  • Real Estate in the Algarve
  • Back to the Cote d’Azur…
  • Paddling and Crocs
  • Puerto Vallarta
  • Travel Plans for 2017
  • Reminiscing in Shangrila
  • Weekend in Alba, Piemonte
  • Bike Ride to Peille
  • Ten Good Reasons for an Electric Bike
  • Exploring Southern Portugal
  • 2016 Summer BC Tour
  • Journey to Barcelonette
  • Having trouble with the local language?
  • Evora (Days 5-6 of Central Portugal Tour)
  • Marvao (Day 4 Central Portugal Tour)
  • Monsanto (Day 3 – Central Portugal Tour)
  • Tomar (Day 1 – Central Portugal Tour)

Archives

  • November 2019
  • June 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • February 2015
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • October 2011
  • July 2011
  • July 2010

Blogroll

  • France This Way
  • Lonely Planet
  • Trip Advisor
  • Virtual Tourist
July 2018
M T W T F S S
« Jun   Aug »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 53 other followers

Countries

  • Canada (9)
  • Caribbean (1)
  • Cote d'Azur (12)
  • Croatia (2)
  • Europe (46)
  • France (75)
  • Greece (1)
  • Italy (20)
  • Luxembourg (1)
  • Mexico (9)
  • Nice (10)
  • Op/Ed (4)
  • Portugal (24)
  • Random (20)
  • Spain (3)
  • Switzerland (1)
  • Tips/Suggestions (6)
  • Turkey (4)
  • Uncategorized (1)
  • United States (1)

Blogroll

  • France This Way
  • Lonely Planet
  • Trip Advisor
  • Virtual Tourist

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel