The Brand New BC Ferries Vacation Centre, Vancouver, BC

There’s a real buzz about town these days.  The afterglow of the spectacular 2010 Winter Games is fading but the excitement surrounding vacations throughout British Columbia has done anything but diminish!  With the opening of the brand new BC Ferries Vacation Centre, the best of land and sea itineraries is made more easily accessible.

Nearby neighbour, the new Vancouver Convention Centre

Located at a bright corner of distinction within downtown Vancouver- right at Burrard Street and Canada Place; the vibrant BC Ferries office is actually housed within the other new kid on the block, the dazzling new Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel.  This area truly boasts stellar company with Tourism Vancouver’s Visitor Info Centre and the absolutely gorgeous and relatively new Vancouver Convention Centre on the opposite corners. And literally within a few hundred feet from all is Vancouver’s cruise ship dock and the City’s original Trade and Convention Centre – itself a splendid site with its billowing sails.

This unique hub is now a treasure trove of upscale, elegant and sophisticated hotels (Fairmont Waterfront and the Pan Pacific hotels also grace the vicinity), where the people-watching from each hotel’s lobby lounge is outstanding.  As are the breath-taking views of Vancouver’s beloved downtown inner harbour and North Shore Mountains!

The Venue

The fun interactive vacation planner

Taking over 2,500 square feet at street level, BC Ferries’ new Vacation Centre includes an interactive, high definition 90 square foot media wall. Showcasing some of the most gorgeous visuals this province can deliver, the ‘wall’ works like a giant I-Pad or touch phone. The touch screen technology is mastered in seconds, delivering customers a brilliant way to discover more about BC’s coastal water routes and some really exciting holiday options.

Happy customers plan their BC Ferries getaway

Plan a BC Ferries Vacation to the Sunshine Coast, or over to Vancouver Island, then perhaps travel to the Cariboo, Chilcotin, Coast and then go right on up to Haida Gwaii.  Once you’ve determined where you’d like to go, simply walk over to one of several guest services desks where a highly knowledgeable and well trained BC Ferries travel agent will help you make the reservations.  It’s that simple.  Within this comfortable setting, you can do several things from reserve ferry space, book and pay for a combination ferry/resort/tour package – choosing from over 20 pre-planned getaways, pre-pay regular ferry travel, or receive valuable advice for a future holiday.  Some of the packaged vacations include golf getaways at Crown Isle Golf Resort in Courtenay, to winery tours on southern Vancouver Island, and soothing spa retreats at Painted Boat on the Sunshine Coast.  For the fishing enthusiast, consider Haida Gwaii and Prince Rupert.

I had a great chat with Janet Carson, Vice President of Marketing and Travel Services at the opening in mid-May.  Her enthusiasm for the launch of the Centre was felt by everyone who attended.  She shared “Our BC Ferries Vacation Centre focuses on unique travel packages for visitors and local residents, and will help our customers create unforgettable B.C. vacations.   And, our sales associates are pleased to provide their expertise to recommend products that will enhance the vacation experience!”

Gorgeous gifts in the retail gallery

Before you leave, be sure to check out the ship tracking and the gorgeous gift gallery. Presenting unique local artisans’ work, jewelry and clothing, as well as a vast array of  books from coastal destinations throughout British Columbia, there’s sure to be an item that either you’ll want for your own, or to give to a special someone… don’t forget a ferry vacation makes a great gift too!

On Board Decadence!

BC Ferries have more exciting news!  Beginning immediately, sweet tooth ferry travelers on the Swartz Bay – Tsawwassen route will find their cravings satiated with four utterly decadent treats created by Cakes Etc. of Victoria. The yummy lineup of goodies includes a rich Fudge Brownie , Raspberry Marble Cheesecake, Belgium White Chocolate Mousse Pyramids and what I know will be my personal favourite – a Chocolate Silk Dessert Square.  The move to bring these specialty items on board further complements BC Ferries dedication to delivering outstanding experiences on board their fleet. “We have successful partnerships with companies such as White Spot and Starbucks and we felt partnering on desserts made perfect sense as Cakes Etc. has wonderful products,” said Geoff Dickson, BC Ferries’ Vice President Catering and Retail Operations. “We believe we’ve hit the mark with these delicious treats so why not spoil yourself on your next trip with us.”

For more information on the exciting new ferry vacation packages, general routes and ferry schedules, please visit www.bcferries.com or, if you are in downtown Vancouver, drop by the Vacation Centre at 1010 Canada Place.

BC Ferries Vacation Centre is open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 am to 6:00pm

*** Photo Credits: Homepage and top photo – BC Ferries, all others:  Kyle Hickey, CtoC Productions

View a grey whale skeleton in the “Whale Lab” and get friendly with the colourful sea creatures in the touch tank. Taking part almost guarantees a boat ride to a fabulous beach.

Topics in the lineup include kelp forests and the temperate rainforest. Learn about the secret lives of marine mammals, birds, plankton, intertidal life and much more.

Everyone is welcome to join tours each Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in Bamfield. Programs run for three hours and the price ranges from $15 for children under 12, to $60 for a family of four.

Participants must book in advance by contacting the centre at 250-728-3301 (ext. 226), by e-mail at summer@bms.bc.ca or visit the website at www.bms.bc.ca.;

West of Parksville off Highway 4, at the tip of a long saltwater channel called the Alberni Inlet, Port Alberni is the heart of Vancouver Island’s awe-inspiring Pacific Rim region. A world-renowned destination for sport fishers, Port Alberni fishing charters operate year-round and saltwater rewards include halibut, cod and salmon. For freshwater anglers, productive streams abound with cutthroat, rainbow and steelhead trout. Other outdoor activities include everything from helicopter and floatplane tours, diving and golfing to kayaking, wildlife viewing and wind surfing.

At the Alberni Valley Museum, discover fascinating exhibits on pioneer history, folk art and First Nations culture, while at the Rollins Arts Centre and Gardens, works by local artists and summertime tea on the terrace are featured. Alberni Harbour Quay is a colourful collection of waterfront shops, galleries and eateries where you’ll find the Maritime Discovery Centre, the clock tower, which grants panoramic views of the Alberni Inlet, and the boarding area for the MV Lady Rose, a passenger and freight vessel offering scenic journeys to Bamfield and Ucluelet.

For information on Port Alberni, call 724-6535. The Visitor Centre is located at 2533 Port Alberni Hwy.;

Ucluelet offers visitors a wealth of year-round activities. The fishing is always fabulous and numerous guides and charters can get you out into Barkley Sound. Kayaking opportunities range from the challenges of the Broken Group Islands to the inner harbour’s calm waters. Cyclists pedal along the roadways and designated pathways, including the path between the Highway 4 junction and the townsite, while hiking and walking paths include the Wild Pacific Trail, a splendidly scenic walk.

Winter storm watching is another thrill and many accommodation properties offer special packages – come see why viewers from around the world visit Ucluelet to watch Mother Nature unleash her wrath on the rocky shorelines. In early spring, visitors watch the return of the Pacific Rim’s largest summer guests – grey whales. Once nearly extinct, some 20,000 of these amazing mammals now migrate along the Island’s west coast.

Visible from Ucluelet’s shores in March and April and celebrated with the Pacific Rim Whale Festival, these whales, and many other species of marine life, can also be viewed on boat tours throughout summer and well into the fall.

Ucluelet accommodations include luxury inns, bed and breakfasts, hotels, resorts and campgrounds. In town, you’ll find a good choice of restaurants, shops, art galleries, and returning to the harbour, the Ucluelet Mini Aquarium provides a fascinating look at marine eco-systems.

For information, call the Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce at 726-4641 or visit the Visitor Centre at 100 Main St. ;

To help to protect this spectacular wilderness for the future, Tofino was designated B.C.’s first UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Outdoor activities include whale watching, fishing, kayaking, diving and surfing, plus guided bear watching tours, another exciting activity. Hikers enjoy the many trails in the Long Beach area and surrounding the townsite, and the renowned Ahousat Wildside Heritage Trail, an 11km hike on Flores Island.

Tofino is a flurry of family activity during the Pacific Rim Whale Festival in March and early April when some 20,000 grey whales return to these waters on a migration route. Unique Tofino attractions include the Whale Centre Museum, with marine artifacts and whale skeletons, and Hot Springs Cove.

Surfing is a popular event year-round off the beaches between Tofino and Ucluelet, and many surf companies in Tofino offer rentals and lessons.

Despite its popularity, Tofino has maintained its peaceful, rustic ambience, with quaint shops, adventure supply stores, art galleries, and cafes blending easily with world-class resorts and fine dining establishments. Accommodations range from hike-in campsites to resort hotels with luxury spas.;

Although accessible by gravel-surfaced road from both the Port Alberni and Lake Cowichan areas, Bamfield is most easily reached by floatplane or the MV Lady Rose from Port Alberni. Local resorts offer vacation packages with accommodation, meals and guided adventures, plus fish care and packaging.

Any questions while in town? The staff at any of the Bamfield businesses would be pleased to help or, during July and August, stop by either of two info centres, on the east side in Centennial Park or on the west side on the Bamfield Boardwalk. Or, visit www.bamfieldchamber.com.

In the Ken Hutcheson gallery, the Port Alberni Maritime Heritage Society has teamed up with the Historical Diving Society and Nuytco Research Ltd. to present “Diving the Deeps”.

“It’s a rare and exclusive exhibit,” says Ken Hutcheson, president of the maritime society. Diving the Deeps covers deepsea diving techniques from the early 1900s to the 21st century.

The exhibit features some of the first diving suits, replete with heavy copper helmets and a unit that pumped air to the diver from the ship’s deck above. On the other end of the spectrum is the Exosuit, which is self-contained but allows the diver to swim, and a deep-worker submersible, which a person operates from inside a cockpit.

All the diving equipment is on loan from Nuytco Research of North Vancouver. Nuytco’s president and founder, Phil Nuytten, is recognized as one of the pioneers of the diving industry worldwide. He first invented and developed a patented rotary joint technology for use in a diving suit called the “Newtsuit”.

Nuytco designs, builds and operates atmospheric diving suits, submersibles, remotely operated vehicles and specialty equipment for commercial diving.

Maritime centre summer staff members Traci Nesbitt and Nicole MacMillan have been preparing the exhibit, mounting panels about each of the artifacts as well as colourful undersea photographs.

In the lighthouse gallery is “Light the Lights”, an exhibit on the life of a lighthouse keeper. The exhibit features many artifacts from the early 1900s, such as a piece of Fresnel lens (the lights now feature acrylic pieces), a hand-cranked foghorn, copper beacon and various written logs.

“People often come down here and see the lighthouse and think it’s a working lighthouse,” said Donna Gallagher, co-ordinator at the Maritime Discovery Centre. Their curiosity was the inspiration for this show.

“We’re really focusing on a few local lighthouses, Cape Beale in particular, which is close to Bamfield.”

One aspect of the display features present-day light-keepers Kathi and Norbie Brand, describing what their duties are at the lighthouse today.

There is a special part of the exhibit dedicated to Minnie Paterson, lighthouse keeper Thomas Paterson’s wife, who helped save the crew of the barkentine Coloma.

On Dec. 6, 1906, the Coloma was embattered by a southeast gale off the West Coast shore, her sails tattered in the unforgiving winds. She drifted within sight of the Cape Beale lighthouse, where Thomas Paterson was manning the foghorn and the light.

The telegraph cable connecting the lighthouse to Bamfield was broken, so Minnie Paterson walked four miles through the bush and pounding rain to alert the telegraph line-keeper of the impending maritime disaster. She and the line-keeper’s wife rowed out to the government steamer Quadra, which then reached the Coloma just in time to save its crew.

Gallagher has collected letters and copies of the front page of a Seattle newspaper heralding Paterson’s heroic actions. There is also a trunk from the Cape Beale lighthouse that held a collection of postcards addressed to Paterson.

The Maritime Discovery Centre galleries are open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is by donation. The centre will be open until Sept. 3.

Pick up a heritage passport at the Tourist Information Centre or any of the Valley’s four heritage sites and embark on a journey of discovery in Port Alberni.

The Alberni Valley Heritage Network is launching its Passport to Heritage program this weekend.

Pick up a passport at the Alberni Valley Museum, Maritime Discovery Centre, McLean Mill National Historic Site, Port Alberni Train Station or the Tourist Information Centre. Take the passport with you and have it stamped as you visit the attractions.

With two stamps you can choose one of four Heritage Network lapel pins and with four stamps you can choose another one.

The passport program will continue throughout the summer. Make our past your present while exploring our four cool attractions.

For more information, please call 723-1376.

Museum education curator Shelley Harding and collections curator Cindy Van Volsem were having dinner at the cafe one night and, for fun, they decided to play a National Geographic version of the popular “I Spy” series.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘we can do this at the museum,’” Van Volsem said. “She’s the education person. I’m the objects person. It was a neat way to put both our skills together.”

The duo developed the I Spy poster on their own time, and launched it last weekend.

The poster features more than 70 objects from the museum’s collection, with an alphabetical list of the items pictured. Kids can check off the items as they find them or just enjoy spotting all the different objects hidden on the page.

“It’s a different way of looking at the artifacts,” Harding said.

“From children to seniors, we’ve tested it and…it’s addictive and fun,” Van Volsem said.

“I was excited to see kids looking in the display cases in a different way.”

Some of the items included in the poster are things that children in today’s day and age may only recognize from a photo or a museum display – things such as a Kazoo, antique buttons, milk caps from glass milk bottles, metal upright vacuums and more.

“This is a way of taking a little of the museum away with you,” Harding said.

The posters are available for $3.95 each. The Alberni Valley Museum is open five days a week from Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays). For more information, please call 723-2181.

Within an hour’s drive of Port Alberni there are huge, developed lakes like Sproat Lake and tiny gems like Gracie Lake sitting in a shallow dip atop a mountain pass. Just about every water sport you can think of can be done on one of the hundreds of freshwater bodies in the Alberni Valley.

Starting with the obvious, Sproat Lake is just north of town. This lake is so big (93,000 hectares) it has two provincial parks – Sproat Lake and Fosslie. The main park in one of the southern fingerlings of the lake, Sproat Lake, has campsites and a sandy beach for a day of lazing, wading and watching the world go by. It’s also the home of the famed Martin Mars waterbombers, and one of the finest panels of prehistoric petroglyphs painted on a rock wall in B.C.

Fosslie Provincial Park is located across the lake from Sproat Lake Provincial Park and includes some scenic hiking trails and viewpoints, but no camping.

“There’s everything on that lake,” says Yvette Smith at the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce’s visitor’s information centre. She listed kayaking, windsurfing, fishing, canoeing, sea-doing, swimming as a few of the choices available.

After a day of play on the water, anglers will have a choice of fish to fry on the campfire.

“There’s excellent trout fishing,” Smith said. Little Gracie Lake is considered one of the better rainbow trout spots on Vancouver Island, while the bigger lakes near the highway sport cutthroat, Dolly Varden, steelhead and kokanee.

Most of the water bodies have basic facilities to set up a base camp for exploring all the hiking trails in the region.

Rick Avis has a favourite lake he describes as small, but unique. Turtle Lake is tucked in with two other water bodies between the Alberni Valley Airport and Great Central Lake. “It’s a good spot for winter birds,” Avis says. Neither rain nor snow prevents Avis, who’s a member of the Alberni Valley Outdoor Club, from hiking out to catch a glimpse of trumpeter swans, loons and mergansers using the water for their paddling pool.

Another poorly kept secret is Father and Son Lake, nestled at the foot of Limestone Mountain. The high elevation lake has a rustic campsite requiring a three-kilometre hike in. Along the way backpackers are treated to ridge views, alpine meadows and an old-growth cedar, fir and hemlock forest.

There’s nothing like a week at the lake to escape the heat of summer, and unlike the great Pacific the water’s safe and almost warm.

reporter@albernivalleynews.com

IF YOU GO:

Contact the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce visitor information centre at www.avcoc.com, phone (250) 724-6535 or e-mail avcoc@alberni.net.

Another good source is the Backroad Mapbook, Vancouver Island edition, by Russell Mussio. This book offers topographical information as well as comprehensive lists for paddling, camping, fishing and hiking trails.