Teen Across Canada Blog – A Night at Trattoria

We were invited to be a part of the YVRBloggers Meet Up group at the authentic Italian restaurant – Trattoria in Burnaby. The night was filled with so many splendid things.

The restaurant had an amazing ambiance with an impressive display of wine bottles. The wait staff was courteous and friendly. We got to meet Craig, the chef and Daniel, the event planner for the restaurant.  We also had the special treat of meeting Brent, the director of Glowbal Group – the restaurant’s ownership. They all were amazing and super nice!

As an appetizer we had salami, calamari, meatballs and bread sticks on platters. It was a very nice ensemble of foods to taste test for what the restaurant has to offer. For our main course we had a mélange of pastas with a mini steak piece. There was a white sauce pasta and a red sauce which was incredibly spicy.

For dessert we had an assortment of things. There was a chocolate ball, a tiramisu piece and a chocolate covered crunchy caramel piece.

It was a very well balanced meal with a great array of foods to taste test. The servers made the night so fun and the food was so great to photograph. Among all the Foodies photographing the night of wonderful plates, the picture above of my dessert won “Best Photo of the night” – so unexpected!

The YVR meeting was fun and I met some terrific passionate people like Pierre, a chocolate maker from Paris and Sophia, a critique from Zomato.

Overall it was an eventful night in which I  learned a lot!

 

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Teen Across Canada Blog – When is a ferry not just a boat ride

A visit to an island implies a crossing of a body of water. Visiting Vancouver Island from the lower mainland in BC means flying over or taking a ferry, and the latter is what we did.

Thanks to BC Ferries we boarded a monstrous sea vessel from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay and on our return from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay.

What a great ride!  Watch our trip from Nanaimo to Horshoe Bay here:

Had we not been to Newfoundland we would not have believed there were ferry boats of that size and quality for short haul trips for vehicles like our RV (a 37 foot motorhome with a car tow).

BC Ferries is first class. From our first encounter with clear instructional signs, to welcoming customer service like Debra in Nanaimo and on board hospitality they left nothing to chance.

Our trip to Vancouver Island was not just about the wonders of the island but also the getting over with the amazing ships of BC Ferries. The amenities were very cool, like White Spot restaurant (best chocolate milkshakes), a bookstore, and relax areas… Not to mention a kids play zone.

As an RVing family we were so pleased with BC Ferries’ ability to accommodate all size vehicles… and on top it wrap the journey up with a beautiful wildlife and seascape vision.

They say life is not about the destination but about the journey… well BC Ferries thank you for making our journey one to remember for a lifetime.

Kevin, Marina and Anastasia

Teen Across Canada Blog – Historic Victoria

Butchart Gardens is one of the nicest gardens in the world. We spent the whole day walking around the entire garden. It was huge but so nice!

 

There were different gardens;

the Japanese garden,

the Italian garden,

the Rose garden, the Mediterranean garden… We went to the indoor gardens where we saw the most beautiful flowers!

 

There was also a pond with gold fish swimming. We went inside to Mr. and Mrs. Butchart’s home where a guide told us all about the history of the gardens.

On our way back, we stopped at the Victoria Butterfly Gardens. There were so many different types of butterflies as well as other animals. There was a parrot who walked on Mom and two flamingos, Mango and Houdini. We saw turtles, birds, tortoises, iguanas and fish. We saw a butterfly hatch from its cocoon which was so cool!

The next day we walked down to the Fisherman’s Wharf. On the wharf there were floating houses and boats turned into houses, which was so awesome! Then we saw four harbor seals! One was blind (aww) but they were all so cute. After that we walked from the wharf to Johnson Street. Dad and I stopped at the Cactus Club Café, a British Columbia chain. We had yam fries and chicken fingers and they were delicious!

 

Then we went over to the Miniature World. There were so many different exhibits showing different things; there was the 1950 car rally, War of 1812, the World Wars, castles in Europe, different fairy tale stories… It was probably one of my favorite museums we went to. If you are ever in Victoria that would be one of the places I would recommend for sure.

To watch the sunset, we went up to Mount Douglas where we got a 360° view of the city. It was really cool. We went when it was somewhat foggy so we didn’t get to see the Olympic Mountains but the view was still super nice and made for an awesome panoramic picture.

Teen Across Canada Blog – Heading to the island

Bye, bye Vancouver! Hello Victoria!  We took BC Ferries from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay.  We passed through many of the islands in the Georgia Strait.

Right before coming to Vancouver Island we saw eagles flying everywhere… so awesome. At the pier on the mainland, we went to get an ice cream from a cute little shop and some Chinese food which was so good! On the ferry ride we played Clue in the RV – I won of course. After getting off the ferry we drove straight to Fort Victoria RV Park.

The first thing we did was visit the Visitor Centre of course. The lady there told us all the best spots to visit and things to do. We walked around downtown and stopped at Rogers Chocolate, Victoria’s famous chocolate shop. The manager told us about the history of Mr. Roger, how he would use only dark chocolate and how he was the first person to make stuffed chocolates (now known as Victoria Creams).

The next morning we went to Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse where we walked around Fort Rodd Hill and saw two batteries and an underground bullet holding room.

You could see the American Olympic Mountains and it was so cool. We walked over to the lighthouse and saw all sorts of ducks and plants around. (check out the pics on our Destinations page)

We had a picnic lunch then went to see a movie from the Victoria Film Festival. We watched My Internship in Canada, also called Guibord s’en va-t-en guerre in French. The movie starred Patrick Huard who played David Bouchard in Bon Cop Bad Cop and a great young actor Irdens Exantus, who we got to talk to after the film was over. The movie was so funny and definitely recommended.

The next day we went to Sidney, Canada’s only official book town (it has 12 bookstores). We went into each one. They had cool themes too; the haunted bookshop, the children’s bookstore, the military and history bookshop…

We walked around town and went to check out the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre. We saw an octopus, fish, starfish and other small sea creatures.

We walked down to the Sidney Pier then had a Chinese buffet for dinner. So yummy!