Teen Across Canada Blog – Part 1 Remembering the Island

We’ve had a crazy past few months and are on our way up to the Yukon!  Before we get to far north, let me tell you all about Vancouver Island. I loved it and can’t wait to return someday!

For my mom’s birthday she and dad went out all weekend to leave me to make a birthday dinner for Sunday night. Since my mom likes to try a bunch different things, we made her all of her favourite foods in small quantities.

The next day we went down to the wharf again to go whale watching. We took Eagle Tours and went on a wildlife and nature tour. Although we didn’t end up seeing any whales (too early) we saw a huge colony of seals and sea lions. We saw eagles as well.

We went to Sooke to explore where we ended up going to all the beaches up to Port Renfrew.

On our way we stopped at Spirit Bay where we were taught about how the native land is being used to make eco-friendly homes based on their conditions. It is a beautiful and amazing place to retire to or vacation to. We spent the rest of the day exploring the large attractions. At a park we saw three large attractions which turned out to be children’s playground equipment. There was an octopus, a salmon and a dragon. At a Marina there was a giant killer whale at the entrance and a fun surprise – three harbour seals!

We went to the Craigdarroch Castle which had five floors and was huge! It took us hours to walk around… hard not to get lost that’s for sure.

We walked down to the Robert Bateman gallery where some of Robert Bateman’s original paintings are on display. There were a bunch of small exhibits, a short video and a timeline of his family, his work and important dates in his life. The most impactful exhibit was where he showed how humans affect the life of animals. For example one painting was of a duck in an oil spill with another stuck in plastic can holder. There was another one of a polar bear floating away on a small piece of ice indicating global warming. We went on a tour of the Parliament. It was really cool to see the inside and learn about its history.

We went over to the Royal British Columbia Museum, next door. It was probably one of the biggest museums we’ve ever been in during this trip! We couldn’t even explore the whole thing and we were there a long time.

Overall Victoria is an amazing place and I can’t wait to visit again. There is so much to see and do we could easily spend another 6 weeks there and still not see everything.

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Teen Across Canada Blog -At #ExPlace in #cityofpg

Prince George (#cityofpg) is such an awesome city!  We went to the tourism centre to see what was going on in town and the woman there was super nice and made sure we had the tourism coupons to attractions in the area – including #ExPlace! She even helped us plan our trip up north. So we went to the Exploration Place which was so cool.  (Watch the video below)

We weren’t sure what to expect but it was a really nice surprise.  There was an exhibit on dinosaurs, showing a ton found in Alberta.

Then there was an exhibit on Prince George’s history which was super interesting. My favorite parts were learning about the Outrigger restaurant owned by May and Jack Lee, a Chinese couple who just moved to Vancouver. 

I also liked the part where they had a replica of the jail cell… Don’t want to be stuck in there, though! There was a small room for videos and we watched a few different ones. One was about interviews with people living in Prince George and why they love their city. There was an exhibit on the Canadian Winter Games of 2015 hosted in Prince George. It was so well done, we felt like we were actually at the Games.  The final exhibit was filled with animals. They had about 10 baby chicks that were so cute and so fluffy! There was a magpie (bird) that was walking around freely and picking things up off the shelves. He was so fun to watch. They have stuffed animals as well like moose, bear, goat, ram, bison and so many more! The two guys that worked there, Chris and Rylan, were so helpful and told us so much about all the animals in BC and the magpie.

The receptionist was so awesome. She is from Victoria and absolutely loves it so we were talking about our adventures and sharing our travels with her. She was super nice and extremely helpful! Prince George has been amazing to us and we love it here. It is such an awesome and practical town to live in… They have everything here. Can’t wait to see where our adventure will take us next!

Teen Across Canada Blog – A night with the stars in Prince George

What an amazing journey we’ve had in British Columbia… And it’s not nearly done! Now we are in Prince George, in Northern BC on the route to the Yukon. Prince George is the largest city in northern BC. It is known as the “Northern Capital” of British Columbia.

On our first night we went to visit the Prince George Astronomical Society Observatory. They were super nice and taught us all about the planets, the moon and our solar system.

After our lesson we went up to the observatory to use the telescope and see the moon. A little fun surprise we got was to see Jupiter! How awesome is that? We could see the planet as well as its four moons. Our moon was huge, bright and beautiful. We could clearly see the craters and basins on the moon. It was so amazing to see it and feel so close even though it’s 370,300 km away!  We learned that Jupiter can be seen with the naked eye for the next few months. Sure enough the next night, we could see it right next to the moon. You know that it’s Jupiter and not a star because stars twinkle and planets don’t. Now we are more and more aware of our solar system and what’s happening in the sky at night.

We also learned about red lights and why they get used instead of regular lights when stargazing. Red light does not degrade a person’s night vision like “white” lights do. Essentially, you can keep your night vision while also being able to see thanks to red lights.
We would like to thank Maurice, who was kind enough to give us the presentation of our solar system and Glen Harris who took hours from his time to do a presentation of the Moon. He answered all of our questions and was so amazing to talk to.

Glen came back the next day, at our RV to give us a Star Finder. How thoughtful is that?

Thank you lots Glen!

Teen Across Canada Blog – #tagwhistler is it!

While we were up in Whistler, we went Zip lining with #tagwhistler.  I’ve never gone zip lining and the first time I went, it was on the second longest one in Canada!

I would like to say a huge thank you to The Adventure Group at Whistler for helping us organize and experience the zip lines. It was probably one of the most fun adventures we’ve done.

(Watch this video and share it. What a great adventure!)

First we took a bus to get to the base of Cougar Mountain where the adventure starts. It
was a 14 minute ride where we passed beautiful lakes and the amazing mountains. When we got there, we met our guides, Joshua and Christopher.

We tried on helmets for the ride up. Then we put the harnesses on which were slightly uncomfortable and made it seem like we were wearing a huge diaper! We sat in a huge and totally cool 4 x 4 and drove 20 kilometers up the mountain. It was such a fun ride, it made me want to go ATVing (hopefully we can do that soon). It went from 26° to 0° – mud and dirt to snow and ice all within 5 minutes.

We walked for about a minute to our first zip line, Z1. It is the highest zip line in Canada at 642 feet up and 1.3 KM long! It was a little scary at first but once you were on, it was awesome! The only thing that threw me off guard was the wind; I didn’t expect it to be so strong. So when I got off, my eyes were watering like crazy but it’s all part of the fun! There were only 8 people in our group and we always went two at a time so we didn’t have to wait long at all.

When everyone was done, we walked another couple hundred feet to Z2 – like I said, they’re great with names. That one is the second longest in Canada. Although currently it is the first because the longest is closed for the season. If you look to the left when you go down, you can see a little garden gnome. No one is sure how it got there but it is always funny to look at.

Another couple hundred feet and we were at Godzilla. This one was tough to get up because you had to walk up a mini 35° suspension bridge; again, all part of the fun! This one was short but incredibly fast and on such an angle that it reminded me of the Leviathan at Canada’s Wonderland. On that line, you would reach your top speed in exactly 3 seconds. That one was probably my favorite.

The last one… the Lover’s one. It’s called that because the two people going at the same time are so close that they can hold hands.

Chris and Josh, the guides, were so awesome.  They were incredibly helpful and super fun to talk to. Chris is from Australia and had such a cool accent and Josh is from London, Ontario but has parents in Saskatchewan. They were amazing and remembered everyone’s name. It was one of the best excursions I have ever been on and I would definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone. I would for sure go back to do it all over again!

Teen Across Canada Blog – YEAH #WBTurns50

We went up to Whistler (#WBTurns50), a world renowned skiing village… boy did we go beyond! (#WBGoBeyond) I thought I knew what skiing villages were, after all I had been to Blue Mountain in Collingwood, Ontario and a few other mountains in Quebec but now I understand why Whistler is so famous.  I feel like saying ‘ski village’ is an understatement, it’s more like a ‘ski city’… It looks bigger than some of the towns we visited in Newfoundland!

 

Whistler is known for holding the winter Olympics of 2010 and I’m actually surprised they didn’t hold any Olympics sooner. It is very well developed and has the capacity for large groups of people. We got to see a few mini Olympic monuments like the giant rings!  When we went it was 26°! That’s warmer than we’ve had the entire trip, even last summer! (Watch this video below)

People were out in t-shirts and shorts, skiing, snowboarding or just walking around. It was such a beautiful day and everyone we met said it was perfect for spring skiing.  We were able to have an awesome time experiencing Whistler – even though we didn’t end up skiing or snowboarding – thanks to Whistler Tourism. They were amazing, helpful, extremely generous and incredibly kind. We got passes to take the Peak to Peak which is a gondola that goes from one mountain to the other. The view was phenomenal and I think not possible to see unless you take a gondola or a plane. The pictures we took don’t even do it justice.

The Peak to Peak breaks three world records; including the World’s highest lift of its kind, the World’s longest lift unsupported (free) span for a lift of this kind and the World’s longest continuous lift system. It goes 7.5 meters per second and takes 11 minutes from one peak to the other. The highest point when crossing is at 436 meters(1 427 feet)! Each cabin can take up to 28 people (24 sitting down and 4 standing up) and there are 28 cabins. That means that in total it can take 4 100 people every single hour! The total distance is 4.4 kilometers one way.

It was such an amazing ride! On the way back, we went on the silver gondola which had a glass floor so you could see down. Not really recommended if you’re afraid of heights but definitely worth doing at least once. You can see skiers and snowboarders and in the summer apparently bears are visible as well.

If I were a skier Whistler would definitely be number one on my list!