Sunday, June 5 Enjoying southern BC

After a simple breakfast at our motel, we took a brief swing through the pleasant downtown area of Hope, but didn’t take pictures.  Jim wished that he had taken a few minutes to take some pictures of some of the creatures carved into tree stumps.  Later, he read that Hope has the world’s largest collection of “chainsaw art” – over 50 pieces. We saw 3 or 4 of them, but weren’t looking.

Our first stop for the day was Minter Gardens, nominally in the town of Chilliwack, but actually 16 km to the east of the center of town. The gardens are spectacular! There are numerous pathways throughout the gardens that open up onto wonderful vistas complete with fountains and small waterfalls.  There were numerous displays.  Among them were a formal garden and a peacock whose tail was done in plants.

 

 The variety of plants is amazing.

 There are several pavilions set up with chairs for weddings.  This is truly a gorgeous place for an outdoor wedding.  In addition to huge numbers of horticultural displays, there was a unique vegetable garden and a very fun children’s garden (Jim especially liked that).

Ardith got to help supervise the gardening.

 We also enjoyed a water feature pouring down from a row of columns.

We spent all morning in the gardens. We had a snack in the indoor conservatory and watched square dancers arriving in their full skirts. We weren’t sure if they were arriving there for a special event or just enjoying the gardens after having danced somewhere else.

Next we ventured to the nearby Bridal Falls.  Signs about thieves made Ardith a bit uneasy but there was no evidence of anyone trying to break into cars.  The falls were incredible.  The massive amount of water pouring over the rocks really did look like a very large bridal veil. Jim chose to go past the railing, despite the signs warning against doing that.  Ardith wasn’t too happy about his decision, but he got great pictures. The falls are the 6^th tallest in Canada, and well worth hiking up to see.  There are a lot of trees growing out of stumps.  Jim especially liked those.

We stopped at the Ranchers Restaurant near the falls and had the strangest waitress, probably suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  She greeted us at the door and said she would be right with us, then proceeded to wipe off a table for us but didn’t actually seat us.  She rearranged the salt and pepper shakers and then went to the kitchen.  Another waitress actually seated us.  The first waitress finally brought us menus and said she’d be right back, which didn’t happen for almost 10 minutes.  While we waited for our food, she re-wiped the three tables next to us, which had already been cleaned.  She rearranged the salt and pepper shakers in a straight line for the third time. When our food finally arrived she had picked up the wrong plate and had to take Ardith’s order back to the kitchen and bring the correct one to us.  The food was great; Jim had a soft taco and cream of turkey soup, and Ardith had a meatloaf sandwich. 

We got back on the road and stopped in Abbotsford and briefly visited the local park. We watched two men playing chess with pieces that were each close to 2 feet high.  There was a horseshoe club having a series of 8 to 10 games being played at once.

We headed on toward Vancouver and hit lots of traffic. Our destination was Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver.  We are staying in a bed and breakfast called Picture Perfect, and it is well named. Our hosts, Dave and Lesley, are very friendly and their house is beautiful. Our room is very large, nicely furnished, and we have access to the living room and the garden.  We were served tea when we checked in.

Later in the evening we linked up with our friend Diane.  Jim met her at the Smithsonian and we visited with her in Panama when we were there in February.  She lives in Panama from October until June and then comes to British Columbia from June until October, with a few weeks in DC in between. We walked on the Steveson’s (a section of Richmond) river walk which is a restored cannery, fishery and boatbuilding district from the late 1800s. 

We ate at a waterfront restaurant called the Blue Canoe.  Jim had line caught cod and prawns over linguini; Ardith had Canadian Angus steak with a spinach salad that included bacon and hot potatoes: our friend Diane had a modified seafood salad. We had a great meal and a very pleasant walk back to Diane’s condo.  We were treated to a spectacular sunset on our way.