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Where to go in BC and Washington State from YVR Vancouver

Canada's Great Drives: Yellowhead Highway
Imagine your car is a time-capsule; cruising down a broad ribbon of Canadiana, in the wake of nomadic hunters, voyageurs, missionaries, traders, sodbusters, fortune-seekers and railroad builders. From Lake Manitoba to the Haida Gwa'ii (BC's Queen Charlotte Islands) , it's a 2600 km journey into history, with Indian encampments older than Egypt's great pyramids, national parks, ancient shrines and battle sites. Ethnic dances and pageants salute every facet of our heritage. " (continued)

 

Copters Fight Forest Fires
When he launched his career a few decades ago, Bruce Campbell probably hadn't the faintest idea of being in the helicopter business, or even in the aviation industry. So how did he end up getting totally involved with a helicopter fleet operation, fighting forest fires across Canada? (continued)



Vancouver scenes in fotomation


Discover North America Yearbook to feature
a variety of topics and stories


Alaska's Sawtooth Range by Train
My endless fascination with railways and railroad memorabilia goes back to childhood days, when the White Pass & Yukon Railway of Gold Rush fame was linked via Skagway, Alaska, to a vast transportation system of BC-Alaska Coastal steamships and Yukon riverboats. (continued)

The Top 100 for USA and Canada
You're never stuck for a place to go or things to see and do when you check the ABA's 100 Top Attractions plus our Activities Guide and the Events Calendar on this site. Watch for further details on this page.

Pride of the Royal Canadian Airforce
There she stands, the sleek Avro CF-100, pride of the Royal Canadian Air Force, proud and sassy as ever, her body gleaming in the sunshine of another spring. At RCAF Base Trenton, north of Toronto, when I first saw her 'dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings,' she was Canada's debutante, a grand new star in the theater of the air. (continued)


Adventure Islands and Inside Passage
I call them "The Adventure Islands," because the North Pacific has long been a magnet for adventurers and soldiers of fortune, including my father, who left the family's Seattle home for a post with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at Dawson City in the far Klondike. As for the Inside Passage, the Yukon's poet laureate, Robert Service, captured its majesty in his 'Songs of a Sourdough', Jack London immortalized it in Call of the Wild, and Pierre Berton chronicled it in Klondike. (continued) (map)

Footloose in Vancouver's West End
Having been footloose in Vancouver since the days of streetcars, interurban trams, White Lunch, Woodwards Toyland and Union Steamships, I consider the West End my special domain. Morning, noon or night, it's always an inviting place for rubber-neckers, casual strollers, browsers, grazers and window shoppers. A sea of umbrellas one moment, local denizens decked in everything from beachwear to high fashion the next. It's a passing parade, minus the 76 trombones-just waiting for you to follow along. (continued)

Historic Street Cars, Street Scenes, Street Smarts
"Just then, we heard the four o' clock interurban tram approaching. Brick red, bound for glory and the fertile fields of Chilliwack, it rounded Venables Street, lurching onto Commercial Drive like a drunken sailor. Noisy, menacing and top heavy, the interurban trams were the ugly ducklings of BC Electric's vast fleet. They were also its workhorses, linking a network of towns and villages with Vancouver's central core. The squeal of metal on metal drowned out the doctor's reply." (continued)

Klondike Memories and Yukon Gold
While most travelers approach the fabled 'Inside Passage' from various points due south, my first experience of this 1,200 mile Marine Highway, was from Canada's Klondike, having plied the Yukon River for four eventful days aboard the SS Casca, a classic paddle-wheeler ; chugging and puffing our way upstream from Dawson City to Whitehorse. After an overnight at the Regina Hotel, with its ornate lamps and Victorian furnishings, we boarded the narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Railway for a day trip, detraining on a wooden platform at historic Skagway. (continued)

SkyTrain: A Supermall 15 miles long..
Remember the grand old department stores of yesteryear - where a pert, petite, uniformed elevator operator sang out the stops as you rose at a stomach- churning rate? So, it was only Woodwards, but it felt like you were heading for the top floor of the Empire State Building. "Third floor - lingerie - perfumes - toiletries ..." Now, imagine a shopping area with 19 stops, offering a world of choice ... (continued)

Underground Adventure at Britannia Beach
On theSea-to-Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler-Blackcomb, is a unique tourist attraction, the museum at Britannia Beach. It's a salute to British Columbia's Mining industry and those who made their living underground.. Leaving Vancouver's North Shore via the "Upper Levels" you round the bend at Horseshoe Bay, where the BC ferry fleet departs for Nanaimo, the Adventure Islands and Sunshine Coast, then weave northward along the aptly-named Sea-to-Sky highway, to Whistler and points beyond. (continued)

Vision Quest's Canoe Journey into History
First Nations people from the Prince Rupert Hazelton area and points along the Inside Passage, joined Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in Vision Quest. The 1,000 mile canoe journey, followed the Skeena River to the Pacific, then headed south in a month long event. (continued)

Follow the Whirlybirds to Victoria? During the Burma Shave road sign era , the advertising slogan one would see for decades on billboards leading into BC from its neighbouring provinces and states was " Follow the Birds to Victoria." It conjured up all sorts of images to lure the vacation bound traveller. Today, after receiving requests about Helijet Airways from readers in Southern California and as far away as Africa, I would change the slogan ... (continued)

Footloose in Vancouver's Historic Gastown
Recently arrived for a cruise or convention? Just steps from Canada Place, where Alaska-bound cruise ships berth, Gastown begins.

Footloose in Stanley Park, the Beaches and English Bay
A sea of umbrellas one moment, local denizens decked in everything from beachwear to high fashion the next.

Footloose on an Old Fashioned Streetcar
Street Cars, Street Scenes, Street Smarts: Signs of Vancouver's Rail Renaissance.

More Adventure Topics
Adventure Islands: The North Pacific has long been a magnet for adventurers and soldiers of fortune.

Adventure Rails: My fascination with railways and railroad memorabilia goes back to childhood days in Northern Canada.

Adventure Roads: The Alaska Highway in peace and war.

Alaska Cruises: In the wake of Haida warriors, great explorers, Klondike miners and soldiers of fortune.

Art, Sculpture: Mansion, gardens and impressive variety of BC art and sculpture add up to a very unique display.

BC Attractions: Capsules featuring BC's most notable attractions.

BC Municipalities: It's the place to be for anyone who wants to do business with local government.

BC Vision Quest by Canoe:
A journey that shares cultures, traditions and History.

Bellingham, Wa:
Old Fairhaven, Alaska Marine Highway Cruise Terminal, the Colophon bookstore, and many quaint, turn of the century buildings.
Canadian Pacific: Famous rails roll again as you circle tour the Rockies from Calgary via Kicking Horse and Crowsnest.
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Chilcotin Dreaming: Where the icy splendor of the Coast Range yields to the aridity of the interior plateau.

Footloose in Vancouver: Morning, noon or night, it's always an inviting place for rubber neckers, casual strollers, browsers, grazers and window shoppers.

Helijet Airways: Follow the Whirlybirds to Victoria?

Klondike Memories: My first experience of this 1,200 mile Marine Highway, was from Canada's Klondike.

Queen Charlotte Islands: Give Grant Paulson a stretch of ocean to land on any day, even when the winds are blowing across the runway.

Seaplane Travel: This archipelago's first European discoverers were the Spaniards.


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