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CULTURE June 2, 2021

10 Quarantine Fraser Valley Father’s Day Activities

As we speak it’s hard not to be struck by all of the things going on in the world and some online writers mentioning how difficult it is to think about celebrating Father’s Day this year. We want to honor that and at the same time celebrate the men in our lives Fraser Valley style.

1_ Celebrate Online Many businesses still are trending at full capacity so the typical Father’s Day brunch probably isn’t happening this year. you can still gather just be aware of what the restrictions are in your area and be sensitive to elderly people and whether or not you have been potentially exposed to the virus. you might be getting tired of it but a family Zoom celebration is an alternative especially if you have family members who might have recently been exposed to the virus.

2_ Celebrate Outdoors It’s a little easier and potentially a little safer to gather Outdoors. we expect parks and public places to be quite full so maybe consider celebrating fathers day in your backyard if that is an option.

3_ Celebrate at home Of course if your family has been living together and you want to celebrate at home you have lots of traditional options to choose from Like having brunch and playing family games.

4_ Hiking or going for a walk Many of the local trails are open to the people who live in the area, so why not go for a leisurely walk with your home crew. Some of our favourite walking trails include some Langley trails like Derby Reach (easy), the Fort to Fort Trail (easy), and Houston Trailhead (moderate). The dikes in Pitt Meadows are flat and have wonderful views. The trails in the lower part of Golden Ears Provincial Park A suggestion for a Golden Ears walk is to park in the Main Corral Parking Lot which is just after the entrance to the park and then follow the signs for the Mike Lake Trail (moderate).

5_ Do a home beer tasting party Pick up beers from your local breweries and do your own beer tasting. You can do this online too. Some of our favorite Fraser Valley breweries include Yellow Dog Brewing in Port Moody, Dead Frog Brewing in Langley, and Fieldhouse Brewery in Abbotsford. There are so many good breweries to choose from these days!

6_ Revisit some of the best games in sports history Many of the sports channels are still forced to show reruns. You can check the channel guide now and schedule recordings of anything that might show up for your Dad’s favorite teams.

7_ Go Fishing You will have to do some research to find out where you can fish in the Fraser Valley because finding a place to fish that is open is a challenge right now. One place to start is the Fishing the Fraser Valley brought to you by BritishColumbia.com. Check out the guide and then contact the location that you think might suit you. It will ruin the surprise, but if the man in your life likes to fish, he will know if his favorite location is open, so you can always check with him first.

8_ Go for a bike ride – Bike sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic. If you have a bike it’s a great way to practice social distancing and get some exercise. One of our favorite Fraser Valley rides is to park in Fort Langley and then head out on River Road for as long as you want. With some maneuvering, you can ride all the way to Abbotsford if you want (difficult)! When you get back to Fort Langley there are all sorts of restaurants, coffee shops, and bistros to visit.

9_ Go on virtual tour – Check out this article from Town and Country on how to do a virtual tour to some of the most spectacular places on earth – https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a31900863/best-virtual-tours/ For an amazing Fraser Valley historical virtual tour see Sq’éwlets: A Stó:lō-Coast Salish Community in the Fraser River Valley

10_ If you follow FV Lifestyle you know we are big fans of shopping local and wine. The Fraser Valley has some great wineries, so why not pick up some local wine and do an in-person or online wine tasting. To discover Fraser Valley wines see https://winebc.com/discover-bc-wine-country/fraser-valley/ Shout out: If you like blends and are open to recommendations one of our current favorites is Reserve 7 from Township 7

COMMUNITY July 2, 2020

10 Things to Do On A Fraser Valley Staycation

Staycation Definition – “a vacation spent in one’s home country rather than abroad, or one spent at home and involving day trips to local attractions.” ~ Oxford Languages

1_ You don’t have to travel far to feel like you have had a break. There are plenty of local bed and breakfasts, Airbnb’s, hotels and campsites to stay at just to give yourself a change of scenery and a break from your regular household routines. Here is where to stay in Langley https://www.tourism-langley.ca/business_type/stay/ Abbotsford https://tourismabbotsford.ca/stay/ and Surrey https://discoversurreybc.com/stay/

2_ Go for a hike or walk. The Fraser Valley has an abundance of wonderful places to go for a walk or hike. Here’s a list of places you can walk or hike in Surrey https://www.alltrails.com/canada/british-columbia/surrey Abbotsford https://tourismabbotsford.ca/hikes-and-walks-around-abbotsford/ and Langley https://www.tourism-langley.ca/

3_ We mentioned this for Father’s Day, but here it is again: Go Fishing You will have to do some research to find out where you can fish in the Fraser Valley because finding a place to fish that is open is a challenge right now. One place to start is the Fishing the Fraser Valley brought to you by BritishColumbia.com. Check out the guide and then contact the location that you think might suit you. It will ruin the surprise, but if the man in your life likes to fish, he will know if his favorite location is open, so you can always check with him first.

4_ Play Tourist in the Fraser Valley. When was the last time you visited historic Fort Langley or went for a walk down Marine Drive in White Rock? It hasn’t opened yet due to COVID-19, but when it does you could always go for a ride with Surrey’s Heritage Rail https://fvhrs.org/. Nearly every community in the Fraser Valley has a Museum. We also expect these to be opening soon and when they do, why not do a museum tour?

Here are some random ideas we collected from around the internet that can be done at home…

5_ Spa Day – Having spa days and pampering days was a favorite around our place when our girls still lived at home. You can do a DIY at-home spa day with a friend, go to a spa, or have the spa come to you. See https://tonjourspa.com/ to book a spa day with an esthetician who will come to you.

6_ Get moving! Vacations are a great time to start an exercise routine or to ramp it up a bit. Plus, there are plenty of new apps and videos to work out too. One of our favorite apps these days is the Nike Training Club app or NTC which is free. It has a whole range of workouts including yoga. See https://www.nike.com/ca/ntc-app

7_ Go camping… in your own yard. Break out the camping gear and pitch a tent in your own yard.

8_ Host your own film festival. Pick a theme like romcoms, action films, dramas, documentaries, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and more! Make some popcorn, grab your favorite beverage, and have some fun!

9_ Hold a house concert. Do you know a local artist or two that wouldn’t mind playing in your home by donation or for a certain ticket price? Book an artist, and invite some friends and family over. House concerts can be amazing. Do you want to hold a house concert and you’re not sure who to book? Check out side door for a list of artists who are willing to do house concerts and a list of “how to’s”

10_ Volunteer. What organization in your community could use some help? Do you have a friend or a family member who could use some help with yard work or some other chores? Volunteering can be invigorating, so be open to what can be done in your community.

Photo: Derby Reach Campground in Langley, BC by My North Langley Youtube

COMMUNITY April 30, 2020

Changing Wedding Plans During COVID-19

By Becca Toews

All of us have experienced some level of loss during this COVID-19 pandemic. It ranges from canceled plans to loss of loved ones, loss of freedom to loss of safety while going about your job.

Large events have been canceled and while some of us are grieving a concert or sporting event we were looking forward to, many Fraser Valley residents have been faced with the decision about what to do about their upcoming weddings. As we head into summer, more and more people are having to make the decision to postpone or seriously alter their plans for how their wedding day will look.

Jenn Bateman

Jenn Bateman, a Fraser Valley wedding officiant, has had a varied response from couples who had planned to get married this spring. “Some have just chosen to reschedule to 2021, some have chosen to forgo a large wedding and just have a small ceremony with under 10 people, and some people are having a simple ceremony this year and then we’re doing their big wedding, that they rescheduled next year, so essentially two ceremonies.”

There really are lots of options, though none of them ideal. Weddings take so much time, energy and money to plan and it can be really disappointing to give up the wedding you’ve always dreamed of. It can also be a beautiful experience.

Jenn says, “I’m a big believer that weddings don’t need to be long and drawn out in order to be special and meaningful. Starting a life together is intimate and special and deserves to feel that way, and sometimes all of the fanfare with big contemporary weddings can take some of that away. For those who choose to go ahead now- This unique circumstance of limiting weddings might be a chance for some couples to enter into that lifetime partnership in a really meaningful way. But it also deserves a celebration, so I’m hoping for a lot of one-year anniversary parties with family and friends so they get that too.”

Ceremony Changes

When it comes to the practical moments of the ceremony, Jenn says she has had to make some changes, such as not touching the rings and bringing along separate pens for signing the paperwork, “I don’t come within six feet of any of the wedding guests and I make sure that the couple has checked with us about health measures beforehand. We definitely want to be able to accommodate people who still want to get married in the most simple way and still make it special for them”

Cody and Analea

One couple, Cody and Analea (Styles) Friesen held their wedding ceremony two weeks early after gathering restrictions were announced in March. They had planned on a very large wedding of 500 people and ended up having eighteen people in attendance, following the restrictions of no gatherings over fifty people that were set at the time. Cody says, “Our concern was more of ‘are we still able to get married’ because we were at the start of the COVID-19 wave, we didn’t have a lot to go off of.”

“This is why we moved the date up two weeks – worried that we would go into complete lockdown and [we would be] unable to get married at all,” adds Analea.

The Hardest Part

When asked what the hardest part of changing their wedding day was, Cody responds, “The hardest part was not having all of our guests there to witness and celebrate with us. As well as that everything about our day was different other than the person that we got to marry.“

“Losing the people,” adds Analea, “not even having our full wedding party or best friends or grandparents being able to attend was heartbreaking.”

YouTube

Cody and Analea had a great plan when it came to sharing their ceremony with their invited guests. On April 4th, which was the date they had planned for their wedding, they uploaded and published the video from their wedding ceremony to YouTube and invited all their guests to join them for their “virtual wedding” They both went live on their Instagram and Facebook (dressed in their wedding suit and dress) to answer questions, explain what had happened, and watch their ceremony with everyone on YouTube.

An Unexpected Tiny Wedding

Even though their wedding wasn’t exactly what they had expected, there are still parts of it that they will look back on with fondness, “The beautiful intimacy of [the] tiny wedding was actually so amazing. There was less pressure and the ability to be so natural and real with one another. The support and love from our community even from a distance was heartwarming and so encouraging. The realization that all that really mattered was marrying this person – not any of the extra pieces – was so special.”

While communicating with your guests and the wedding party is at the top of the advice list, one of the most important things to remember is,

“Breathe,” says Cody, “this is not normal, and that’s okay. Keep the main thing the main thing. You are marrying the love of your life and that is enough”.

It Could Be Sad

Analea also has some advice for once the wedding day has passed and you’ve started your new life together, “realize it’s still going to be hard after the wedding. You’re going to be sad about what you lost and maybe struggle with disappointment, envy, and frustration, but it’s truly worth it. We’ve never regretted it for one second”.

Give and Take

Regardless of a pandemic, weddings are a time of giving and taking. So often brides and grooms think their wedding day will be exactly what they want, only to get to the planning stage and realize that their parents and other people close to them have ideas about what the day should look like too.

The Important Stuff

The wedding planning process is the perfect time to practice compromise, weighing what is really important to you and what you are willing to let go of. It seems like that is what couples are facing now, more than ever. Weighing what is the most important part of your event and making decisions based on what is best for you.

Celebrate Love

Whether you are facing a wedding that doesn’t look like what you always thought it would be, or you’re grieving the fact that you can’t be there for a wedding of someone close to you, this is a time to celebrate love, to celebrate commitment and care for one another, and to cheer on those people who are probably thinking a lot these days about vowing, “in sickness and in health”.

Photos Jamie Delane