“Canada’s most adventurous metropolis is home to ten beaches, from the family-centric Jericho to the clothing-optional Wreck Beach, many of which offer commanding views of the Vancouver skyline and majestic North Shore Mountains. Sporty types prefer Kitsilano or ‘Kits,’ a six-minute drive from downtown, for its free tennis and basketball courts, and its super-size heated saltwater pool.”
— National Geographic Magazine, July 2010

Vancouver joins excellent company in receiving a top 10 beach cities accolade from the well-respected publication. Canada’s west coast city joins popular tourist destinations of Cape Town, Honolulu, Sydney, and Rio de Janeiro in the magazine’s ranking.

National Geographic ranked Vancouver in tenth place — after Barcelona, Cape Town, Honolulu, Nice, Miami, Rio, Santa Monica, Sydney and Tel Aviv.

Popular beaches with Vancouver visitors, and residents alike, include: Sunset Beach (English Bay), Kitsilano, Jericho, Third Beach (Stanley Park), Ambleside (West Vancouver). And another favourite beach of locals (who prefer to beachcomb naked) is Wreck Beach near the University of British Columbia on the city’s west side.

photo credit: iwona_kellie

Lady Gaga, one of pop’s new stars, is coming to Vancouver. An American singer, songwriter and performance artist, she began performing in the rock music scene of New York City’s Lower East Side, and has written hit songs for New Kids on the Block, Fergie, the Pussycat Dolls — as well as for Britney Spears.

Tickets: $49.50 to $417.50
Venue & Time: Rogers Arena, downtown Vancouver; 7:00 p.m.

About Lady Gaga (Source: LadyGaga.com):
“When Lady Gaga was a little girl, she would sing along on her mini plastic tape recorder to Michael Jackson and Cyndi Lauper hits and get twirled in the air in daddy’s arms to the sounds of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. The precocious child would dance around the table at fancy Upper West Side restaurants using the breadsticks as a baton. And, she would innocently greet a new babysitter in nothing but her birthday suit.”

Vancouver’s Empire Fields — built as Empire Stadium for the 1954 Empire and Commonwealth Games — is enjoying a new lease on life and temporary ’stadium’ status while a new roof is built for BC Place Stadium. The resuscitated, temporary stadium will accommodate up to 27,500 fans — 20,000 on under-cover, bucket style seats — with the rest of the fans braving the elements on benches at both ends of the field.

One of Empire Stadium’s claims to fame — and there’ve been many — was that it saw both Roger Bannister and John Landy break the four-minute mile at the 1954 Empire Games. Billed as The Miracle Mile, Australian Landy lost to Bannister in the split-second it took him to glance back at the last bend to gauge Bannister’s position, allowing the Briton to sweep by and beat him by 0.8 of a second in 3 mins 58.8 seconds. Bannister burst past on Landy’s right, and never lost the lead.

Bannister was the first runner ever to break the four-minute mile barrier, though at the time of the Miracle Mile, Landy held the world record.

A 1967 bronze statue by Vancouver sculptor Jack Harman stands near the site today. It was based on an amazing photo by then Vancouver Sun photographer Charlie Warner, who captured the precise moment of Landy’s fateful backward glance with Bannister about to flash by.

photo credit: quinet

Empire stadium was home turf for Canadian Football League’s BC Lions for 29 years — 1954-1983 — and hosted the CFL’s Grey Cup finals in 1955, 1958, 1960, 1963, 1966, 1971 and 1974 — seven times in all. In 1970, it became the first Canadian stadium to be fitted with Tartan Turf — the 3M brand name for the artificial playing surface. During the 1970s and early 80s, Empire Stadium was also home to the North American Soccer League’s Vancouver Whitecaps who, along with the Lions, moved to the new BC Place stadium for the 1983 season.

The current artificial turf is from BC Place. When the BC Place renovation is complete, Empire Fields will revert to its 27-year-old role as a community playing field. When it first opened, Empire stadium seated 32,375, reduced in 1974 to 30,229. Empire Stadium was also Vancouver’s venue for both Elvis Presley (1957) and The Beatles in 1964.

Broadway Across Canada presents the Tony award–winning musical, featuring music by Elton John and Tim Rice — on stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in downtown Vancouver until August 8.

The musical is based on Disney’s award-winning film and uses more than 230 elaborate masks and puppets to bring Africa to life on stage. For more information, see: www.broadwayacrosscanada.ca — or view a preview video on YouTube (sorry, embedding the video is not enabled).

Tickets: $26.50 to $98.50 (plus service charges and fees).

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre is located at Hamilton Street and Georgia Street; Phone: 604-665-3050.

… or, as a recent visitor wrote: “It was like stepping into a Monet painting.”

WIG — more formally known as Western Independent Greenhouses — for more than 20 years has been cultivating and propagating a world of horticultural exotica, every bit as colourful as Claude Monet’s garden, in Giverny, France. The world-famous Monet garden — about 80 km from Paris — is where the 19th/20th century artist (b. 1840, d. 1926) found inspiration for much of his work during the last 40 years of his life.

WIG is in the vanguard of what’s been called ” … one of the hottest new trends” in North American gardening — and in its own modest but hugely colourful way, is inspirational floral art in the making. WIG’s huge collection of succulents, echeveria, and aeoniums is one of the largest in North America — and as the company’s fledgling website puts it: “These low maintenance treasures are making a big impact in the Lower Mainland (Metro Vancouver) this year and no doubt, for years to come.”

After modest beginnings as a retail garden shop in Burnaby and North Vancouver, BC, owner/operators Alfred and Dan Kwan began building their own greenhouses in 1986 and have since scoured the world in search of tropical and sub-tropical plants capable of surviving in sheltered conditions in southwestern BC. They come in an impressive (and Impressionist) range of colours — reds, yellows, blues, pinks, purples and pastels. Alongside the greenhouses, the now substantial retail outlet continues to thrive, with plants ranging from some small enough to fit into two-inch pots, to ‘king-size’ designer specimens with prices to match. Small ones can cost as little as $2.99. The jumbo showpieces, $30 or more.

Western Independent Greenhouses is located at 6151 Thorpe Avenue, just off Marine Way, South Burnaby — a worthwhile half-hour’s drive from Vancouver city centre. For further information, WIG can be reached by calling (604) 521-3138, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. PST, or by email at wig55@shaw.ca.

You gotta love the Cactus Club restaurants. When I dine out with friends or family and consider where to go in Vancouver, we often end up at the Cactus Club. This restaurant certainly has evolved over the years and, in my opinion, does not disappoint guests in food and service quality and beautiful, west coast architecture-inspired venues.

Cactus Club’s culinary vision is lead by Canada’s only Iron Chef, Rob Feenie. After successfully running his own Lumiere restaurant — with great culinary acclaim — Chef Rob Feenie was appointed Food Concept Architect for Cactus Club Restaurants. What a great decision by entrepreneurial owner Richard Jaffray!

Working alongside Chef Feenie is a talented team of 20-plus Red Seal Chefs and over 50 apprentices. Cactus Club offers a diverse menu and as their Web site states: “serves only the highest quality ingredients available.” Their seafood is bought fresh and locally, and is guaranteed ocean-friendly and ecologically sustainable by OceanWise and the Vancouver Aquarium.

Their menu provides great choices and some of my favourites include the crispy yam fries (to start), the pistachio-crusted halibut with Thai red curry sauce for my entree, and, if I have room for dessert, their delectable key lime pie. My kids love the Portabello mushroom fajitas and burgers.

Quality service is provided by knowledgeable, friendly, well-presented staff who embrace the company’s “House of Yes” motto.

Cactus Club receives the green light for English Bay and the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre locations

Beachfront dining will become a reality at English Bay by the summer of 2011. This was confirmed recently by the Vancouver Parks Board voted to approve a staff report recommending Cactus Club Restaurants be allowed to build a restaurant and concession stand beachside near the corner of Denman and Davie streets. This will be a great addition to English Bay dining options for tourists and locals alike. The restaurant will be called the Cactus Club Cafe and replace the present concession stand. Construction is planned to start in September, with the new restaurant opening by Summer, 2011.

The other day I also read in The Vancouver Sun newspaper that Cactus Club will open a new restaurant overlooking the downtown waterfront, next to the new Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre and the Winter Olympics cauldron, in an existing stand-alone building. This 500-seat restaurant — with a planned opening date of Fall 2010 — will feature two patios with outstanding views; surely it will be in the top three locations to dine in the city!

The Vancouver Sun reports “the menu will be similar to others, but will be tweaked to serve the downtown, tourist, and Convention Centre market.”

Owner Jaffray shares his enthusiasm for Vancouver and the new Cactus Club location: “I believe in Vancouver for the long term. The more I travel, the more I realize what a gem of a city we have. The world discovered that during the Olympics. I’m confident the economy, certainly for the city and for the province, too, is going to do well. This is a great city to do business in, even in challenging economic times.”

For more information about the Cactus Club, see: www.cactusclubcafe.com

2010 Cactus Club Awards

• Best Casual Restaurant Chain — Gold
• Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards, 2010
  Canada’s Top Employers for Young People, 2010
• Canada’s Top Employers — Presented by KPMG
  Green Table Award
• Where to Dine Awards, Where Vancouver 2009
  Best Chain Restaurant — 1st Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010
  Best Restaurant Washroom — 1st Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010 Best Restaurant for Drink Specials — 1st Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010 Best Restaurant to Flirt In — 1st Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010 Best Restaurant for People-Watching — 1st Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010 Best Appetizers — 2nd Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010 Best Restaurant Atmosphere — 2nd Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010 Best Wings — 2nd Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010 Best Salads — 2nd Place
• Georgia Straight Golden Plate Readers Choice Awards 2010

KID’S VIEW — Plumper Cove Marine Provincial Park and Campground, on Keats Island, is a fantastic place to set up your tent. It’s fun for the whole family on Keats. Kids can play tag, roast marshmallows, go swimming, beachcombing and exploring.

To get to Plumper Cove, you take a boat (or a water taxi from Gibsons Harbour to Keats Landing).

On the back side of the camping site, there’s a great little pebble beach for swimming and picnicking. I love swimming at the Cove on a hot summer day.

Plumper Cove has 20 walk-in camping sites available — some with excellent views of Howe Sound and the town of Gibsons. You should go late morning to get a good camp site.

I love camping on Keats and I hope you will too!
— Written by Emma, age 10

Artwork by Emma, age 10

Western Canada’s largest professional tennis event with $175,000 in prize money: July 31 – August 8, 2010 at West Vancouver’s Hollyburn Country Club.

Tickets on sale now — with day passes starting from $17. For more information, see: www.vanopen.com.

The Odlum Brown VanOpen tournament consistently helps launch players to compete in future Grand Slam tennis. Famous VanOpen alumni include:

(2002) Maria Sharapova — Russia

• VanOpen Champion 2002
• Career high World Ranking #1
• 2004 Wimbledon Champion, 2006 US Open Champion, 2008 Australian Open Champion
• Career high world ranking #1
• Highest endorsed female athlete in the world

(2005) Andy Murray — Great Britain

• Quarter-finalist in VanOpen 2005
• Career-high World Ranking: #2
• #1 player in Great Britain
• Semi-finalist in Wimbledon 2010 and 2009
• Finalist US Open 2008

Come out and see the future Grand Slam stars in a prestigious West Vancouver setting — with fantastic views of the Vancouver city skyline!

… that’s to say, under the sky, the stars or — if you’re ambling around Stanley Park’s abundance of forested trails — a soaring canopy of old and not-so-old-growth trees.

There’s no doubt Vancouver’s city fathers — its first council — had great vision back in 1886 when they dedicated the superbly-situated 1,000-acre peninsula as park and recreational land in perpetuity, and hardly-surprising that it’s been the city’s top-drawing resident and visitor venue for most of the past century and a quarter.

In his July 2 feature, Sun reporter Don Cayo went on to describe Stanley Park as “… one of the finest urban parks anywhere … a place for walking and thinking. For cycling. For smelling the roses, or whatever’s in season … (and) for playing with grandkids when they visit.” Cayo’s particular bent is photography, and the account of his love affair with the park is illustrated with some outstanding black and white photographs of some of its wild birds — barred owl, wood duck, widgeon and Virginia Rail — to name but a few of the many species to be found.

photo credit: abdallahh

Like bird-watching and photography, many of Stanley Park’s other activities are free. Its rose, rhododendron and azalea gardens, Prospect Point’s carpet bedding, a community garden near Lost Lagoon and ornamental plantings near the Beach Avenue entrance are entirely free — and always worth a dawdle. So too are the Children’s Water Park, picnic and playground areas and of course, the beaches. Other attractions include art exhibitions, Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) and the Children’s Farmyard.

Some park activites like tennis, lawn bowling and pitch and putt require payment, as do old favourites like the Miniature Railway, the Vancouver Aquarium and horse-drawn carriage rides. Stanley park offers a number of dining options — The Fish House, Prospect Point Cafe, Sequoia Grill, The Teahouse and Stanley Park Pavilion.

Between July 1 and September 6 this year, the First Nations’ Klahowya Village offers an authentic aboriginal experience, featuring a unique variety of live cultural performances, the work of artisans, demonstrations, the Spirit Catcher Train and what’s described as ” … amazing aboriginal cuisine.”

Stanley Park’s ‘Dance at Dusk’ program through August 23, offers opportunities for Scottish Country Dancing (Monday), International Folk Dancing (Tuesday) and Ballroom Dancing (Wednesday) in Ceperley Meadow, from 7 to 9 p.m. All levels, all ages are welcome. No partners are necessary and instruction is available.

Getting to and around Stanley Park can be by bus, bike, roller skate or on foot — although a fair amount of pay-parking is available throughout the park.

Feature books about Vancouver:

Tourism British Columbia presents an eye-catching video about Canada’s popular global tourism destination.

Vancouver is a cosmopolitan and culturally diverse Canadian city set against a backdrop of the Burrard Inlet, Coast Mountains, forests and unspoilt beaches.

In Tourism BC’s words: “Vancouver combines both natural beauty and exciting urban amenities including four-star hotels, gourmet restaurants and a buzzing nightlife. Ski in the morning, sail in the afternoon. Go hiking, kayaking, swimming and shopping, visit world-class attractions or take in some theatre, comedy, festivals or events.”