We don’t always spend our time finding far away nooks and crannies; sometimes they are just around the corner, down the highway, or in a neighbouring suburb. We’ve not had particularly summery summer here in the Metro Vancouver area thus far, so we took advantage of the moderately summerish day and headed out with a picnic lunch.
Not as much verdantness on the first part of the journey, more pastel shades of California-drag style stucco many suited homes on cul-de-sacs and side streets. Lola, the trusty Chevrolet chooses the route for us and the Guy knows better than to correct her most of the time. This is the point to the road less travelled, even in the city.
First stop is the Mikelson Art Festival in White Rock. For 38 years the Mikelson’s have been hosting a festival of local artists in their incredible back yard. The Guy’s brother David is showing some of his paintings beneath the cedar and fir trees of this show. There are incredible artists on display here in this backyard forest, including David Patterson although we may be a little biased. It’s a nice place to spend an afternoon and worth putting on the calendar for next year (The girl will nudge the Guy a time or two to get his own photography shown in the 2012 festival.)
More meandering down roads I’ll never remember on the edges of where suburbia and country meet and we pull into the parking lot of Redwood Park an amazing little getaway on the edge of Surrey with dozens of different trees including several varieties of redwoods. How nice not to have to travel down Pacific 101 to find such incredible old growth forest. We brought a perfect picnic lunch and find a quiet area to enjoy some delicious cheese and crackers, sliced chicken on fresh buns and crunchy potato chips.
Another bit of meandering further from stuccoed large houses and deeper into roads with horses riding on the shoulders, goats in pens nearby. We find a wedding happening on a grassy field and stand and watch awhile, the wonderful hopefulness of a new love, we resist the urge to heckle and just stand in quiet testament to the apparent joy.
We wander awhile longer through paths and bushes, enjoying a bit of verdant as we are wont to do in Campbell Valley Park as the Guy regales the girl with tales of wandering through before fences and farms, when it was just a lush green valley with a meandering river, a dog named Toke by his side.
It is a wonderful day out, a terrific respite from the oft mundane bits of life filled with work or lack thereof, routines and car payments. Lola, as always treats us well on backroads, side roads and city streets and we feel rejuvenated, photos taken to remind us that there’s so much more to life.
