Bigpacific BlogEverything you want to know about the Sunshine Coast

Sometimes my job is incredibly difficult and demanding. Take today for example. I’m on A Place By the Sea’s 28 ft. charter boat, ‘No Worries’, with co-owner Shay Moudahi (Nancy is back at the B&B helping American guests with kayaking plans) up Sechelt Inlet. My partner Diane is along and we are on the prowl in deep pools for red snapper and ling under blue skies and with a bare breeze whispering.

Shay is a very interesting guy. He immigrated to Canada in 1993 from Israel, fresh from middle eastern conflicts, and says Canada is actually the promised land… that Moses had a ‘heavy tongue’ and that he was actually telling God ‘Canada’ rather than Canan. “Think about it,” he said. “Have you ever seen Canan? nobody wants to go there.” He’s engaging, interesting, well-informed and fun to talk with.

Shay deeply appreciates Canadian life, and especially being able to interact with people all around the world in this environment. One memorable trip was with three Palestinians, one from Jerusalem, and the other two from Syria. “We got about an eighth of a mile before we were into a political discussion,” he said, ”and in the end we agreed to disagree.” If only it were so in conflicts!

Shay and Nancy met while both worked for the electronics giant Future Shop, where Shay worked as a top salesperson selling computers and Nancy in a different department.

FISHING UPDATE: Diane just landd a 15 lb. ling in about 200 ft of water! Shay netted it mid-interview, with great aplomb. Yum. Fish tacos for dinner!

Returning to our story, Shay moved up through sales and into management, while Nancy spent the next 10 years in the wine industry working in sales and customer service. In 2002, after getting their fill of the corporate world, they decided to look into their dream of running a bed and breakfast. After investigating one place they knew of in Vernon, which lucky for the Sunshine Coast didn’t pan out, they decided to check out the coast.

Shay told us the story of finding A Place By The Sea.

“I didn’t think we could afford to have waterfront. It was the eighth place we saw that day and when we went down the drive I didn’t even want to get out of the car. The house was on the market for seven years, there were no stairs to the beach - it’s a high bank property - no paved road… the woman who had it couldn’t keep up with it. But we could see the potential, and the price was very good.”

The Moudahis ended up putting another quarter million dollars into the B&B, to the disbelief of others in the industry, and neighbours.

“Everyone was telling us we are idiots, quitting good high paying jobs to chase a dream,” he said. “They said we’d never recover it. Within several months of opening we were the top B&B on the Coast for number of reservations.”

A Place By The Sea’s success can only partially be explained by the waterfront location and proximity to Sechelt. The rest comes from incredibly hard work and discipline, discipline, discipline. For example, prep time for breakfasts at the B&B is around 2 hours, not including making, serving and cleanup. Shay and Nancy both love to cook, and they put in a lot of time where it matters in a bed & breakfast… in the small details, like garnishing and presentation of meals, finding just the right accessories for rooms, raking the beach sand on the terraced beach decks by the ramp to the dock. Keeping the kayak gear and hot tub and exterior stairways and gazebos clean and well-cared for.

FISHING UPDATE: A snapper of decent size, a rockfish, and another ling, bigger than the first!! What a day. We are delighted to have a cooler full of fish in the stern, and be noshing on a gorgeous feast of Nancy’s devilled eggs and a wonderful crab dip with the most beautifully apropos serving knife with a carved lighthouse on top for the handle, Shay’s wildly delicious sandwiches (and I am not a sandwich eater, so that’s saying something), fresh fruit and cheese, and a delicious and light chardonnay. Really, does life get any better???

We return to the dock sunburned and so grateful for the wonderful day and fine company. As a person who works in sales and customer service, I learned a lot in the conversations with Shay over the day, sharing our philosophies on helping people and being truly who you are with others, being honest and passionate about what you do, and engaging with others in the same way. Upon our return there was Nancy with a huge smile, ready to take our picture with our trophies and inquire about the day, even as she helped a couple returning from a trip up the inlet by kayak.

Diane and I vowed to share our story of the wonderful day here, and invite you to hook up with Shay and Nancy for a truly wonderful boat charter and stay. I don’t think there’s a better custom boat tour - for sightseeing, fishing or both - to be had on the West Coast. And Shay says he tries to never come home without a fish, which I particularly appreciate, given that 99% of my own outings generate the big nada on returns!

Whether you want to create a romantic surprise or just hang out with friends and family, catch some fish, enjoy some of BC’s best coastal scenery and relax, call Shay and Nancy and plan your getaway. We’re planning on a group getaway ourselves!

For more information: http://www.aplacebythesea.com or call toll-free 1.866.885.2746. Canada Select 4 1/2 stars, Tourism BC Approved Accommodation, Member of the Sunshine Coast Bed & Breakfast, Cottage Owners Assocation and Tourism Sunshine Coast. 

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This post is sponsored by the Lighthouse Pub. Enter to win a $25 gift certificate towards your meal by writing to webmaster@bigpacific.com&subject=lighthouse, with your name, mailing address and phone number. Draws every two weeks!

Now I’ve never heard of this before. A ‘New Moon Festival’. I thought it was some new age thing where I could drag my parents (up for the weekend) and hang out with the dreadlock crowd and freak them out a bit, but it turns out it’s this really cool pan-Asian festival. I thought I lost all that kind of cultural exposure when I left the Big Smoke, and I’m so delighted to be able to take my family to something on the Coast in this vein.

The New Moon Society’s mission is to ’support the development of an Asian Canadian identity on the Sunshine Coast, primarily via the annual festival of Asian arts and culture’.

This year marks the third year for the festival and it runs from 12noon to 10pm at Dougall Park in Gibsons. It’s $5+ sliding scale to enter, with kids 12 and under free.

The lineup includes the incomparable Alcvin Takegawa Ramos, a Shoji flute player who plays his own compositions, Shakti dancers, Celso Machado, Sawagi Taigo - the first all women taiko group in Canada, and Kababayang Pilipino - Filipino folk heritage group. The showcases Mind of a Snail Puppet Company, a ‘Compost Modernist art duo’. Paper lantern making, martial arts demonstrations, a cooking class, and a lantern ceremony close out the evening.

For more information, please visit: http://www.newmoonfestivalsociety.org/

- Visit the Bigpacific Lund Photo Gallery -

So here it is, early September, and I’m on the BigpacificCycle (my Yamaha Virago 1100 – if you see me, say hi, and I’ll enter you into one of our many contests for local giveaway gifts… I’m wearing the red jacket with ‘Bigpacific.com’ on the back), headed up to Powell River on one of the best riding days of the year.

If you’re a motorcyclist then you know what I’m talking about: sunshine that’s not too hot and not too cold, beautiful shaded drives like Misery Mile (Kleindale) still dry and inviting, a dearth of cars competing for road space, and glorious curves all the way from Secret Cove to the ferry terminal at Earl’s Cove.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Lund, as I always seem to get sidetracked in Powell River visiting with Tourism Powell River Executive Director Chris McNaughton, dropping in at the town offices of the Lund Hotel to say hi to Leah, shopping at the Town Centre Mall and taking in that fabulous and very affordable Thai food down by the ferry dock to Comox. But today I’m blowing right past PR and up to Lund, where I’ve heard huge changes have occurred around the hotel and boardwalk. I’ve always loved Lund, ever since boarding there for sailing trips up Desolation Sound and over to Cortes Island where I lived part-time for a few years… and back then it was the hotel and the end of the road sign for Hwy. 101 and that was it. Sleepy, anachronistic, finnish.

Fast forward to four hours later: mission accomplished. I just enjoyed one of the most relaxing and spectacularly beautiful coastal motorcycle rides to be had in British Columbia, the best waterfront casual meal in eons, and a sidetrack tangential error in direction that unveiled a gorgeous community I might otherwise have missed.

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- Visit the Salmon Festival Bigpacific Photo Gallery -

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of enjoying this last blast of summer heat with a leisurely drive out to Gibsons to take in the Annual and ever more popular Salmon Festival. This event has grown in stature to be a maturing September event that pulls in visitors across the transition into the shoulder season… as evidenced by the crowds of people walking the streets in Gibsons Landing Saturday afternoon.

From the vendor booths on Marine Drive offering everything from food to unique clothing (I wished there was a new baby in the family somewhere to justify buying a white sleeper with an old-fashioned tie sewn on it), to the Sokole women grooving to xylophones under the hewn shade above Winegarden Park, to the informational vendors below offering information on nature conservancy, the David Suzuki foundation, farmed salmon developments and the popular clamshell housing the mobile Vancouver Aquarium hands-on exhibit, there was a lot to do.

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Next up for summer fun the weekend of August 22nd:

• The Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival, various venues, Gibsons
• The Powell River Annual Blackberry Festival and Street Party
• Roberts Creek Daze (11-2 August 23rd)
• The incredible Bonfire Music Festival (F/S/S) Pender Lions Park

Wow. A smashingly successful Sechelt Arts Festival that’s proving out to be a regular addition to the summer festival schedule, followed hot on the heels by the mature Festival of the Written Arts and Hackett Park Craft Festival one-two knockout punch (to wildly mix metaphors). I’m on an arts high!

This weekend was picture perfect for the Writer’s Fest and Hackett Park events, excepting a minor morning shower and the thunder rolling for about half an hour early Sunday. I have a theory about the thunder… it was created from the arc of electricity left behind by my favorite author, poet Shane Koyczan, when he absolutely illuminated Rockwood Pavilion on Friday afternoon with his spoken word poetry.

It’s funny how the words of one person can completely shock an audience into stunned, wordless silence. From the very start of Shane’s ’set’ at the Festival, until the end, I found myself inarticulate and mute with utter abandonment and admiration for his remarkable work. For anyone who thinks they ‘know’ poetry, I challenge you to find one of Shane’s 200 annual gigs, park your derriere and prepare to be amazed at what a force one person can be in the world… with poems!

This is not your mother’s poetry, nor your English teacher’s. Despite that, the pavilion was loaded with both, along with a few of the young adult set, and some free thinkers who were drawn to the promise articulated in the Festival’s brochure: “Koyczan sounds alternately like a full-throttle auctioneer and a chilled-out beat poet.”  And we were SO not disappointed.

I passed Shane at the back of the Pavilion just as Zoe Whittal’s excellent readings out of Bottle Rocket Lovers and her iconic poetry marking the age of the 70’s. I recognized him from the brochure, and thought him quite unassuming and un-poet like as he waited for everyone to clear out prior to preparing for his time on stage. But get that boy in front of a microphone and it’s like he’s jammed his thumb into the power socket of the universe - I mean he comes ALIVE. The transformation of Shane at the mike, every time he stepped away and stepped back, was remarkable. Luminous, powerful, tender, funny, he could move from charging poetry that opened my chest like a ripsaw to a troubadour, singing of the passing of family in the most vulnerable of ways.

For those who had the misforture to miss his readings, Shane makes his living 100% from writing and performing poetry world-wide. He is the first poet from outside the US to win the prestigious National Individual Poetry Slam, and almost every time he reads/performs it’s to a standing ovation (Writer’s Fest included) and a subsequent mobbing at the book table, where he once sold 83 books in under 10 minutes. In one word: phenomenal.

I would have happily bought multiple tickets to multiple Shane Shows, but had to content myself with his book and CD, and the happy knowledge that he does this kind of thing about 200 times a year and I can be sure to hook up again in the not too distant future.

Related Link: For a great article about Shane, go to Quill & Quire

We also took in the Hackett Park Craft Fair, where I saw some new and stunning work. Most arresting were the glass folded bowls depicting salmon and octopus - breathtaking - and the ceramic standing and hanging candle lanterns… and I could not get past the nut and chocolate booth, again, and emerged with my little trumpet of spectacularly rich chocolate kisses jealously clutched to my chest. Of course it meant lunging through the rest of the venue from shade patch to shade patch, but they are so worth it.

It’s that time again… the time when erudite voices rise and fall in the readings of politics, sports, fiction, and poetry under the soaring timber roof of the Rockwood Pavilion at the 26th Annual Writer’s Festival this weekend in Sechelt.

Billed as Canada’s longest running summer gathering of Canadian writers and readers, featuring established literary stars and exciting, new voices… with opportunities for writers and readers to mingle amidst Rockwood’s heritage gardens, the Festival is a huge draw from across Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

Authors as diverse as Michael Ondaatje, Zoe Whittal, Shane Koyczan, Elizabeth Hay, Mike McCardell, Chantal Hebert, William Deverell and Drew Hayden Taylor - to name only a few - will read and participate in literary discussions this weekend. A ‘Wild Salmon Barbeque’ tops the weekend off (sorry, that one IS sold out!).

Tickets are still available for many events, and can be purchased by calling the Festival office at 1-800-565-9631 or 604-885-9631, or by visiting them at 5511 Shorncliffe Ave, Sechelt. Payment accepted: Visa, M/C, Cash, Cheque, Money Order and Debit Card. Tickets for most events are $15/each - a deal if there ever was one. You can download a Festival Planner here.

And don’t forget the Annual Hackett Park Craft Fair. Artisans from all over the province have Hackett Park as one of their top venues. For 21 years the park has filled this weekend with music, art, collectibles, gifts, pottery, fun for kids and more. A special time to be there is 12 noon on Saturday, when my good friend Bruce Allan Smith is on stage playing some of the best classical guitar music you will ever hear. See you there!

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This post is sponsored by The Lighthouse Pub, in beautiful Porpoise Bay, Sechelt. Enter here to win a $25 gift certificate card!

Look at that! If you can believe it, six of us (webmaster and girlfriend Diane, newsletter editor Lisa Williams, Bigpacific sales rep Paul Fenton and wife Laura, and owner Stafford Lumley) polished off the gargantuan “Battle Royale” at Smitty’s Oyster House in Gibsons, along with two dozen of the most delicious raw oysters, hand-selected and shucked by Stafford, and a round of desserts over two hours oceanside at the Gibsons pier.

Open for 10 months, Smitty’s Oyster House is proving out Stafford’s winning history with restaurants (he formerly ran Rodney’s Oyster Bar in Yaletown Vancouver), with a packed house on a Wednesday night and weekends full to overflowing with not only locals, but boaters who come up Friday and Saturday nights just for dinner at this popular and iconic Sunshine Coast location.

The food is unbelievably good - and consistent - ranging from the stunning prawn cocktail served in a sundae glass on ice with lemon and house-made cocktail sauce, through to standbys that are anything but: the best New England and Manhattan clam chowders, made individually and on the spot; fish and chips the way you’ve never seen them; and right through to spectacular crab and lobster, so succulent you have to get your hands dirty.

And if you love oysters, well… there’s a treat in store for you. They’re like poems on the half-shell… some salty and November-wintry, others tasting of sun and lazy summer days, still others sweet and so delicate you’ll never look at raw oysters the same way again. My friends tell me the cooked ones are just as delicious, but I just can’t get past how good the raw ones are, and how differently they taste.

While we ate, so extravagantly, washing it all down with select Vancouver brewery ales (the Raven’s Cream is particularly good) and deep red wines, Stafford and his chef, Connor, shared the history of the Smitty’s location and their deep knowledge of the oyster industry from years of involvement working with this alluring shellfish. Full story to follow, with podcast.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Website: http://www.smittysoysterhouse.com/
Email: stafford@smittysoysterhouse.com

Contact: Stafford Lumley
Location: Gibsons
Address:
643 School Road, Wharf
Gibsons, BC V0N 1V0
Phone: (604) 886-4665

The 5th Annual Sechelt Arts Festival began tonight with an Opening Night soiree at the Seaside Building in Sechelt. Celebrating the artists, volunteers and sponsors of the event, the wine and appetizer evening was well-attended and enjoyed by all.

The Festival runs from August 1 through 11, and offers multi-disciplinary workshops in dance, theatre, music, sculpture, painting and more for all age groups - all absolutely free. Events are to be held in Hackett Park, the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre on Trail Avenue, and in the Seaside Centre. Watch for the webmaster at the adults only hip-hop class

For more information: http://www.secheltartsfestival.com

Celebrate the province’s 150th Anniversary with the Sunshine Coast BC150 Trek 2008! Events have been planned from Powell River to Gibsons during the August long weekend.

Travel to four communities for fun activities sponsored jointly by the Powell River Ayjoomixw and Sunshine Coast Spirit of BC Community Committees. Participants are invited to sign pages for the Coast Trek 150 special commemorative booklet that will be compiled and presented to the Royal BC Museum. There will be medals as well — BC150/Spirit of BC medals for most communities visited, longest distance travelled and best historic costume will be presented.

The weekend will begin with a community picnic on Sat, Aug 2 at Willingdon Beach in Powell River (noon to 3pm). Entertainment, food, birthday banner painting and a birthday cake.

On the Sechelt Peninsula, drop by the Pender Harbour Wooden Boat Festival (running from Fri, Aug 1 to Mon, Aug 4) to sign the Trek 2008 book pages at the Millennium Dock on Sunday, Aug 3 (9am to noon.) Or in the afternoon, travellers and residents can sign the trek pages at the Sechelt Arts Festival at Hackett Park from 1:30 to 4:30 pm.

The final stop on the trek is the BC150 Years Celebration at Winegarden Park in Gibsons from noon to 3 pm on Mon, Aug 4. There will be entertainment and a cake and lots of food available.

Funding for the events has been provided by the BC150 Years through 2010 Legacies Now Spirit of BC.

Spirit of BC - Sunshine Coast
 

Keeping the Spirit Alive!
Sandra Cunningham
Communications
www.spiritofbc-sunshinecoast.com
604-886-7263

From a Sunshine Coast guest…

We were running out of gas when we got off the ferry near the little town of Egmont,B.C. on the Sechelt peninsula. The only gas pump was closed for the night, and we had broken our own rule of never looking for a room after 6 p.m. The owner of the small grocery store sent us down the road to the West Coast Wilderness Lodge. When we got out of the car, I couldn’t believe the view. The lodge sits on a bluff overlooking Sechelt inlet with pine covered islands and snow-capped peaks accenting the cobalt blue waters. This view dominated the restaurant, two decks, the hot tub, and our room.

Our room - another amazing find. It was comfortably decorated in soothing colors, a light colored Canadian hardwood for our head board, extremely modern bathroom, and deck. It was filled with light. Every attention to detail had been considered, including a charming and warm throw to use while reading or watching TV at night. The room was an incredible bargain  in comparison to any of the wilderness lodges in a U.S. National Park. (Dark, dingy, and dated Yosemite Lodge comes to mind). Even the rooms without a view had a deck set into the trees.

The restaurant served gourmet four course dinners with impeccable service and fresh west coast fare. Our waiter recommended a great B.C. wine and even offered a taste of a special Scotch on our second night, when he remembered that was my husband’s drink of choice. Attention to detail was again prevalent in the presentation of the food and the beautiful airy, light filled dining room that included a bar and seating area around a fireplace for guests who might have to wait for their meal. In warmer weather, it appeared that food was also served on the deck below.

For wilderness lovers like ourselves, there’s much to do in the area. Kayak trips offered three times a day, a hiking trail to the Skookumchuk narrows, and boat trips to Princess Louisa Inlet.

The owner, Paul, showed us the tree he climbed to see the view when the property was first for sale. He said he’d always wanted to build a wilderness lodge.

We can’t say enough about this place. Awe inspiring scenery, exceptional room and food, and warm and helpful people who make the lodge very special. All we can say is that we hope to get back there again and again.

Madeline & Larry Dean
Corralitos, California

For more information:
West Coast Wilderness Lodge
6649 Maple Road
Egmont, B.C. V0N1N0
Tel.: 604-883-3667/Fax  604-883-3604
 
Toll Free: 1-877-988-3838
Email:  lodge@wcwl.com/www.wcwl.