Six reasons you’ll love Quebec’s ultimate log cabin even if you hate the cold

March 12, 2019 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

This may be North America’s coldest winter in recent memory but you’ll wish it were longer if visiting the world’s largest log cabin in Quebec. Why? Fairmont’s Le Chateau Montebello in Quebec’s Outaouais region has elements history and nature aficionados can find nowhere else.

It’s BIG

Inspired by chalets in the Alps, the Chateau is a large wooden building that made headlines when it was built and almost ninety years later, hasn’t lost its appeal. Built in a headline grabbing four months during the Great Depression this three-story chateau has a massive six-sided fireplace in the three-story lobby. Stepping into the lobby you’ll appreciate the craftsmanship that shaped 10,000 logs into the walls and ceilings and give the place a fairy tale aura.

You’ll feel famous

You may feel like you’ve living the lifestyle of the rich and famous and you’d be right. For years the resort was a private club and a favourite destination for celebrities and politicians. Princess Grace and Prince Rainer of Monaco were guests. The G7 has been hosted here, as have NATO meetings and gatherings of presidents and prime ministers. Looking at the famous faces in photos lining the walls is a stroll through history.

Your inner musher will come to life

On the banks of the Ottawa River halfway between Ottawa and Montreal the Château is surrounded by Quebec wilderness. You can learn to drive a dog sled or explore 42 kilometers of cross-country ski trails.

You can learn to hurry hard

Curling – rural Canada’s favorite winter pastime – doesn’t require the fancy duds made famous by the Norwegian Olympic curlers but technique is important. Every guest gets a free curling lesson in the Chateau’s four-sheet curling arena. You’ll be surprised at how much fun it is to throw a rock or hurry hard as you sweep your teammate’s rock to victory!

Your backstroke will be better

All that bending and stretching will put you in the mood for a dip in Canada’s largest indoor hotel pool with its own log cabin (it was built slightly shorter than Olympic length so athletes wouldn’t want to train here) or let you dine guilt-free at Open Table’s 2018 Diners’ Choice – Aux Chantignoles.

Elk will love you

It’s hard to leave the resort but if you like wildlife, you’ll enjoy visiting Parc Omega where you’re encouraged to feed elk and deer and you can score great photos of arctic fox and wolves.

Plan a visit here.

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Why you’ve never heard of this surfing destination

February 12, 2019 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Why you’ve never heard of this surfing destination

Think surfing and you probably think of sun-bleached blondes and long, wave-washed beaches of California. Or maybe the competitive curls of giant waves off Hawaiian or Australian coasts. Canadians might point to hardy, wetsuit surfers off its west coast. But have you ever considered a surfing holiday in Ireland?

Thought so. Think of the Emerald Isle and your musings probably turn to cozy pubs, cobblestone streets, lilting accents or cliff side ambles.

Where in the world?

But there’s a surfing culture blooming in county Donegal on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way – a 2,500-kilometer coastal driving trail through nine Irish counties.

Who started it?

Donegal resident Mary Britton visited California in the 1960s. She wasn’t just mesmerized by Californian dreaming, she watched people catching waves in the turquoise waters and thought, “we could do that!” I’m assuming she realized they’d need wetsuits for the frigid North Atlantic waters but she shipped a couple of surfboards home.

The rest, as they say, is history

She introduced her children to the new sport. Not put off by the lack of surfing companions or chilly weather, her sons shared a wetsuit and watched television to learn techniques. They began competing and Brian Britton was instrumental in developing the sport in Ireland. Now Mary’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren are surfing (Easkey Britton is five-time Irish National Champion) and visitors to Dungloe’s sandy beaches in county Donegal are as likely to spot someone balancing on a surfboard as a flock of oystercatchers.

Surf culture meets shamrock

At the Sandhouse Hotel & Marine Spa large windows provide direct views of the wave-washed horizon. Steps away a fine sand beach offers kilometers of beachcombing. In the pub surfboards compete with Guinness signs for wall space as barkeeps pull a foaming pint of lager.

And if you’re not a surfer?

The juxtaposition of surf and traditional Irish culture take a few minutes to wrap your mind around but then you realize it’s why we travel. Those unexpected discoveries at the end of the road reshape our worldview and make one wonder, “When’s the last time I found a new interest while travelling and brought it home?” Maybe it’s time to do it again.

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Five things you don’t know about the Calgary Zoo’s Panda Passage

January 8, 2019 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Five things you don’t know about the Calgary Zoo’s Panda Passage

Sure the pandas are cute. Whose heart doesn’t melt a little at all that black and white cuteness rambling around the Calgary Zoo’s Panda Passage? But unless you read this e-zine regularly there are five things you will probably overlook when you visit the pandas.

The building the pandas live in is recycled

Not content with recycling pop bottles, the zoo recycled an entire building! The panda’s new home is where I used to ride elephants back in the day. So you know this building is really old!. When the elephants moved to Washington, DC, the zoo renovated the building rather than disturb nearby river habitat. They also undertook the Living Building Challenge (green building standards even higher than those in LEED buildings).

Detectives were involved

Maybe not police detective but the zoo required every contractor to trace the source of their building materials to ensure they were local (54% were sourced within 500 kilometers) and traveled the shortest distance possible to the zoo. You can travel the shortest distance to pandas during summer months by booking a time in the panda lineup when you come through the main entrance.

A tiny bit of China

The Zoo designed Panda Passage with architecture and art from China. You’ll feel like you’ve travelled thousands of kilometers when you pass through the bamboo entrance. By carefully framing your photos in the exhibit, your friends may believe you took the pictures in China.

You can breathe deeply

Okay, you may get a whiff of panda poo if you’re lucky (the keepers work hard to keep the enclosures clean). But you won’t be breathing in unhealthy chemicals. Builders and suppliers were asked to eliminate any chemicals that appear on the Living Building Challenge list of 700 chemicals with the greatest impact on humans and ecosystems.

You’re part of a property swap

The Calgary Zoo has set aside 6,870 m2 of natural habitat to offset the footprint of the Panda Passage. So when you’re oohing over the pandas, you can feel good knowing a large piece of natural area is also being protected. If you do your panda peeking early in the morning or later in the afternoon you have the best chances of seeing the pandas at their most active.

To learn more about The Living Building Challenge click here or to book panda programs click here.

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Chickens make better wine?

November 13, 2018 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Chickens make better wine?

Mission Hill winery is one of Kelowna’s first family-owned wineries. They were also first to bring international acclaim to Okanagan wines winning an Avery award for their 1992 Chardonnay at the International Wines and Spirits Competition judges were so shocked an Okanagan wine won they repeated the blind tests with the same result).

Now Mission Hill aims to have Canada’s biggest organic vineyard. Two years into a five-year process they are converting 1,200 acres to organic farming.

Standing beneath a bell tower reminiscent of European missions with a bell tolling every fifteen minutes (four bells represent winery owner Anthony von Mandl, his dad, mother and sister), Graham Nordin, Director of Wine Experience, explained, “becoming organic requires significantly more manual labour.”

Organic farmers get less sleep

He described how vines are vulnerable to cutworms, a nocturnal pest that eats their way up the vine stems. “Last year at 2 a.m. we (winery staff) went out with headlamps and picked cutworms off the vines and put them in buckets. We discovered it (manually picking) was the same cost as pesticides.”

Perhaps wanting more sleep, they researched other methods of pest control and found chickens eat worms. “So now we have chickens in some of our vineyards,” Nordin smiled.

Working with landscape

The vineyard also made bottles lighter to lower logistics without decreasing wine quality. They have partnered with the University of British Columbia to try to recycle wastewater on-site or use in a biofuel program.

Although the move to organic certification is recent, guests will see earlier indications that owners were sensitive to the landscape. Cellar walls are bare volcanic rock, helping with humidity control, and the gate to the property is so narrow only one car can pass at a time. That and the distance from the parking lot to the winery force visitors to slow down.

All the better to enjoy the wine and the connection to the land providing it.

Find other sustainability initiatives at https://www.missionhillwinery.com/estate_winery/sustainability.aspx

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A Hawk’s Eye for Wine

October 9, 2018 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

At Cooper Hawk’s Vineyard (CHV) in the Windsor-Essex tourism region the winery is named for one of the unofficial staff members.

Cooper hawks nest near the vineyards and patrol the fields around the winery. These crow-sized raptors are fearsome predators with a taste for birds like starlings and mourning doves. They rely on stealth to sneak up on prey and have been known to drown its catch before ripping it into bite size pieces. Knowing a Cooper’s hawk is in the neighborhood is enough to scare away birds that like to feast on the grapes.

Because the habitat surrounding the vineyard supports a healthy hawk population, Tom O’Brien, Founder and President of Cooper Hawk’s Vineyards, and his team does not need to place nets over the vineyard, something few wineries in the region can boast.

Wildlife doesn’t punch a time clock so to make sure birds think twice about visiting the grapes CHV staff have made recordings of the Cooper hawk calls and play them in the vineyard when the hawks aren’t around. They also have fake hawk kites that flutter above rows of grapes.

O’Brien and his staff like sharing their 70-acre property with birds. “I love wildlife!” O’Brien enthused. “We have planted over 7,000 trees. When we do (wine) tours people ask about the name. We encourage them to walk out (around the vineyards) and look at birds.”

Assistant wine maker, Anthony Miller, was an environmental scientist for more than ten years before he became a vintner. Now he shares his bird sightings with his boss. “He tells me we have some unusual birds,” explained O’Brien.

Judging by environmental ethic that includes installing solar panels and constructing a wetland, this is a winery that makes going to the birds part of the wine tasting experience. O’Brien observed, “When people leave the winery they are happy!”

To learn more about this bird-friendly winery click here.

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