adventure travel Archives | Carol Patterson

Happy New Year!

January 10, 2017 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

I hope your new year is starting with hope and baby (or big) steps towards your most cherished goals.

For the second year in a row, BBC Travel came out with their celebration of travel and the planet “50 Reasons to #LoveTheWorld”.

I was thrilled to contribute (I’m behind reason #33) and the exercise was a chance to reflect on what I love about travel. It’s not the airport hassles!

I love the chance to discover things on my own. I love reading the little signs overlooked by many people or asking a guide how they found passion, for fungi or bears, or whatever has put a sparkle in their eye.

I’m hoping 2017 puts a sparkle in your eye!

TWEETABLES

Discover “50 Reasons to #LoveTheWorld” from @BBC_Travel. Click to Tweet.

My friend @Reinventure shares the #33 reason of “50 to #LoveTheWorld” via @BBC_Travel. Click to Tweet.

Tremblant Resort’s festival waste hits the right note

November 8, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Volunteer Vincent Denis weighs festival garbage. Photo credit: Tremblant

While tapping my toes to the sweet notes of blues musician Sugar Brown, the last thing on my mind was my empty water bottle. As I danced to the Porn Flakes in Place Saint- Bernard I wasn’t calculating how much waste the Tremblant International Blues Festival generates. But if I had paused in advance of Mike Gaudreau’s performance at Scene Casino to ponder garbage generated by travelers, the sustainable tourism initiatives of Quebec’s Tremblant Resort Association would have had me kicking up my heels.

The festival attracts thousands each summer to Quebec’s Mont Tremblant with more than 100 musical events over ten days. Festival organizers recycle signage from year to year, minimize handouts by putting event schedules online and on large signs, encourage walking by grouping events in the pedestrian village and keep the gondola working into the evening.

Organizers also reduce food waste through their ‘green squad’. These keen volunteers hover near garbage cans and in food courts – not the first place I usually look for music lovers – and help visitors sort their food waste so little goes into the garbage. There are also gentle reminders from the stage to think of the environment. “Our emcees often remind our visitors of many possible green initiatives that can be taken on site,” explained Linda Lloyd, Director of Operations, Tremblant Resort Association on how sustainability initiatives permeate the event.

The festival is a certified eco-responsible event by Conseil québécois des événements écoresponsables and has moved to a Level 2 rating as staff green more festival activities. The biggest sustainability challenge is reducing carbon emissions for artists’ air travel. With the need for international performers this facet is daunting but in other areas, progress is impressive. As part of the certification process all garbage from the event is gathered, sorted and weighed. In 2016, only a few bags of garbage went to the landfill! Now that is something to sing about.

If you go:

Mont Tremblant International Blues Festival happens 7 to 16, 2017

Stay within walking distance of most events at Westin Resort & Spa

Slip away from the crowds for a drink at the uber hip Le P’Tit Caribou ptitcaribou.com/en/

For information on the festival or its sustainability initiatives, contact Annick Marseille amarseille@intrawest.com

TWEETABLES

#Tremblant Resort’s festival waste hits the right note: Click to Tweet.

My friend, @Reinventure, recently attended a blues festival where only a few bags of garbage went to the landfill. Click to Tweet.

Discover how the #Tremblant International Blue Festival is reducing waste in all areas of the festival: Click to Tweet.

Eight things you don’t know about Sheridan, Wyoming

July 12, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

1. A lot of wealthy people live here. The private airport is bigger than the public airport (handy for those private jets) and gorgeous horseflesh peeps across the fences at sprawling country estates. Forrest Mars Jr. (grandson of the founder of the Mars candy empire) calls the area home. Another Sheridan citizen, Leandro Rissuto, started Cuisinart.
2. The soil around Sheridan contains proteins that grow great grass and build strong horses. Over 20,000 horses were shipped to the British Calvary in South Africa’s Boer War and ever since horse lovers have been raising beautiful horses. Which leads me to #3.

3. This is a great place for polo. Polo players come from all over the world to participate in the free polo matches every summer weekend. Ascots and fancy hats are optional; having a good time is not.

4. Buffalo Bill Cody held auditions for his Wild West show on the front porch of the Sheridan Inn. You can audition for a full stomach with the mouth-watering Wyoming steaks served at the hotel’s Open Range restaurant.

5. The Brinton museum has a rammed earth wall built with the same construction methods as the Great Wall of China and expected to last longer. The wall protects a fabulous art collection including paintings by Frederic Remington and Charles Russell.

6. It has a vibrant theatre community. Producers work with Sheridan College to develop and test shows before taking them to major U.S. cities.

7. Queen Elizabeth likes the place. She came for a private holiday in 1984 to see her relatives and admire the horses.

8. There is a herd of bison and elk in town next to Kendrick Park. The Elk Pasture is supported by a 1% local sales tax.

To plan your trip go to: www.sheridanwyoming.com

TWEETABLES

Eight things you don’t know about Sheridan, Wyoming. Click to Tweet.

My friend, @Reinventure , shares 8 things you don’t know how Sheridan, Wyoming. Click to Tweet.

My friend, @Reinventure , learned these 8 interesting facts about Sheridan, Wyoming on her recent adventure: Click to Tweet.

Thawing out with flaming gin

June 14, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

The surfs so cold on Vancouver Island it causes brain freeze.
Think surfing and you probably think bronzed bodies, frothing waves and warm sun. Tofino, British Columbia has the waves, but the sun hides behind the clouds that make this a rainforest, and bodies are hidden under layers of neoprene. “In winter I wear a thick wetsuit, hoodie, boots and gloves but when I go under a wave I still get a brain freeze, ” explained surfer Sarah Smith, her delicate features belying the inner strength needed to ride a board into 45°Fahrenheit waters. “In summer I still wear the same gear but my head doesn’t hurt from the cold.” Just watching surfers bob among the wake wash on Cox Bay was giving me a chill as rain dripped from the sky and down my back.

This place gets 130 inches of rain a year and is a nature lover’s dream. I’d come looking for thousands of shorebirds that stop en-route to Alaska and had instead become transfixed by surfers traveling by bicycle, their surfboards strapped to metal sidecars. Realizing I could gawk from indoors where I didn’t need my long underwear, I headed to the Great Room at Long Beach Lodge Resort where bar manager Andre McGillivray served up gin infused with hand-foraged botanicals.

Rumored to taste like the nearby forest I was eager to try this craft gin. McGillivray layered gin, lemon juice, demerera sugar and meringue into a creamsicle-colored cocktail that provided a pop of color against the grey sky. McGillivray pulled a lighter from his pocket and set angostura bitters on the drink ablaze. The flames danced above the glass and faded quickly like some of the surf attempts outside the window. I slid the frothy liquid down my throat. It did taste like the forest or perhaps like the fresh air whipping over the ocean. Tofino may serve up the coldest surf on the west coast but its methods for warming up are a no-brainer.

To learn more about Long Beach Lodge Resort’s gin and surf offerings go to www.longbeachlodgeresort.com

TWEETABLES

Have you ever tried flaming gin? Click to Tweet.

My friend, @Reinventure, recently took a trip to Tofino, BC & enjoyed this flaming beverage: Click to Tweet.

Long Beach Lodge Resort’s gin and surf offerings are next to none: Click to Tweet.

A catch and release aquarium?

May 10, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Ever feel conflicted about watching animals in captivity? Zoos and aquariums do important research, species reintroduction, and education, but when the last frontier for wild animals is a confined space I feel sad. However Ucluelet aquarium on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island has a new spin on animal attractions. Each spring, volunteers go into the cool Pacific waters and gather specimens for the aquarium and at the end of November those same creatures are released back to where they came!

Some creatures – like sea anemones – that attach to rocks stay year-round (ripping them off would be very harmful) but anything that is free swimming goes home to the ocean at the end of the tourist season. Visitors can enjoy the colorful flash of a rockfish but its stay at the aquarium will be just a short part of its decades-long lifespan.

On the day I visited the Ucluelet Aquarium one of the three Giant Pacific octopuses crept out of it’s den and stuck its tentacles to the walls of its tank. As it normally avoids the light, Chief Biologist Carly Janusson felt it was looking for food and brought a live crab to drop into the tank. It wasn’t a good day for the crab – the octopus pounced on it within seconds of its arrival – but I learned that octopus put their prey to sleep before they eat it, a kind gesture from the ocean’s fastest-growing predator. You can see the hunt on my video at https://youtu.be/V3TjGdv5tFU

Janusson explained, “octopuses double in weight every two months and in a month we will need to move this octopus to a larger tank and in a couple of months we will need to release her back to the ocean because she will be too big.” Unlike the other creatures that spend the whole summer, the aquarium will replace the octopus as they grow out of their tanks.

An octopus is very smart and it can be hard to keep them confined. “We’ve never had an octopus escape,” said Janusson, “but other aquariums like Seattle aquarium have had octopus that escape their tank via the plumbing, go into other tanks, eat the fish in there, and then go bank into the tank before the workers come back in the morning!”

The octopus I watched wouldn’t need to escape like Inky at the National Aquarium of New Zealand: it will get a free ride back to the ocean after the good eats have it outgrowing its enclosure. To learn more about the temporary residents of Ucluelet Aquarium go to http://www.uclueletaquarium.org

TWEETABLES

A catch and release aquarium? Click to Tweet.

#Ucluelet aquarium on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island has a new spin on animal attractions! Click to Tweet.

Discover more about the temporary residents of #Ucluelet Aquarium: Click to Tweet.