Word had been out for a week that a van and driver were available to take seniors from Britannia Centre to UBC Saturday October 18 ... Linda, Flora and I were the only ones to show up so we decided to attend the annual Apple Festival at the UBC Botanical Gardens ... our driver, Darren, newly arrived from Toronto, provided a map and we helped navigate as he was not yet familiar with traffic conditions in Vancouver. http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/events/applefest.php
We arrived at West Mall Parkade and, as we did not know the exact location of the botanical gardens, we followed the shuttle bus to the festival site ... the sun was peeking through the clouds and followed us into the already packed entrance way where huge hotplates were browning rows of hamburgers and hot dogs for the hungry hoards ... our first destination was the upper garden where the apple tasting was being held because I wanted to be sure to get a piece of deep delicious apple pie (my sole purpose in going there!).
Linda opted for an espresso from Turks coffee truck ... Turks operates one the the best coffee bars on Commercial Drive across the street from Grandview Park ... Flora went in search of dried apples and found what she was looking for ... in the meantime, I met up with my two daughters, Diana and Kristl, and their friend Michelle who were also here for the apple tasting ... between the coffee truck and apple pie tent was one selling candied apples and other apple treats for Halloween ... a separate tent carried colorful replicas of labels of all the major apple producers in BC ... I recognized a couple of them from my own childhood living on a farm in southern Alberta ... my uncles would drive to BC every Fall to bring back a truckload of fruit for making pies, preserves, jams, jellies and my favorites, apple and pear butter.
The major festival attraction was a large tent with a long line-up of tasters under a canopy at the entrance ... tables of paper plates containing wedges of 80 varieties of apples grown in BC were being eagerly picked up by the people who paid $3 for the opportunity of tasting homegrown apples ... another shorter line-up of tasters at a smaller tent were grading apple samples on a scale of most favourite to least favourite ... the purpose of grading the apples was for the Government of Canada to determine future markets for apple growers.
A special feature of the festival was a dance performance by the Tiddly Cove Morris dancers and musicians ... information about this interesting group http://www.tiddleycovemorris.org/
We left the festival when the sun was out in full ... it had been a perfect day for an outdoor festival ... we drove the girls to their destination and continued on to Queen Elizabeth Park on Little Mountain at 33rd Avenue and Cambie Street ... the entire city, the mountains and Burrard Inlet were bathed in the warmth of the afternoon sun... Darren was delighted with the views and took several pictures with his phone camera, commenting that he could hardly wait for his friends to come to Vancouver so he could take them to this beautiful park.
On our way back to Commercial Drive, Flora spotted an old yellow pickup truck full of Chilliwack corn in the driveway of a modest house ... this is the best corn on the cob you can get in BC. Darren dropped me off at my place and returned to Britannia Centre.
This was one of the best outings we have enjoyed this summer and fall ... next Saturday, weather permitting, we will take the bus to Main Street for lunch and a shop-til-we-drop afternoon.
Contributor Virginia
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