I’ve been anticipating this visit by my cousins from Germany since last July when we had a few brief days together during the month Ted and I spent in Berlin.

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The last time my cousins were in Canada was way back in 2004, to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. At that point, we lived in Ontario, so our day trips together were to the most popular tourist destinations: Niagara Falls and Toronto’s CN Tower. After that, it was more than a decade until we were together again, when Ted and I vacationed in Germany and Austria in 2015; then another 7 year gap until last year (Episode 292). What’s most fascinating is that each time it’s like no time has elapsed at all. We fall right back into conversations in Gerglish (a mix of mostly German with English words and phrases thrown in both for the benefit of everyone else in our family who speaks only English, and when I just don’t know the German word).

When they started talking about visiting again, we had not yet relocated to BC. Once that happened, their goal for our visit became seeing the mountains. Even though they live in the northeast of Germany, and travel fairly widely, they’ve never been in the Alps, so our Canadian mountains will be their first experience. Our itinerary for their 12 day visit will feature the mountains in Whistler.

The rest of our outings will allow them (and us) to explore some of beautiful British Columbia’s natural wonders, and highlight the province’s indigenous heritage.

After a mid-afternoon airport pickup and transit home via Skytrain, it was time for a welcome Aperol spritz toast and a quick supper of grilled sausages, pasta salad, dilled potatoes, and sweet kale salad before stretching their airplane legs with a short walk along the Coquitlam River.

The forecast calls for rain EVERY DAY of their stay; pretty typical Vancouver area weather. We’ll stick to plans nonetheless, because as my cousin Helga said, “we’re not made of sugar “.

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On day 2, recognizing travel weariness, we took it easy and headed to nearby Port Moody to the Rocky Point Lookout and the water’s edge trail.

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It was low tide, so the east end of Burrard Inlet in Port Moody was mud flats, populated by ducks, geese, and a lone blue heron.

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As promised, a light rain started to fall just as we were finishing our walk, so we popped in to a café to continue talking (all 3 of us are talkers – poor Ted!) and then headed home, after an unsuccessful attempt to see The Bigger Yellow Pile (PCL’s huge yellow sulphur piles), because visitors are not allowed into the PCL facility and I didn’t properly follow the gate guard’s instructions as to how to get to the highway to see them. We had a second shared supper with son #2 and family, finished a bottle of wine, got caught up looking at family pictures, and headed to bed.

Day 3. With rain still in the forecast , we made sure to pack our rain jackets before heading to the town of Harrison Hot Springs, with stops at two of the area’s Provincial Parks: Bridal Veil, and Sasquatch. Our goal: to see some indigenous wildlife, hopefully a black bear, elk, eagle, and beaver.

Bridal Veil Falls wowed us all.

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The forest was so lush, the trees so tall, the water so pristine, the air so fragrant with cedar and moss, and the silence so perfect that it was easy to understand why the indigenous people found these forests both sacred and mystical.

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Bridal Veil Provincial Park also had the most pristine “pit toilets” any of us had ever seen!

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We made a brief stop for coffee and sandwiches at Muddy Waters Café in Harrison Hot Springs, and then walked the short trail beside the lagoon to the source of the 140°F sulphurous waters for which the town is famous. Dipping a finger in (and smelling the steam rising from the water) convinced me that dunking my body in sulphur hot springs is not for me!

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Harrison Hot Springs has the Sasquatch (the Sa:sq’ets) as its mascot, and there are carvings and representations of this elusive creature everywhere, especially in the souvenir shops.

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But there’s more to learn than just Sasquatch lore; this area is also home to the Sts’ailes People, a sovereign Coast Salish First Nation whose name means “the beating heart”, and there is information about their culture also available in the town.

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Then it was on to Sasquatch Provincial Park. While the park is absolutely huge, it didn’t wow us the way Bridal Veil Falls did. We drove several miles into the park on rutted gravel roads, and found the campsite areas, but no useful signage to get us to the Hicks Lake Trail where we’d hoped to make our wildlife sightings. After finding a parking lot that appeared to have a couple of non-camping vehicles in it and no “reserved” signs, we wandered along the water’s edge for a while, and were able to determine that we were indeed at Hicks Lake. It was certainly peaceful and lovely, but we never did find a trail to take us around it.

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We did eventually find the Beaver Pond Loop, complete with beaver lodge – but no visible beavers – and had a short walk around it before deciding to return to Harrison for dinner.

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As luck would have it, we got our beaver sighting through the dusty car windows as we were driving out of the park: a big healthy adult climbing from a roadside stream up the slippery rock face back toward the woods and the pond.

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If relatives come to BC all the way from Germany, it only makes sense to take them to a German restaurant, right? We enjoyed German dark beer and schnitzel at the Black Forest Restaurant in Harrison, while listening to German “Schlager” (pop music hits).

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It was a 90 minute (100km) drive home, and as luck would have it, 10 minutes from home, on one of Coquitlam’s roads, a black bear ran across the street 2 cars in front of us. We’d seen our bear, but with no photographic evidence none of our relatives back in Germany were willing to believe my cousins when they sent their check-in messages home in the evening. Good thing we have more exploration days to come.

Day 4. Bravery day: Capilano Suspension Bridge and Treetop Adventure.

None of us love heights. Well, to be fair, Ted and Doris don’t mind them, but Helga and I really had to screw up our courage to accomplish today’s iconic BC tourist event.

It turns out that the Capilano suspension bridge is actually far less scary than the one in Squamish, and we had a terrific time in the treetops and at the cliff’s edge. The day was enhanced by a surprise change in the weather forecast: sunny and 19°C/66°F, which was absolutely perfect for our outing.

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Having made it across the bridge, our first stop was at the raptor centre, where the handlers had Chico the barred owl and Geraldo the gyr falcon out visiting. Geraldo was born in captivity and worked for 17 years controlling unwanted bird populations in places like airports. He is now “retired”, and will likely spend his next 10 or so years of life in leisure showing tourists how handsome he is.

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Next it was on to the Tree Top Adventure, a series of platforms built around the humongous red cedars, and connected by static staircases and short suspension bridges. It was truly a breathtaking experience being so high in the trees.

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As if that wasn’t enough excitement, we crossed the suspension bridge a second time (no choice really), took a quick coffee break, and then headed for the Cliffwalk. The website descriptor reads: “Hovering as high as 30 storeys above the Capilano River Canyon, Cliffwalk is a series of narrow walkways, stairs, and viewing platforms anchored to the sheer cliff face with suspended cantilevers.” It really is an experience not to be missed … and the platforms, unlike the suspension bridge, don’t sway!

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Having experienced Capilano, now I can’t wait to do it again at night in November when the entire park is lit with hundreds of thousands of lights!

Day 5. Another day, another iconic Vancouver experience: the Vancouver Aquarium and Stanley Park.

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Once upon a time (when we visited 20 years ago), the aquarium had beluga whales. Whales and other large aquatic animals are no longer being kept in captivity, unless they’ve been injured and are being treated before being released. Even the fish swimming around the tanks here have mostly been born here, and not taken out of the wild. There are, however, several sea lions and two otters currently at the aquarium who for various reasons would not survive in their natural habitats; they’re being well fed and cared for, and provide many learning opportunities for visitors here.

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We were certainly impressed by the tropical fish, Amazonian caimans (caimen?), anaconda, and colourful poisonous frogs, as well as by the many jellyfish.

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We also saw clown fish, but who needs another photo of clown fish if instead I can have a photo of my cousin Helga eating soft serve out of a clown fish waffle cone?

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Naturally, what we were most interested in were the some of the more unusual and colourful species who live right here on the Pacific west coast and in the Strait of Georgia, which is the body of water separating mainland BC from Vancouver Island.

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We took in the 4D movie Shark, getting growled at, sprayed, bumped, and blown at in the process. 4D movies are always fun!

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After the aquarium, we took a stroll along the sea wall at Stanley Park’s perimeter, stopping to visit Totem Park and Brockton Point Lighthouse, as well as capturing some lovely views of the Vancouver skyline.

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Then it was an hour in bumper to bumper traffic getting back to Coquitlam, where we took enthusiastic part in one more iconic BC activity: eating burgers at Red Robin.

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Day 6. Saturday morning pancakes and the longest pier

We haven’t spent much time with son #2 and his family, so it was a treat to have breakfast together, especially since #2 was making his famous buttermilk pancakes.

Then it was off on our road trip for the day: White Rock. Have rental car, MUST travel.

Ted took a break from us today, so the pictures are mine, Helga’s, and Doris’s – all taken with our phones.

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The 470 metre/1,540 ft long White Rock Pier, one of the longest in Canada, dates back to 1914, when it was a dock for steamships that arrived when the Great Northern Railway began operation. It was long touted as the longest pier in the country, but apparently a marina pier in Portneuf Quebec is almost twice as long. Still, it is impressive (and the sign remains, since it may well be the longest wooden pedestrian use only pier in Canada.

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Then it was back to our little place in Coquitlam for Aperol spritzes, homemade chicken enchiladas, and lots and lots of South African “No Monkey Business” Moskato (sic).

Day 7. It’s Fathers’ Day Sunday, and the day my rental car needs to be returned. We have combined celebratory dinner plans tonight, and next week’s transportation will be far more interesting than a car.

Unfortunately, grandson #2 spiked at 102.5°F fever mid afternoon, so dinner plans have been deferred until the night before my cousins depart. Instead, we spent the day just relaxing, listening to music, packing our overnight bags for a couple of days in the mountains, and eating Chinese dumplings with sautéed cabbage and sesame oil.

Nothing picture-worthy today. Lots to come though.