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Traveling Tales

Travel articles and information

Joei Carlton Hossack

Taming the Dragon

by Joei Carlton Hossack

Dragon boats, Vancouver
Dragon boats, Vancouver

The Skytrain ride for my day trip to downtown Vancouver for my first experience of dragon boating had me intimidated. Even as I walked from the Main Street/Science World station to the Creekside Community Recreation Centre  on False Creek I wondered how to break it gently to my family.

I was thrilled that I wasn’t alone in wanting to back out.

My niece, trying to keep us all calm, warned that if we didn’t go we would regret missing out on a true adventure. This was my great nephew’s birthday party and there were almost seventy of us going dragon boating and except for Daniel and a few of his friends, we were all novices.

Six instructors, standing on the concrete wall shouted instructions and demonstrated the dragon boating row – different from canoeing or kayaking – more swift and crisp. En masse we learned and practiced on shore.

Life jackets on, we readied to board.  The two seats in front filled first followed by the two back seats.  The next two in front were followed by two in the rear and continued until all nineteen of us were on board.  The three other boats filled the same way and I was disappointed that none of the boats had the ceremonial ‘dragon head.’

Now I was really nervous.  All of the old people, of which I am one, were put in the same boat even though there were others. I feared we were going out to sea to be put onto an ice floe to float into oblivion and when I aired my feelings a few laughed –.nervously.  Last to board were our instructors – one in front – one at the rear. We immediately shoved off and crashed into the dragon boat crossing our rear.  No harm done.

For one hour we paddled – sometimes fast, then slow and made every effort to do it in formation so our oars wouldn’t touch and we could gain some speed. With our paddles stuck in the water at a ninety degree angle, we learned to stop on the spot when commanded to do so. We raced the other boats. When floating we marveled at the skyscrapers and Granville Island in the distance.  I was splashed by my niece sitting in front of me and goaded her mother, sitting directly behind me, into picking up the paddle and getting back to work because the captain wanted to water-ski. It was all is good fun — and a great adventure.

By the time we floated back into the slip I knew that I could cross dragon boating off my bucket list even though I didn’t realize that it had been on my bucket list.

About the author
Joei Carlton Hossack is the author of ten adventure travel books, an entertaining and inspirational speaker and amateur photographer. Her favorite mode of transportation is traveling solo in her RV. She teaches memoir writing and travel writing. Please visit her website at www.joeicarlton.com. Joei has created a new line of books called Mini Reads and a new line of bookmarks combining her love of photography and bead work. The bookmarks are available at www.etsy.com/shop/BookBlingbyJoei

Fort Langley: A Step Back in Time

by Joei Carlton Hossack

Fort Langley Tour GuideIt was a perfect day trip from Vancouver, British Columbia to the National Historic Site at Fort Langley. It was sunny and warm and there was little traffic on the highway for our mid-week outing.

My friend Edith and I arrived at the Fort just in time to attend the staged wedding of Allison, a First Nations woman and Jason, a fur trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company, or in this case, audience members. Before vows were exchanged gifts of Hudson Bay blankets, cranberries, hides for moccasins and tools were traded between the husband’s and wife’s families. A simple ceremony followed and promises were made that when a judge arrived at the Fort the marriage would be formalized.

For two hours we lived in the 19th century, wandering in and out of the reconstructed wooden buildings. From the cooperage, where barrels were built to store and ship salmon, cranberries and farm produce, we went to the blacksmith shop where farm tools were forged then set out for viewing and giant bellows hung from the ceiling. The storehouse, built in the 1840s and renovated in the 1930s is the only original building left on the site. We drifted into the First Nations building, next door, for a little fur trading and to examine the pile of pelts on the tables.

We stopped at the Barrel Café and realized that a traditional lunch menu of harvest soup with bannock (bread prepared by frying), scones, chicken and cranberries sandwich, maple baked beans or settler’s shepherd pie to mention just a few items, were available. We had already lunched on a “James Dean” burger in town but couldn’t resist a cup of tea and a cranberry scone.

In November, 1858 British Columbia was proclaimed a colony at a ceremony in The Big House. The building served as the Fort’s office and residence of the chief trader, the clerk and their families.

After an informal introduction to the livestock, consisting of rabbits, pigs and sheep all housed in individual pens, we took our seats and listened to a presentation at the Heritage Garden. We sampled green beans and a vegetable that was the precursor of celery but tasted harsh to my palate. We munched on tiny edible flowers and enjoyed the delicate flavor. Small paper bags were handed out to carry away sprigs of mint and sage and handfuls of beans.

Now well fortified, I tried my hand at some gold panning. There might have been nuggets in that water but I found nothing larger than tiny flakes and certainly nothing I wanted to take home. We ended our tour at The Servant’s Quarters, walking from room to room and taking pictures of the food in the center of tables, the bear rugs on the floor, the chamber pots under the beds and snowshoes that hung from the rafters or propped against walls.

To ease our way back into the 21st century we browsed through the antique shops on Mavis Avenue before hitting the ice cream shop in Fort Langley.

About the author:
Joei Carlton Hossack is the author of ten adventure travel books, an entertaining and inspirational speaker and amateur photographer. Her favorite mode of transportation is traveling solo in her RV. She teaches memoir writing and travel writing. Please visit her website at www.joeicarlton.com. Joei has created a new line of books called Mini Reads and a new line of bookmarks combining her love of photography and bead work. The bookmarks are available at www.etsy.com/shop/BookBlingbyJoei

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