I know where Bella Swan’s house is.

Bella Swan's house, the set

The Twilight movie set, built for the second and third installments of the popular teen vampire series, lies on an unassuming residential street somewhere in a rural Surrey neighbourhood.

Film crews, and possibly the film’s biggest, gorgeous stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, were there last week.

Not that any fans found out.

They were kept well away from filming by the production’s seasoned security crews, who closed off the street a safe distance from the action.

Even the kids at nearby East Kensington Elementary in Cloverdale were put out. Their route for the school’s annual Terry Fox Run had to be changed at the behest of the movie crew.

There are also unconfirmed reports that the police were called in to bar fans from the set, however security at the scene Sunday refuted those claims, insisting fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars had been well behaved.

Since Sunday, the set, located on 28 Ave., near 184 in Surrey, has been pretty quiet.

But the well-informed and prolific on-line rumour mill suggests patient Twilight fans, or Twi-hards, will be well-rewarded in the days and weeks to come.

Principal photography on the Twilight Saga: Eclipse isn’t supposed to wrap up until the end of the month.

The set hasn’t been torn down; maybe “Robsten” will be back?

Take a drive up the eastern bench above the Southern Okanagan wine Mecca of Oliver, B.C., and you’re sure to spot some wild horses among the sagebrush and arid, sloping hillsides.

You’re not seeing things. Turns out there have been free roaming horses in the Oliver area for a long, long time. On a recent drive through the area on a scorching hot summer’s afternoon in late August, we spotted a small band of horses by the side of the Mount Baldy access road.

It was a thin but healthy mare, two yearlings and a muscular, wary stallion, who each continued to graze by the side of the road when we slowed down to take some photos.

Entranced by their wild beauty, we slowly got out of the car, and walked as close as we dared. The stallion kept close watch, but didn’t budge from the shoulder of the opposite side of the road. The mare trotted a safe distance away, where she grazed on desert grasses for a few minutes, until her colts decided they were too nervous to stay with the stallion on the roadway and eventually joined her.

The origins of Oliver’s wild horses lie inside a blend of oral history, rumour and local aboriginal tradition. According to a March 25, 2009 article in the Oliver Chronicle, some say they’re feral horses whose ancestors were domesticated horses that escaped or were released into the wild. Others say they’re truly wild, and still others believe they’re privately owned.

The truth is probably a combination of all three. Whatever the origin story, today hundreds of wild horses are roaming around on Osoyoos indian reserve and Crown land in the area, and occasionally wandering onto private property in search of food, depending on the season. Current estimates suggest there are as many as 350 horses roaming on a 50,000 acre range.

According to rancher and band member Aaron Stelkia, wild horses used to roam throughout the region before European settlers arrived, the article continues.

“The Okanagan natives were horsemen,” he told the Chronicle. “After the Second World War, the government put a bounty on wild horses. People shot them and cut the horses’ ears off as proof.” Over the years, the First Nations people added stallions to improve the breed, he said. “They are wild horses by history, but now there’s probably very little of the wild horses left. Over the years, some [domestic] horses escaped, some were turned loose.”

Stelkia said his people used to catch wild horses, sell them for meat or bucking horses, and sell the best ones as saddle horses – until the market crashed three years ago.

“Now, wild horses aren’t worth catching anymore.” Sadly, some of the horses have trouble finding enough food over the winter, and become thin and unhealthy-looking, causing concern among local residents.

Something terrible happened to channel 43 this summer.

Sometime, when I wasn’t paying attention, my tied-for-favourite PBS channel, WTVS-Detroit, vanished from my Shaw Cable lineup. And in its place was some cruddy kiddy TV station showing idiotic baby-oriented cartoons with primary colours, shrieking voices, and loud, clunky soundtracks.

It took me a few weeks to realize what had happened. I’d been tuning in during the day, and somehow mistook Treehouse, a toddler-centric station geared to the very, very young, for the regular morning children’s programming on PBS.

Normally, I figure stuff like this out right away. I was pretty distracted. July heatwave, anyone? But a few nights ago, as I was flipping around the dial, I landed on channel 43 – proud home, I thought, to PBS.

Something was amiss. There was no Frontline or Nova, Masterpiece or Mystery. A clue lay stamped on the screen in the lower right hand corner: the distinctive logo of the Treehouse channel. What the hey?I logged onto the Shaw website, and found the explanation: Shaw has removed WTVS-56 from the regular cable package.

It’s now only available through the digital cable package – an upgrade. Worse, regular cable subscribers must live with a poor substitute in its place in the 43 slot, Treehouse, a children’s TV channel. I emailed Shaw Cable the next morning, demanding to know what was up, and to register a complaint at the switch.

I also explained that I relied on WTVS- Detroit for my PBS viewing because the Seattle-based KCTS-9’s signal has been unreliable – pixelating, blips and breakups, a problem their customer service person assured me originated with my cable provider and not them (I never got a response from Shaw on the matter, BTW).

This morning, I finally got a response, from a Shaw “E-service” agent named Stacey who seems to go by her first name only. Here it is:

Thank you for contacting Shaw Eservice.  We apologise for the delay in response as a result of higher than normal email volumes and thank you for your patience. We certainly appreciate your concerns regarding our available channels, and we have forwarded your message to the appropriate department for consideration.

Shaw is working constantly to improve our services in order to better meet the needs of our customers, and sometimes this ongoing process necessitates significant changes, such as the discontinuation or reassignment of certain channels. The decision to move a given channel is not one which is made lightly, and is the result of much deliberation on the part of our planners and engineers. As such, the decision to relocate PBS-Detroit is not arbitrary, but one which we feel will, when followed by other changes, allow us to improve our services for the vast majority of our customers, and to increase our selection of digital and high definition programming.

We do apologise for any inconvenience that this decision may have caused, and hope that the ongoing improvements to our service will allow us to continue to meet your needs. We hope this information has been useful to you.  Please feel free to contact us by phone 604-629-8888 or by email response.  If you need further assistance you may also visit our website at www.shaw.ca .

That’s it. I’m not sure I’ll hold my breath while I wait to hear back from Shaw. Meanwhile, I hope they’re going to add my complaint to a list of customers who are protesting the removal of WTVS from the line up. If enough people complain, maybe they’ll bring it back. Ok, I guess that sounds pretty unlikely, but still.

Why should Shaw get away with the decision to remove a public television network – that many Canadians help support through donations – from regular cable and then only make it available through the premium, upgraded, digital cable package?

I have no intention of upgrading to digital. I’m otherwise pretty happy with old school cable and don’t see why I should have to pay for another ugly box to plug in and store near my TV.

Let’s protest! Shaw Cable subscribers, are you with me? Contact Shaw at www.shaw.ca or call the phone number listed above, I guess.

The loss of WTVS is one less reason to watch TV at all. A big reason. And it’s one more reason to love my MacBook and high speed internet service.

I just checked the Detroit Public TV website. Some of their shows are available online! You know what that means?

Suck it, Shaw. I love PBS. Having two channels from two different U.S. cities meant variety and choice. Viewers on the west coast could watch superb prime time PBS programming a couple of hours earlier each evening.

For instance, I always preferred to watch Frontline, the remarkably intelligent, always fascinating hour-long news magazine on WTVS because at 7 or 8 p.m., I was more alert than at 9 or 10 p.m., when it airs on Seattle’s KCTS. And I always caught NOW and Bill Moyers, two issues-driven current affairs shows, on Sunday mornings on PBS Detroit. I could go on. I’ll close simply by saying I’m going to really miss WTVS, and it’s not going to be the same. Nothing against KCTS-9. It’s just that I’m old and I can’t stay up that late anymore. Guess that ancient VCR will come in handy. And that Wi-Fi connection.

To the future.

Update: For another perspective on what’s really going on over at Shaw Cable, read this post on the Total Recoil blog: Shaw Cable’s “migration” to digital. The situation’s worse than I thought.

I blinked – hard – when I read the subject line in my email: John Hughes is dead.

“Stay tuned for multiple repeats of The Breakfast Club,” my main squeeze wrote. When someone you love dies, someone who loves you should be the one to break the news.

And I loved John Hughes.

Hughes, a writer, director and producer, constructed a universe of teen archetypes, so capably and reassuringly laid out in The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Pretty In Pink: The Princess, the Geek, the Loner, the Jock, the Freak, the Delinquent, the Richie, the Bitch, the Tomboy. He really “got” inside the heads of teenaged girls – and pencil-necked geeks.

Perhaps best known for a string of comic hits starring his eye-rolling, Gen X muse, the auburn-haired teen goddess, Molly Ringwald, Hughes was the first filmmaker, writer and director of the late 1980s I could actually name – outside of the usual gang of ’70s blockbuster filmmakers: Stephen Spielberg (Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, E.T. and Poltergeist), George Lucas (American Graffiti, Star Wars), and John Landis (Animal House).

Although the once-prolific American filmmaker – best known for a string of successful comedies in the late ’80s and early ’90s – hadn’t produced anything approaching the quality of the angsty, conversationally-driven, “Brat Pack”-launching teen classic, The Breakfast Club, for years, I still held out hope that he would one day stage a brilliant comeback. Some day very soon.

So when I tried to absorb the news of Hughes’s premature passing (only 59, for chrissakes), all I could think was, Shit. SHIT. We won’t be seeing another Hughes move. Did he even know how much we loved his stuff?

Unless you’re a movie-blog/film review nut, you might not realize how often John Hughes’s name is invoked by people who write, blog or text about movies.

Seriously, just yesterday I was reading a post about how in recent years Hughes had been writing under a non de plume on various projects for other filmmakers. It even mentioned his actual alias. (Not Alan Smithee; Edmund Dantes, if you must know.).

It’s too soon to pen a career-spanning retrospective. Why not revisit a previous post to the only U.S. A.-American filmmaker to address the thorny issue of “class” in mainstream, teen-oriented films? Here it is.

It’s a story-book ending for former detainees Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two American journalists who’ve spent more than four months imprisoned in North Korea, after they were arrested under suspicious circumstances.

Yesterday, after an unannounced meeting in Pyongyang between former U.S. president Bill Clinton and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the two women were pardoned and freed. They had been sentenced to 12 years hard labour for illegally entering the country.

For family, friends and supporters of a Canadian woman held captive in Somalia for the past year, today’s news headlines and footage of the two jubilant women returning to the States must have provided a painful contrast indeed.

On Aug. 23, 2008 freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout – along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan and others – was grabbed near Mogadishu and held for ransom.

Her captors, rebels caught up in the northeast African country’s long-standing civil war, initially demanded a ransom of $2.5 million for her safe release, although the sum is reportedly much lower now.

Held in isolation at undisclosed locations over the past year, her mental and physical health is deteriorating, and she fears for her life.

“I don’t want to die here and I’m afraid I’ll die in captivity if I don’t get help soon,” she told OMNI TV Aug. 3, according to a report in today’s Globe and Mail. And the Red Deer Advocate.

Lindhout says she’s shackled and kept in a dark room, and complained of fever, dysentery, stomach problems and an abscessed tooth.

Troubling Somalian reports additionally claim the 28-year-old woman gave birth last week to a boy and that the father is one of her militia captors.
However, both Reporters Without Borders and the Somali Journalists’ Rights Agency say they do not consider the source of the reports – the WaagaCusub media agency – to be reliable.

Whatever their accuracy, the rumours highlight the disturbing circumstances of Lindhout’s captivity, and only adds to the mounting concern for her health and well-being as she languishes in confinement, hoping for the Canadian government to secure her release.

Lindhout’s family has pleaded with the Canadian government to intervene, and she herself renewed those pleas earlier this week.

Kidnappings of foreigners in Somalia are not uncommon in Somalia, where civil war has raged since 1991. Lindhout was kidnapped three days after arriving in Somalia, on assignment for  French TV. She and Brennan were abducted while trying to visit a displaced persons camp outside the capital city. Others taken captive at the same time have since been released.

According to a CP story published in the Red Deer Advocate in May, it’s believed their captors are moving Lindhout and Brennan, 37, between different houses and that negotiations for their release have broken down numerous times.

Brennan’s family recently stepped forward to demand action from the Australian government on their son’s behalf.

With Canadian officials reluctant to go on record about the case for fear of jeopardizing the captives’ situation, it’s impossible to know what is really going on behind closed doors. Macleans Magazine’s Michael Petrou recently raised questions about what action Foreign Affairs is taking, noting nobody from the department has bothered to talk to one of Lindhout’s colleagues who was released in January and is now in Kenya.

Sadly, Ms. Lindhout’s circumstances differ from Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s in substantial ways, offering little hope that the situation will be resolved quickly, or with the kind of panache exuded by the former U.S. president and the current Obama administration.

She was kidnapped by a group of rebels inside a failed state – Somalia, a country where civilized government and social structures no longer exist, prompting, among other things, sea-going bands of disenfranchised fishermen to re-envision themselves as modern-day pirates, capturing freight vessels and holding international crews ransom to limited success.

Lindhout, a native of Sylvan Lake, Alberta, also has the misfortune of being a relatively unknown, freelance journalist without famous, influential relatives.

It’s not difficult to imagine a very different outcome for Euna Lee and Laura Ling had they not been employed by a media venture owned by former vice president (and Oscar winner) Al Gore, or had Laura Ling not been related to broadcaster Lisa Ling, a TV journalist and frequent contributor to the Oprah show, a woman with a high profile and access to the highest halls of power.

One thing I believe all three women share in common: they willingly took risks on the job that ultimately put them in harm’s way. And they’ve learned that this can carry a very heavy price.

I also wonder if they would have been in that position in the first place if they were staff correspondents working for solid news outlets.

With vanishing foreign news bureaus and shrinking newsrooms, it’s a situation I fear an ever greater number of ambitious, news-thirsty young journalists will willingly place themselves in – an unhappy ending indeed.

Note: The Globe and Mail story does point out that other woman captives have given birth while enduring long-term kidnappings. Clara Rojas, who was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, or FARC, and held captive for six years, gave birth to a son fathered by one of her captors.

The boy was taken from her at eight months of age, but she gained custody after her release.

A scene from Never Cry Wolf

From Eight Below, the true-life tale of an abandoned pack of Huskies who survive an Antarctic winter alone to horror/Sci Fi classic, The Thing, the wilds of northwest British Columbia have formed the backdrop to a surprising number of “Hollywood” movies.

If you’re old enough, maybe you remember 1982’s The Thing, an icy little nightmare directed by horror master John Carpenter and starring Kurt Russell, a shaggy-haired, blue-eyed ’70s everyman who battles a terrifying threat from beyond. Set in a remote, Antarctic outpost, it’s considered by purists to be Carpenter’s best film. It’s certainly one of the most successful modern-day remakes, in my book.

It mines a fear of emptiness and the dread of the unknown – all while riffing on the predictable plot lines of an “and-then-there-were-none” type thriller.

It may have been set in the Antarctic, but look closely at the snowflake-laden, windswept wasteland, and you might recognize the wintry environs surrounding a little-known corner of British Columbia – the town of Stewart, B.C., a historic mining outpost on the B.C.’s rugged border with the Alaskan panhandle. The population currently sits at 500.

Over the years, it’s played host to an impressive number of American movie productions. None of them actually set in Stewart, of course. But that’s the B.C. way.

Other titles include Iceman, a 1984 film starring Tim Hutton and Danny Glover about a prehistoric caveman who gets thawed out in a modern lab, and 1992’s Leaving Normal, a feel-good road movie that’s kind of like Thelma and Louise, only with a happy ending. It starred Christine Lahti and Meg Tilley (oh where, oh where have these two talented actresses gone?) as a pair of mismatched, free-spirited travelling companions who make their way to Alaska, by car, with varying results. I haven’t seen it lately, but my guess is that time will be kind – back in the day, it suffered in comparison to Ridley Scott’s superlative female “buddy” movie.

In August, 2002, a large film crew spent four days in the Stewart/Hyder, Alaska, area filming scenes for Insomnia, a remake of a European movie that was directed by Christopher Nolan of Memento and The Dark Knight fame. Insomnia was a cat-and-mouse murder mystery that starred Hilary Swank, Al Pacino and Robin Williams (as well as a breakout supporting role by Corner Gas’s wonderful Lorne Cardinal), and it knew what it sleep deprivation sounds and feels like.

Stewart, and the neighbouring Nisga’a Nation, pulled out all the stops for the cast and crew, ensuring the short stint was as pleasant as possible, and coming through on the difficult task of finding enough hotel rooms for the production.

Back in the day, Hyder, Alaska’s, infamous watering hole, the Glacier Inn (which claims to have invented “Getting Hyderized”, a drinking ritual that involves downing a flaming shot of 150-proof Everclear – don’t let it linger in the throat, people, that stuff will scour the top layer of skin lining your throat), boasted various movie props and souvenirs from productions that have filmed in the area.

This recent YouTube video reveals that the dark, dank walls and ceiling of the Inn are still plastered with dollar bills and nautical memorabillia from across the world, but no signs of the film props – but at least unsuspecting visitors are still Getting Hyderized, which gladdens my heart somehow.

No such fun or depravity to be had in Smithers, B.C. If you’ve never been, picture an earnest, early ’80s-version of Kitsilano’s 4th Ave. magically re-located to a kitschy, Bavarian-themed village of just 5,000 in the northwest B.C. interior, three-and-a-half hours’ drive inland from the coast.

Not to be outdone by its Blue Collar neighbour to the northwest, the Hip-By-Name/Hip-By-Reputation, Aging Granola/Hipster-Haven town of Smithers has also played host to at least one Hollywood production of its own – Disney’s family-oriented drama Eight Below, a 2006 picture that starred Hollywood hunk Paul Walker who was upstaged by a pack of talented four-legged canines. The often sunny but vast ice world of the movie is actually an impressive stand-in by the glaciers on Smither’s own Hudson Bay Mountain, a giant, eternally snow-capped local ski hill that looms over the vegan-soy latte-loving town.

More recently, the insect-ridden, rolling hillsides around Smithers have been featured in newer episodes of the simply awesome Mantracker, a Canadian-made reality show about a grizzled, white-bearded tracker who spends each episode hunting down interchangeable pairs of annoying, athletic Yuppies and city slickers as they race through the wilderness to a finishing line some many kms away. He’s on horseback, accompanied by another mounted local guide who knows the area. It’s deeply satisfying when Mantracker wins but the prey get away more often than you’d think – a testament to Mantracker’s reluctance to abuse his surefooted, patient pony for the sake of a win.

For my money, the best movie filmed in northwest B.C. has to be Never Cry Wolf, from 1983. Based on the autobiographic Farley Mowat novel of the same name and starring Charles Martin Smith, Brian Dennehy as Rosie the bush pilot, and Zachary Ittimangnaq as Ootek, the story is set in the arctic wilderness, where the lead character spends months observing a family of wolves – only to discover these intelligent, socially complex creatures aren’t as blood-thirsty or violent as everyone thinks.

Never Cry Wolf was directed by the great Carroll Ballard, who also directed the the beautiful, meditative boy and his horse study, The Black Stallion (1979). If you’ve ever lived Beyond Hope, or more especially, north of 54, you’ll know every bit of it rings true, particularly the bits involving the bush pilot’s zen-like grace under pressure.

By the way, for a South Paw’s take on the mystery and wonder that is the Stewart/Hyder area and the environs of the northwest, here’s a link to a post in Outpost31, a site devoted to the movie, The Thing. A few years back, some hardcore fans flew to northwest B.C. – into the hub airport in the supply and service centre, Terrace –  drove four hours through rugged, scenic territory west along Highway 16, then north on Highway 37, and finally west on 37a to Stewart/Hyder. This is a great travelogue in addition to being a faithful log of a pilgrimage by fans and their quest to view a number of remaining set peices that still litter the Salmon glacier area in the mountains above Stewart. Nice job, guys.

Also see Part I of Stuff To Do: Vancouver’s North Shore

HIGHWAY 99
Porteau Cove Provincial Park, Hwy 99, south of Britannia Beach. Picturesque spot on Howe Sound. Features a popular camping and Scuba dive site.

BRITANNIA BEACH
Worth a tour is the B.C. Museum of Mining at Britannia Beach. Go underground in a real mine tunnel and later try your hand at gold panning. Open seven days a week March 14 to Nov. 1, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and from Monday to Friday (9-4:30) during the winter. Rates are $18.50 for adults, $13.95 for seniors and students, $11.95 for youth. Five and under is free. Family rate is $55.

NEAR SQUAMISH
Another picnic spot is Shannon Falls Provincial Park, Highway 99, just south of Squamish. Falls are 335 metres high. Stretch your legs on one of the pathways leading past the falls.

The easy, low-elevation hike through the forest to Cheakamus Lake is another stop en route to Whistler. Turn right onto the access road at Function Junction (just before Whistler), then take a gravel road to the left, and continue for seven kms to the parking lot and trailhead. It’s a three-km hike to the first campsite. Along the way, there’s a footbridge across the creek for those headed to Black Tusk. The Cheakamus Lake trail continues on from the first campsite for several more kms to another campsite at Singing Creek. The lake is a deep turquoise colour, thanks to glacial run-off.

WHISTLER
Interested in the First Nations that have traditionally maintained a presence in the Whistler area for thousands of years? Visit the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, at 4584 Blackcomb Way.  This gorgeous new facility – it’s a jewel in Whistler’s pre-2010 crown – is an absolute hub of aboriginal cultural activity. Self-directed and guided tours of the informative museum (home to some valuable historic artifacts such as canoes and regalia plus newer pieces of artwork), eat at the cafe (venison chili or salmon chowder , fresh bannock bread and a beverage just $9.50, I think) are available. Learn basket weaving and crafts, watch artists at work, book an eco tour, or take the cultural forest walk, a nature loop. Open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. You don’t have to pay admission to eat at the cafe or visit the gift shop.

Take the Whistler Gondola from the village up to the Roundhouse. Once there, ride the chair to the top of the mountain, where you can take an easy hike back down to the lodge or explore miles of gorgeous trails in the alpine. This year marks the summer debut of the new Peak 2 Peak gondola. The 4.4 km span connects two mountains. The 11 minute ride takes you over to Blackcomb Mountain, where there’s the Rendezvous Lodge and many kms of new and/or improved hiking trails in the alpine there, too. They’re promoting this one heavily, I notice, so be warned it’s pricey. I think it was around $26 for a pass up the Whistler gondola last summer, but that’s jumped to $41.95 for an adult ticket. That includes the Peak 2 Peak “experience”, so you might as well go for it. Don’t bother waiting for the glass bottomed gondola – you’ll get just as good a view from a regular car.

Bike/walk a little or a lot of the Valley Trail. It’s paved and has a yellow centre line separating oncoming traffic from your side of the road. We recently cycled 25 kms in one Sunday afternoon, taking us past sunny lakeside swimming holes and meandering streams and rushing creeks.

You don’t need to spend too much money to have a great time on the water. If swimming’s not your style, buy an inflatable boat and float away at one of Whistler’s dreamy bodies of water. Or rent a canoe or kayak from one of the companies operating on Alta and Green lakes. But I think the inflatable is the way to go on a really hot day. We watched about a dozen or so merry-makers lazily meander along the River of Golden Dreams from Alta Lake en route to Green Lake. They got into a bit of a bottle neck under a bridge, making for an impromptu photo op stop. Passersby shouted for a camera. One was handed over to shore, where a

How to relax, Whistler-style.

pedestrian obligingly took a group shot. The giddy moment captured for all posterity, the camera was handed back and the group burbled away. One of the kids even had an inflatable sofa. A blow up plastic couch! Now that’s living.

Compared to other towns its size, the Resort Municipality of Whistler has an incredible number of amenities serving the locals. If the weather’s bad, winter or summer, head over to the rec centre at Meadow Park. Lounge around in the swimming pools and jacuzzi tubs or hit the well-appointed weight and fitness rooms. Along with an ice arena, There is even a squash court for crying out loud. Rent racquets and eye protectors at the front desk. (Why have squash courts all but disappeared in the Lower Mainland? Well, thanks to the RMOW, I won’t to move back to northern B.C. to get my squash fix!)

Part I of Stuff To Do: Vancouver’s North Shore

When you live in the “Best Place on Earth” (cough, cough), you’re surrounded by so many choices, in so many directions, it can be hard to think of something good to do.

It seems you can never think of anything much beyond the totally obvious choices – walk the Stanley Park Seawall? Go to Chinatown? Hit the beach? Go for a hike? Grab a coffee? See a movie? Yawn.

Add in the prospect of a headache-inducing drive or transit-ride through near-24-7 traffic congestion, and stiff parking fees and other hassles once you get there, and it’s no wonder most of us end up sticking close to home.

A list of ideas can help.

Here’s the start of one I cobbled together last month, on the eve of an impending visit from an out-of-town guest. Activities are arranged by region/geographic area, so you could conceivably hit several in one spot on the same day – theoretically, at least. More ideas and places to follow!

WEST VAN
Explore Lighthouse Park, at Point Atkinson. The park is home to old growth trees and a network of steep, wooded trails that lead through the forest and to the rocky, cliff-laden coastline. The point was named by Captain George Vancouver in 1792. Located off Marine Drive via Beacon Lane just before Eagle Harbour.

Swim or picnic at Sandy Cove. Located at 3906 Marine Drive. Park along Marine Drive. Access is via a steep trail to the water’s edge. This is one of West Van’s best kept local secrets.

Hike at Cypress Mountain. There are plenty of different hikes of various trails here. A favourite is the Four Lakes Loop to First Lake, West Lake, Blue Gentian and Lost Lake. 7.2 km. Start at the nordic ski area parking lot, which is at a slightly lower elevation than the downhill ski area parking lot. It’s fun to explore the cabins, too, and they’re just a short walk from the car.

West Vancouver’s Seawall is the prettiest walk in Metro Vancouver. A wide, paved pathway connects Ambleside with Dundarave. A pedestrian pathway at the edge of the water. It’s the place to see and be seen. Look closely at that woman in sunglasses who’s pushing a stroller. She might be one of West Van’s many famous faces hiding in plain sight.

Start at the foot of 15th St. at Bellevue Ave. and walk west to the seawall entrance at John Lawson Park, or begin at Dundarave Pier at 25th. Bring your dog – Fido can take the parallel doggie path next to the seawall.

Go motor boating. Who says you have to kayak? Sewell’s Marina in Horseshoe Bay is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. A 15ft, 40 hp boat rents for $51/per hour. You can rent rods and buy bait. Call 604-921-3474 or visit www.sewellsmarina.com.

NORTH VANCOUVER

Everyone’s heard of the Capilano Suspension Bridge. But not everyone knows you can cross a suspension bridge for free at Lynn Canyon Park. After a tummy-spilling turn on the suspension bridge over Lynn Creek, hike to the falls, and beyond. Great spot for beginners, but wear the right shoes, people: light hikers or runners, please. Lynn Valley Rd. at Peters Rd.

Explore Cates Park on Dollarton Highway near Deep Cove. There’s a walk named after the writer Malcolm Lowry, who squatted here back in the ’40s and ’50s.

Skip the Grouse Grind and go ziplining instead. Cost is $105 per person for two hours. There’s also an animal sanctuary, tandem paragliding ($200 each), loggers’ sports, a birds in motion show and theatre in the sky. Check the website for details. The gondola is fun to ride.

Located at the foot of North Van’s main street, Londsdale Quay is home to dozens of boutiques and fresh food vendors. Plaza opens onto Burrard Inlet, offering the best view of downtown Vancouver. Next to the Seabus terminal. It’s open seven days a week to 7 p.m. Restaurants are open later.
Explore Lower Lonsdale, a cosy neighbourhood above the historic waterfront that’s home to funky restaurants and shops but still pays homage to the lumber and ship building industries.

North Van is trail-city. From the Grouse Grind and the Baden Powell Trail to Lynn Canyon and Seymour Demonstration Forest, there’s something for every ability and fitness level. Biking is popular, too. The District of North Van has maps for biking and other uses.

See also: Stuff to do: Sea to Sky/Whistler.

Someone has already bid $100 for the vinyl record of Michael Jackon's Thriller at the Whistler Re-Use It Centre.

The vinyl record is dead, you say?

Not exactly.

Consider the price currently offered at Whistler’s amazing second-hand store for the recently deceased Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Someone has already bid $100 for a copy of the late King of Pop’s multi Platinum-selling (28x) 1982 album at the Re-Use It Centre.

That bid bested the original – and only other – offer of $20 in the ongoing silent auction for the pop icon’s record, suggesting the price could go way up from there.

In case you were wondering, the current going rate for old vinyl records at most local thrift shops is anywhere from four for $1 to $1 a disk, depending on where you go. If you hit a proper music store, those funky, second-hand disks are going to run you a heck of a lot more: anywhere from $5 to $15 or $20, depending on the title and the condition of the record.

If you’re looking for bargain records, thrift stores are the way to go. I like to support them as a customer and as a donor, even for non-music related stuff. Items donated to the Re-Use It Centre help support the non-profit Whistler Community Services Society or WCSS.

The wildly popular Re-Use It Centre is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, and to 8 p.m. Fridays. It’s an absolute must-stop for anyone searching for a good bargain, and believe me, it’s always packed.

You’re bound to run in to tons of folks from the town of Pemberton and Squamish, many of whom frequent the thrift store on a weekly basis because of the incredible bargains there.

Clothing, kid’s toys and items, household goods, electronics, and sporting goods are just some of the discounted items on sale. There are sometimes deeply discounted prices depending on how long the item has been in the store, with sales prices usually kicking in two to three weeks after the item’s debut.

There are a lot of reasons why it’s a really great thrift store (its operating hours are a huge plus), but I think a big reason is that people in Whistler tend to toss out a lot of stuff that’s in perfect working order simply because it’s old. Every time I’ve been there, I’ve witnessed somebody donating large furniture items such as couches or love seats, perfectly good stereo equipment and other bargains.

I’ve personally scored big. Just a few weeks ago, I bought a criminally underpriced piece of original artwork – an acrylic painting of a baby moose (or mule deer?) for about $10 (that’s less than the canvass is worth!), classic music cassettes for 35 cents, and a Fisher Price tape recorder and “sing-along” microphone for just $3. I won’t even tell you how little those Sopranos season 3 DVDs cost. I’d have to go into the witness protection program!

We also bought a working headlamp for just $1.50. We’re taking it along on our camping trip tomorrow.

Located at Function Junction, at 1003  Lynham Road, beside one of Whistler’s landfill transfer stations, the Re-Use It Centre is a natural stop on the way home on Highway 99.

Set your DeLorean to Nov. 5, 1955, and power up your flux capacitor with 1.21 gigawatts because White Rock is heading Back to the Future!

The 1985 comic blockbuster, starring Burnaby’s own Michael J. Fox as time traveling, electric guitar-wielding skateboard enthusiast Marty McFly, is one of four family-friendly films lighting up a giant movie screen in White Rock this summer as part of the Prospera Great Outdoors Film Festival.

Up soars!

After a lengthy lead-up, the 2009 line-up has – finally – been announced, allowing local movie lovers to plan their summer accordingly.

The free summer series is presented on a gigantic, three storey-high movie screen set up at various outdoor locations around town.

Along with the ’80s time-travel comedy classic, Back to the Future, the festival will bring two of the year’s biggest animated films to White Rock, Pixar’s imaginative, heart-rending Up, and Monsters vs Aliens, DreamWorks’ somewhat gimmicky but action-packed sci-fi spoof about a monster-woman caught up in a desperate bid to save planet Earth from invading space robots.The final outdoor movie is a sing-along version of 2008’s Mamma Mia! The Movie, the ABBA-inspired musical.

First up is Monsters vs Aliens, Saturday July 11 at West Beach. Film critic Roger Ebert gave it two stars, saying kids will probably like it. No word if it will be presented in 3-D, but there’s plenty of star-power on board to keep kiddies and their parents amused:  Reese Whitherspoon, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd and Stephen Colbert are listed among the movie’s voices.

Next is Back to the Future Friday July 31 at Semiahmoo Park. Everyone’s seen this, but as the first and best of the Back to the Future franchise, it still holds up. Great comic performances by Fox and the rest of the cast, particularly the rubber-faced Christopher Lloyd as the goofy, scattered and slightly manic genius, Doc Brown, and Lea Thompson and Crispin “your density” Glover as Marty’s woefully mismatched parents.

It’s a pity the titles and film schedule were announced so late; I’m sure many of us have already been forced to commit to our summer travel plans.

Regrettably, I’m going to be out of town for Up at Central Plaza Saturday Aug. 15, a wonderful, emotionally-resonant, kaleidoscope of a movie I saw on the big screen a few weeks ago and would love to see again.

Up, directed and co-written by the guy who did Monsters Inc., is another winner from Pixar (Wall-E). It’s a story about the helium balloon-assisted travels of a cranky old curmudgeon (Ed Asner) and a 7-year-old stowaway, Russell (Jordan Nagai), who make their way to South America to fulfill a long lost dream. Funny, adventurous and sweet; but remember to bring your hankies, though, (sniff).

I haven’t seen Mamma Mia! The Movie, but everyone loves ABBA, and who can resist a genuine sing-along? It’s showing Aug. 29 at Five Corners. The movie stars Meryl Streep and fictional screen exes Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard. Can’t wait.

If you’ve never gone to the outdoor film festival, what are you waiting for?

For one thing, it’s free. Most outdoor film festivals – I’m thinking of Whistlers‘ in particular – charge admittance. And they don’t usually offer such broad, crowd-pleasing fare. (No subtitles here.)

It’s just plain fun watching a movie outside in a parking lot, at the beach or in a park. Sure, you gotta bring your own lawn chairs or blankets, and you really do need to bundle up – White Rock gets chilly after dark.

But when else would you ever be able to get the chance to belt out all your favourite tunes from The Blues Brothers (1980) along with a crowd of strangers? And breathe in the cold, salty sea air – while dozens of goofy little kids (hyper ‘cos they get to stay up late) bop and dance around during the film’s showstopper performances by the likes of Cab Calloway, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and the immortal Ray Charles? It’s enough to make you want to spring backwards doing handstands down the aisles at church.

The festival’s only been going for a few years, but the organizers seem to know how to pick their classics.

The first year I remember watching Jaws right next to the fabled White Rock itself, just steps from the ocean shore.

I missed American Graffiti that summer, but it was supposed to have played at Five Corners – home to a genuine 1950s-style diner, the Five Corners Cafe.

Other titles have been simply irresistible just on the strength of the movie alone. What a gas seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) on a real movie screen after all these years.

This summer’s movie picks may not reach those same heights, but I will try to see at least one or two of the films, if I can. So should you.