Five of Vernon's best hikes
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Carpe diem on Mother’s Day
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Oh no. I just looked up Mother’s Day on Wikipedia. Did you know the modern celebration of Mother’s Day started in 1907 to celebrate the passing of someone’s mom? YUCK! Let’s not go there! This is all about how great your mom is today.
Let’s plan a day to thank her for happily sitting through every single one of your class plays, sunrise hockey practices and endless band concerts. Forget breakfast in bed. Plan an outing, a dinner, or an adventure that celebrates her. Seize the day and make it a blast.
Give mom a perennial plant that keeps giving - or take her to a botanical garden.
Why just a single rose
Forget the cut flowers. Buy mom a perennial for the garden. Take her to a plant nursery where she can pick out a plant for the garden. That way, she has an everlasting show of your affection. Consider a lilac or berry bush that flowers every spring or a rose, iris, or lily for a summer show. Need ideas? The U of A Botanical Garden at Devon, Alberta and the UBC Botanical Gardens are the perfect place to see what grows in the Alberta and British Columbia climates.
If you are at the UBC Botanical Gardens, book a tree-top canopy walk on the Greenheart TreeWalk.
Read on: Before you go, dust off your skills at identifying spruce, fir, or pine here.
Pedal power but without flowers
Here’s one many a mom would be down for. Calgary, Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Edmonton all have pedal-powered brewery and wine tours. Up to 14 people are on the truck-sized vehicle that only moves if you pedal. Your guide and the person controlling the contraption stops at a few breweries or wineries for you to learn about the facility and have a taste. (Covid barriers are in place for 2021).
Read on: Don’t know the ins and outs of tasting wine? Here’s a quick lesson.
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Munch on brunch while listening to an opera from home.
Brunch with the Calgary Opera – at home
Sunday, May 9, between the hours of 9 a.m. and noon, there will be a tap at the door. A brunch of smoked salmon and asparagus quiche or chicken pot pie will be waiting to be devoured. But wait! Pop the cork on a bottle of bubbly then hit the play button. The Calgary Opera is streaming a special concert to celebrate motherhood. The musical selection will accompany the meal perfectly. More details are available here.
The drive-in just went to the roof-top in Edmonton
From the roof-top of the Edmonton Jubilee Auditorium, the Edmonton Opera offers two performances of classical songs that mom with love on May 9. For $40/per car, you pull in, dial the radio to a pre-set FM station and enjoy the live roof-top performance. Concerts are at 1 and 3 p.m. and will sell out fast. Click here for the drive-in here.
Do something none of you have done before
Let’s throw the whole family under the bus and try something none of you are good at – yet. In the Okanagan, head out for a paddleboard yoga class. Have you ever tried slack-line? While many grown children scare their mothers by hanging over the inlets of coastal B.C., you can try it at the park, a foot above the ground. (I’m sure @explore_learn_slack scares the crap outta his ma.)
Let’s get mushy about mom
What if you are splashed across the country and can’t physically be with mom. Yes, host a Zoom meeting but why not make it more than a chat. You and all your siblings have to come to the event with a favourite story about mom. Here are some suggestions to get your ideas flowing:
1. Best advice from mom when you were a kid
2. Your favourite of mom’s cooking and why
3. Funniest thing mom ever did
4. Something she did that made you proud to be her offspring
5. Why she is so gosh darn important
At the very, very least, call her and say Hi. Because, we really don’t want to celebrate mother’s day like they did in 1907.
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