story by Tilar J. Mazzeo –
I have to start with a mea culpa: if you had told me that the area around Langley Township, about 40 minutes east of Vancouver, was such a fantastic little getaway, I’d have laughed, and I’d have been completely wrong. A teenager’s weekend baseball tournament took me out to the area, in a spirit of resignation, and, while the boys were warming up on the fields, I took a scenic drive to check out the vineyards. Huh? Why did I not know this very cool place existed? It was the most refreshingly analog weekend.
If you’ve already discovered this little corner of the west, apologies for sharing the secret. If you don’t know the area, we’re talking about the border region that runs to the east of Langley City, to the west of Abbotsford, more or less along Highway 13 (which runs north-south), between Highway 1 and the border.
Let’s start with: where to stay? Well, not the crummy overpriced famous chain hotel that I found myself in, that’s for sure. But a little back-road reconnaissance mission turned up a fabulous option that had me wishing I’d thought this all through a bit more wisely. For all you keen gardeners out there, Sage and Solace Farm (www.sageandsolacefarm.com) is the Floret of the Fraser Valley. There are charming farm-stay rooms at delightfully reasonable prices (half what I paid at that chain hotel), U-Pick flower gardens, and lots of fun farm and garden events seasonally. Mid-July is the cowboy and cowgirl gala, where you can dust off your boots, kick up your heels, and sample locally distilled whiskey from Mainland Whiskey in Surrey
(https://tinyurl.com/32dbw72d). Happily, I’ve got a kid’s ballgame again out there that weekend, so, yeahhhhh, look for us at the shindig!
Meanwhile, on the wine-and-spirits front, Krause Berry Farms & Estate Winery (www.krauseberryfarms.com) was a wonderful little discovery for me. Their sparkling strawberry wine just screams “lazy summer afternoon listening to the ball game on the radio in a hammock,” or at least those are my tasting notes. They have a bakery with fresh custard pies (need I say more?), a fruit winery, a market with farm provisions, and U-Pick berries in July and August. I’m a jaded wine writer, and I’m just in love with this place.
If you’re travelling with younger children, the Greater Vancouver Zoo is on Highway 13 at Aldergrove, and, while the Safari Train is neat, you can book a nighttime visit with campfire (https://tinyurl.com/ycssb8xm) for something no kid is going to ever forget. Or check out U-Fish at Silverbrook Trout Farm, where you can practise fly fishing in the mornings or join an old-time fishing derby (www.fishbctrout.com/).
After you’ve run those kids ragged, tuck them, jam-covered little fists and all, into their sleeping bags in the back seat and roll on into the Twilight Drive-In Theatre (http://twilightdrivein.net/), just like my mom and dad used to do back in the mist of time that was the 1970s. It also sounds to me kind of like the perfect old-fashioned kid-less date night. Am I the only one who loves the fact that the movie is broadcast on FM radio and “there is no app to listen to the movie soundtrack”?
