Sichuan mala peanuts are one of the greatest junk foods in the world. We first encountered these in Beijing, at Great Leap Brewing. Luckily, we were able to find the product here in Vancouver. It looks like this: Toward the bottom of each bag will be quite a bit of Sichuan peppercorns and dried chilis,…

  Although Maui was the most disappointing of the Hawaiian islands we visited, there were certainly some things to like. Here are our personal highlights.1. Snorkeling with vonu (sea turtle) that was as big as me, and she let me hang out with her. This was a SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. Don’t put it past me to start…

General Impressions Beer Food Coffee General Impressions Alberta takes a lot of crap from Canadians. It’s the punch line of more jokes than no other province except for Newfoundland. But Calgary is the part of Alberta that can take it on the chin. It’s a confident city, has a good deal of swagger. The vibe…

I have information to share from Calgary and the Canadian Rockies, to Portland, the Sunshine Coast, several trips to Bellingham, Amtrak, and more related to beer hunting, foodie grazing, hiking, and biking. We’re also going to Alaska next week, and Hawaii mid-September. There’s too much to do to worry about blogging, my spirit hasn’t been…

Today was divided into three parts: The drive through Fernie and through Crowsnest Pass Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump UNESCO site Fort MacLeod First, the scenery unfolds continuously like a NatGeo film reel. Fernie area is especially fetching because the town sits in a tight basin surrounded by mountains. On one side of you are precipitous bald rock faces that slope…

Every road trip has a long bomb: those days it’s better to keep on truckin’. Today was our long bomb. The drive from Oliver in the southern Okanagan to Kimberly in the Kootenay-Rockies takes seven hours, but it’s plenty scenic and there’s stuff to do and drink along the way. The south Okanagan is semi-arid shrub-steppe with sagebrush,…

Waking up in the Okanagan is really awful. That sense of peace that floods the brain can be unbearable. But I got over it, and managed to leave the house for a day of wine touring and picnicking. Uggggg. So on this ugly warm and pine-scented morning, we said hi to the Okanagan sun (which was…

Day One has us driving from Vancouver to the Okanagan using Highway 3, through the Similkameen. Josh has done this leg before; I had not. We paused at two fruit wineries: Rustic Roots and Forbidden Fruit. Both had solid fruit wines, with Forbidden Fruit edging out Rustic Roots for overall depth and maturity. But we…

After a few posts more drink-related than travel-related, I thought I’d fill you in on the latest travel news on our agenda. That and, I’m tired of people asking when we’re going to leave and where we’re off to next. So much for a relaxing year-long staycation in Vancouver. We, my friends, are going to…

Here’s an article about a family-run Franconian brewery. Exciting, right? Oh how I love Franconian beer, and I’m thrilled to see a new generation of brewery owners stretching the boundaries of traditional brewing. The region needs more breweries like these. But there are many problems with this article, and that’s what I want to talk…