Roedde House Museum

Did you know that there was a museum in the heart of Downtown Vancouver's West End? It's called the Roedde House, and it's a "a late-Victorian home in the Queen Anne revival style. Built in 1893 for the family of Gustav Roedde, the city's first bookbinder, it has been faithfully restored to reflect the day-to-day life of a middle class, immigrant family at the turn of the last century."



For only $5 per person, a friend and I checked out Roedde House and even got a guided tour! It's a very interactive museum, where you're allowed to snoop around the vintage artifacts that adorn the establishment and sit on the Victorian style furniture. The only things they ask you not to touch are the old Victorian clothing and books that they have out on display.



Looking through a Victorian "View-master":


Pincushion:


Vintage toy piano:


Kitchen:


Office:


The most popular program available at Roedde House is their Sunday afternoon Tea and Tour special, where you get a guided tour along with a tea tasting for only an $8 admission price!





Roedde House is located at 1415 Barclay Street, in the West End of downtown Vancouver. For more information, check out their website. Go visit a piece of Vancouver history today!

Mary Poppins and Rent in Vancouver

WELL, today's post was supposed to be the one on hiking and how we should all go for a glorious hike this weekend. I wasn't counting on rain clouds, however!

So, here's something else you might want to do! Go see a musical!! I am absolutely amazed and stunned at the amount of musicals we have in town this summer! Altar Boyz, Xanadu, Buddy, just to name a few!

Why not check out the touring Broadway production of Mary Poppins, now on at the Queen Elizabeth theatre until July 22? It's half price over at Tickets Tonight and fun for the whole family! In fact, it's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!



If you want something a bit edgier, then there's always Fighting Chance Productions' mounting of the musical RENT, now on at Waterfront Theatre until August 5th! Tickets for RENT can also be found at Tickets Tonight!



Have yourself a musical weekend!!

Hiking in Vancouver - Lynn Loop

I am not a hiker. But I don't mind doing it, because I do live in Vancouver, after all. And isn't that part of the reason why a lot of people move here? I really need to take advantage of the natural playground that we have at our doorstep. So, this past weekend, Alexis and I decided to do just that! So we hit up Google, and found this site that features hiking trails in Vancouver.

We decided on something that was Beginners' Level, and ended up with Lynn Loop, over on the North Shore at Lynn Valley. Fun!! It was supposed to be only 5K, and would take only about an hour.



See that nice little wooden path somebody built? Yeah. We thought it would be like that.

We were wrong.

Well, we were wrong only because we got LOST.

Lesson #1: Have a MAP!! Why didn't we take a screenshot of the map? Or pick up a map at the park? I don't know. But we didn't, and we were fools because of it.

4KM into the hike, we thought, Oh we are nearly done!! And we would have been, had we not detoured our way onto a DIFFERENT Trail.



See that path that says Lynn Loop Trail? We should've turned right where it says BOULDERS and then gone back to the start to complete our "loop."

However, we ended up going forward, up the Cedar Mills Trail, ending at the Third Debris Chute, and then going back taking the Headwaters Trail. After the easy-peasy jaunt along the Lynn Loop trail, this Headwaters Trail was like a giant slap in the face. We later looked at a map of the park and discovered that it was considered an "Intermediate" hiking trail. That would explain the rough terrain we found ourselves cursing at! "Should we call to get airlifted out?" we kept wondering aloud, but we knew that wasn't really an option so we just pushed on.

Now that we've done it, we're glad we can say we survived! Maybe our next hike won't be quite as ambitious, even though we didn't aim to be that ambitious in the first place!

It's summer, the sun is here, so why not make the best of the season and take in a lovely Vancouver hike!! Bring water, bring a MAP, bring a phone, Stay Safe, and HAVE FUN!!

Armed

It takes two women to teach us what it means to be a man. Playwrights Andrea Loewen and Dani Bryant and Xua Xua Productions bring their play ARMED to the Pacific Theatre now until Saturday, July 21.



The story centers around Joe, who has seemingly lost his balls after his girlfriend gets a job promotion over him and winds up laying him off. It's a great allegory for what represents masculinity in our modern day and age. Is it the presence of two testicles between our legs? Is it how one fits into society's gender-biased roles, i.e. breadwinner, boss, soldier.

We are taken on Joe's trip of self-discovery as he MANoeuvres his way through a pressure-filled jewelery store, a testosterone-pumped boot camp, a triple feat of manly tests, a humiliating tattoo parloud experience, and a humbling playground encounter. Most impressive is the workout that actor Darren Boquist has to do every night on stage as Joe. They really put him through the ringer with that boot camp scene, and I was exhausted just watching him! The physicality of his role was definitely demanding and Boquist gave it his all!

ARMED is playing now until Saturday at the Pacific Theatre. You can buy your tickets online!

Altar Boyz

Altar Boyz is DIVINE!! This musical was heaven!! I was literally laughing until tears were streaming down my face!! Hand to God, no word of a lie!

So here is my confession. I wasn't expecting much from this show. I mean, it's one of those shows you hear about, that is constantly on Off-Broadway but never quite makes it to Broadway, so really, how good can it be, right? Well, the Arts Club Theatre's production of Altar Boyz is simply magnificent! The basis of the show? A Christian boy band. Right? Isn't that all you need to know?

Jak Barradell rips up the stage with his stunning dance moves as the "bad boy" of the group, Luke. Jeremy Crittenden takes the lead as Matthew. Michael Culp adds in the exotic flavour as Juan. Brandyn Eddy is the out-of-place Jewish boy. And Geoff Stevens is the hilariously flaming Mark. The harmonizing and choreography is seamless! Each actor holds their own too, when it's his turn in the spotlight. My favourite numbers included the tongue-in-cheek Rhythm In Me, Mark's solo confession on Epiphany, and the rapping styles of Body, Mind & Soul!

The show sends up religion and boy bands in the most hilarious way you can imagine! Our expectations were exceeded beyond our wildest dreams! From the lyrics to the calibre of acting/singing/dancing, this show is a MUST SEE show of the summer! Between Altar Boyz and Xanadu, the Arts Club is doing well this season with fun, fantastic shows for Vancouver! So get the hell over there already!!

Altar Boyz plays at the Arts Club Revue Stage on Granville Island now until Sept 1!

Wine Tasting in Vancouver: LuLu Island Winery

Can't make it out to the Okanagan Valley for some wine tours? That's okay, you can stay right here in the Lower Mainland and get your fix! For the past few summers, I've made it out to Fort Langley where I found myself sipping on the succulent wines of The Fort Wine Company. Add to this a selection of meats and cheeses, and it makes for the perfect summer afternoon!



But if Fort Langley is too far off the beaten path for you, then you might want to stay closer to the city and just jut across to Richmond to visit the LuLu Island Winery, which is where I found myself on Sunday.



We took a tour of the facility and learned that LuLu Island Winery is owned by a Taiwanese couple, and that the current site was used as China House during the 2010 Olympics! I was around for the Olympics and tried to visit as many of the houses as I could, but did not know about China House, otherwise I would have tried to make it out here!



We were told that the grapes used for their wines do come from the Okanagan Valley, but that they are trying to grow their own grapes on site and hope to make a batch of wine from it soon!







The tour guide, Farrah, was as sweet as the Ice Wine, and she helped us all sample the assortment of products that they had at the winery. My favourite was definitely the Pinot Blanc ice wine, which tasted just like honey! Delicious!



Cheers!!

Marina and The Diamonds

Had a stellar night last night at the Commodore at the Marina and the Diamonds concert!



It is always a wonderful venue to see an artist or band in such an intimate space. For those who did not make it out, you sure missed an electric evening of haunting vocals and awesome dance songs! She sang pretty much everything I wanted her to sing, except for Living Dead. I was happy enough letting loose to Primadonna, Shampain, and Radioactive. The opening number was Homewrecker, which she sang with a wedding veil on.

In terms of merchandise, there was a mens and a womens t shirt available, and that was about it. By the end, the mens' shirt had sold out!

The stage was simple, with just a neon sign in the background that said ELECTRA HEART (the name of her latest album). Also on stage was a coat-rack, which helped with her subtle costume changes - from donning a beauty pageant sash that read Miss Shellfish Bitch to a pink nightie.

So glad I got to see her! Thank you for coming to Vancouver, Marina!!