1. Before leaving for Chetwynd my coworker and I decided to peruse Urbanspoon to see what our dining options were going to be for the 5 days we were there. Upon looking it up we quickly realized that Subway was the #1 rated restaurant. My coworker is a twenty something male who literally eats McDonald’s every day and gains absolutely no weight (I take solace in the fact that if we were to cut him open Big Mac sauce would probably come oozing out), and there wasn’t even a McDonald’s in this town over just over 2600. So if you are planning on going to Chetwynd, make sure your taste buds are ready for mediocrity.
2. In this past year I’ve been so lucky to do some extensive travelling throughout the world, 8 countries and 14 different cities to be exact. I’ve been able to cross a number of things off my bucket list: watching Les Miserables in the West End; experiencing the World Cup in Europe, specifically Germany; devouring dim sum in Hong Kong to name a few. Well, little did I know but one more was going to get crossed off when I arrived in Chetwynd. Chetwynd is the chainsaw art capital of the world! The entire city (which is basically one main road) has various chainsaw sculptures lining the sidewalks. We went and looked a number and I must say they are incredibly impressive and chainsaw artists from all over the world did a number of them. Every city needs something to put it on the map and for Chetwynd it’s chainsaw art.
3. Living up north is definitely no for everybody and if you have an affinity to small cars or small little sports cars, don’t move up there. Not only does everyone own a truck, all of those cars are also lifted and completely covered in mud. Our rental SUV was never that muddy, which definitely made us stand out especially in Chetwynd.
4. Our first day in Fort St. John gave us lots of time to explore this emerging city so we decided to go on a self guided tour. That tour took under an hour. We hit up the Peace Valley lookout, which provided a nice view. Things we noticed: everything is brown in Fort St. John, you would never use lush to describe the landscape; it was CRAZY windy… we tried to take selfies but the wind was impeding our basic; and this is apparently the spot where men in big trucks like to eat their lunch.
5. Another place we went on our self-guided tour was the Fish Creek Community Forest. Coming from Vancouver the lack of evergreen trees takes a little getting used to. So to satisfy my need for coniferous trees we headed to the community forest. We were definitely the only people in said forest and most of it was covered in snow and ice, a fact I knew only too well when I fell and covered myself in mud. Also, people of Fort St. John: PLEASE PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOG.
Tea and Treble 