Harrison Not So Hot Springs

It's nice to have friends with a car!

On Sunday we (Dave, Dave, Steve, Missy & I) decided to make the most of the overcast but (thankfully) dry weather and embark on a road trip to the little town of Harrison, about 1.5 hrs drive from Vancouver. We were hoping to enjoy a day of relaxing in the hot springs and checking out the tulip festival - little did we know there would be no hot springs and the festival would be closed a day early!

Overall, Harrison was a gorgeous little town and I can imagine it would be absolutely packed in Summer - there is a huge lake and plenty of decent sized hotels which line the main street and overlook the lake ... there's even a Baskin & Robbins, although I still can't believe it'd ever be warm enough for ice cream there! Nevertheless, we have grand plans to return in Summer and perhaps spend a little time on a boat out in the lake.

Harrison Lake.

I actually don't think I ever found out why there were no proper 'hot springs' to swim in in Harrison ... I'm pretty sure I was too busy chowing down on a muffin while we trekked to what we thought were the natural springs .. which they kinda were (gotta love that sulfur smell!) ... but not sure why they didn't have any baths there. The closest we came was the public bathhouse in the centre of town, so we spent an hour or so in the steaming indoor baths until I was about to pass out from the heat.

Thankfully our stint in the bathhouse was followed by some lunch and a visit to the local Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (!!). There were so many awesome chocolates there I pretty much wanted to sample everything in the entire store. I eventually settled on a trio of fudge samples (we shared) and a tiger caramel apple ... delish! And healthy.............. (it was an apple!!)

Mmmmm... healthy (caramel) apple.

After settling nicely into chocolate comas, we headed off to what was supposed to be the tulip festival. Unfortunately the 'festival' finished a day early (apparently it normally closes at the end of April) but of course the tulips were still there and 'entry' was half price. The display was pretty spectacular, so I can imagine how beautiful it would be in its prime. We had some fun with photos there and Steve got a lot of practice using his new fancy camera.

The photographer in action.

Endless fields of tulips.

So despite some minor setbacks the day turned out to be pretty good and was fun all the same.

Last exciting event of the day? Downtown Eastside Vancouver.  Not to make fun, because homelessness is a serious problem in this city, but on the way back to our side of town (not the homeless side) you have to drive through Downtown Eastside (not surprisingly, on the edge of the very trendy, gentrified Gastown) which is absolutely packed with homeless people and drug addicts (just picture a classic zombie movie) - apparently some travel companies even do tours through this area (!).

Driving back through here was a complete eye opener for me. We saw blatant drug dealing, completely out in the open, in front of everyone, for all to see. When we stopped at lights it was really sad but fascinating for me at the same time. I couldn't look, but I couldn't look away. Apparently the police just turn a blind eye to this sort of behaviour in certain areas of the city. Sad, but true. Apparently they're harmless but I'm in no rush to test the theory.