We spent the month of September on a little family adventure – we moved to the rural town of Grand Forks, British Columbia for the month, where Rich was working at the hospital as part of his 4th year rural elective. Grand Forks is a six hour drive from Vancouver, BC – you go through mountainous ranges, fruit orchards, vegetable farms, a desert-hot lake town and many other tiny communities before you end up at Grand Forks.
We stopped at Mariposa Farm in Keremeos, BC! Squash and gourds abound!
I love hand painted signs! Especially ones that alert the world to HOT DOGS. What a delightfully puffy, chuckles and giggles font! I would have put at least seven packets worth of ketchup on this dog, though. Sadly the real dogs were a little more on the shrivelled-wiener, slow-twirling for possibly a fortnight vibe.
We scored big time with a gorgeous house rental in Christina Lake, BC – about 15 minutes from Grand Forks. Hooray for Airbnb for being so ruling!
Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling / possible Hunchback of Notre Dame pose in front of clear, beautiful Christina Lake. We kind of had an extra month of summer because I think it only rained twice while we were there.
The Bargain! Shop in Grand Forks.
I found the sweetest teen babysitter while we were there! She played with Teddy while I managed to get a few cake photoshoots done, like this coffee cake recipe.
Lots of pretty hiking opportunities! So peaceful and quiet.
I was missing my all-white cake photo set-up after a while, but I also got into the whole rustic photo styling thing too. Tart plum and blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. Photo taken on the outside deck.
We drove to the nearby town of Rock Creek for the Rock Creek Fall Fair! Community fairs hold the dearest place in my heart – behold THIS old post on the Saanich Fair.
They even have Hawaiian style shave ice there! DREAM!!!
Digging through the cookware in the rental house for some props. This scraped and beaten up old baking sheet was fun! LEVITATING CONE!
Tastie Treat – going ice cream strong for over 50 years! Seriously delicious and creamy soft serve ice cream cone. The whole business is for sale, too! Of course I thought about it and daydreamed about buying it. But it’s not the right one for me.
I’ll have the one on the far right, please. FILL ‘ER UP!
Sheila Burgers! Who is this mysterious Sheila? Could she be making my cone right now??
I scored at a thrift store in Grand Forks – this adorable 1972 world globe lamp. Works like a charm, $15!
The two things I’m obsessed with when it comes to small towns: the Chinese restaurants, and the ice cream shops. Okay, and the movie theatres. This joint was in Rossland, BC – a wide variety of Asian delights to be enjoyed here, and a new busboy waiting outside!
Hiking in the trees! Serenity zone.
My wonderful parents made the trip to Grand Forks, too! Hanging out with T-bird. Their visit mixed with Teddy and I bumped the Asian population in Grand Forks about 100%! Three of our good friends traveled to visit us, too – it was so nice to have visitors!
Sitting on a horse tire swing.
My parents and Teddy at Jerseyland Farms!
Keeping the rustic vibe alive with this nectarine and blueberry pie with sweet and salty oat crust recipe I made for Poppytalk!
Snuggling my little nerdball.
Our entire last week, I kept saying “I don’t want to go home!” I had gotten used to the quiet evenings, rural landscape and friendly community. I was dreading being back in the city. The first few days back I could feel the knots and tightness reforming in my neck and shoulders, as each car honk, road rager or loud siren chipped away at the peacefulness I had built up. I like the idea of the small town – choices are limited, so you make do with what you have. We brought two carloads worth of belongings, and still only used half of what we brought – I wore the same two outfits every day! We were happy and content to be with each other, exploring, enjoying our time away and taking things much, much slower. Grand Forks, BC – their motto is “settle down.” It’s not a bad notion at all. xo Lyndsay
Emily
looks like you had an amazing month away. I love that adorable ice cream shop! the building is just to die-for!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
thanks emily for stopping by! yes that ice cream shop is really cute, i saw an older picture of it on flickr and it used to be painted BLUE AND WHITE STRIPED! the recent owners painted it grey … i would totally BRING BACK THE STRIPES! ^__^
lori
I really want to move out of the city! More community seems nice… just a change. A garden. Running into pals. Something different. I love all the hand painted signs in small towns. Maybe we could take a trip up to Powell River?
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
it will absolutely happen for you guys! you and CH have all the skills to work from anywhere which is so great, and you are so often inspired by people who live in smaller communities surrounded by nature! ^__^ i love the hand painted signs too! there were lots of neat ones in the kootenays. i hate it when people re-do their signs because they’re trying to keep with the times … ha!
Laurel (@abubblylife)
This looks amazing and relaxing. Only you can make cake look THAT good on a white paper plate. I totally had that globe as a kid!! I was born after 1972 though, so they must have made them for a quite a bit of time ;)
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
laurel you’re so funny!! hehe – i found the white paper plate in a stack in the rental house and loved those ridged lines. hehe! ^__^ aww globe twins! thanks for stopping by!
Torrie
I’m a new reader, I came through the rabbit hole from your interview with Katherine Sabbath and stumbled upon this post. Just wanted to say that Grand Forks has a special place in my heart since I grew up spending summers there!! It’s my dad’s home town, so I have had many cones at Tastie Treat (my family still calls it Sheila, after the infamous Sheila of the same burger!) and we actually own property at Christina Lake too. It was such a surreal and pleasant surprise to see someone in blog land writing about places of my childhood :)
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Torrie!! what a wonderful surprise to wake up to this comment – I LOVE THAT! i am so happy you clicked through to discover the blog and to find this post! we fell in love with the area and were madly looking at houses at Christina Lake … how lucky you have property there! I’m glad this post triggered happy memories for you! Take care! xo
Nancy @ gottagetbaked
There is so much to love about this post, Lyndsay. All of the photos are fantastic. The line about lady wrestlers and the hunchback would’ve made me spit a drink out of my mouth if I were drinking something at the time I read it – you’re hilarious. And girl, I seriously need to move to Grand Forks for a month. Not only for all of the incredible ice cream (I might be interested in buying that ice cream shop) but I need to calm the hell down. Work has been a nightmare lately and I’ve been beyond stressed/angry/aggravated. I was tempted to start running people down on the drive home the other day. This place looks wonderfully serene. Welcome back! I’m excited to see you this see you next weekend at FBC – I’ll email you!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
haha!!! nancy i love how deeply you read my posts and that i can make you laugh … honestly, what do you think, should you quit your job and move to a small(er) town and open an awesome little cafe??? you could blog about it … ! fuggetabout this lawyer business!! xo
Michelle @ Vitamin Sunshine
Looks like a great trip! All those crumbles/crisps look amazing too. I love the ice cream shot! I’ve never thought of just laying a cone down like that!
Linda Sung
Well this is the first time I have written any comments but when I went to Archives and saw these wonderful photos of your stay in Grand Forks I had to comment! Thank goodness you , Rich and Teddy were there for a month or Dad and I may have never visited this beautiful area of British Columbia, thoroughly enjoyed the Borscht Bowl and the energy balls in Christina Lake, can still taste them! Love you!
Rachel
love the photos! So nice that you included ones of yourself and your parents too. I’m from vancouver too and love all those little communities. I love the rolling golden hills near grand forks. What a sweet way to spend a month. Thanks for sharing. Your pictures are beautiful!