Our Motto:

Dulcius ex Asperis (sweeter after struggle)

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Adventures from Vancouver & Beyond

Vancouver is a wonderful destination in itself and many of our guests are here purely to explore our area.  Absolutely one of the most beautiful cities in the world! However, it is also a perfect jumping off point to amazing adventures in the Canadian north, Alaska and/or almost any other part of the world. We have been fascinated with the stories from our guests, many of whom are world travelers and who are stopping in Vancouver as just part of a longer itinerary.  I thought it would be fun to share some of their stories on my blog and I hope that some of our readers will find them an inspiration for planning their own trip. Here's one from a couple who live in Georgia, U.S.A., and spent a few days with us in June, 2010:
"Since we heard so much about Vancouver, we decided to spend 3 days there prior to visiting Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks & Denali, Alaska, then 3 days travelling through the Arctic.
We spent our first 3 days at the first-rate Bee & Thistle Guest House, which is newly renovated and includes wonderful breakfasts.
Vancouver was lovelier than expected and a great place to visit. We took an all day bus tour (about $170/pp) to Vancouver Island which included the flowers of Butchart Gardens, plus time to enjoy the interesting history and fun of Victoria. We had a great lunch of fish and chips at Fisherman's Wharf and visited the Empress Hotel. It's absolutely gorgeous and serves  high tea at approx. $60/pp, but we didn't partake due to time constraints.
The next day we toured around Vancouver on the Hop On, Hop Off Bus, stopping at the steam clock in Gastown, Granville Island, Stanley Park, and other interesting sights.
On our final day, after another delicious breakfast, we took the sky train to the airport for our trip to Alaska. Our flight from Vancouver to Juneau with Alaska Air was around $400/pp one way.  Many cruise ships stop at Juneau and the downtown area has  a lot of typical tourist shops and tons of jewelery stores.   We took an all day boat ride ($150/pp) to Tracy Arms Fjord, which is breathtaking with it's  blue, blue icebergs and amazing glaciers!  We also did some gold panning and visited a summer dog camp where huskies are trained for the Iditarod.  The camp has 4 mushers and 120 dogs, and we enjoyed a ride with 14 dogs pulling the sled.

Iceberg in Tracy Arms Fjord
After a flight to Anchorage, which is a very big city with all the amenities you'd expect, we took another boat tour to see more glaciers. The water was gorgeous and we had the  amazing experience of seeing a whale and her baby! We also took a bus sightseeing tour around the city.

Denali was quite an experience. We saw Mt. McKinley, and the wildlife was amazing! We saw a wolf, lynx, eagles, moose, bears and many birds.  As part of the bus tour you can travel 55 miles into the park.  By private car you are only allowed to go 17 miles in, which would be disappointing as you would not see nearly as much wildlife. Be warned, though, it's a bumpy ride!
Fairbanks is another fairly big city with a large, interesting museum, as well as numerous shops and restaurants. Be sure to try halibut cheeks at Simon and Seaforts Restaurant - it sounds awful, but is wonderful! Also try their terrific mojitos and onion soup!
Going on to Barrow, the northernmost point in the U.S., was awesome and an experience that is not to be missed! It's the location of an Inupiat whaling village which has been in existence for thousands of years. It was mid-June when we were there and the temperature was only 30 F.  The Arctic Ocean was frozen! There is no greenery, trees or flowers since it's always cold and the ground is in a state of "perma-frost", very common in Alaska. Barrow was a fascinating place place, with tours, folk art and native dancing.  After another short flight on a 10 seater airplane we arrived in Deadhorse, or Prudhoe Bay, where we joined a van load of visitors for a two day ride down the Dalton Highway, a mostly dirt road along the oil pipeline.  The Alaska pipeline began in Prudhoe Bay.  The final stop on our tour was Coldfoot and a town nearby called Wiseman with only 15 permanent inhabitants. They are mostly self supporting through their gardens and hunting and fishing. Fairbanks is the closest town at 240 miles away, so their visits for other necessities are limited to once every 4 or 5 months.
Our return journey took us back to Fairbanks for one night, on to Anchorage for our final night, then home at last to start planning our next adventure!"

Gluten Free Banana Pecan Muffins

We recently had a guest who was restricted to a gluten free diet and he asked me if I would share this recipe.  As I've mentioned in previous posts, since starting our guest house I have had to spend quite a bit of time sourcing out, then testing, gluten free muffin recipes. Some of them have turned out hard inedible products that only vaguely resembled muffins, but with patience, research and a lot of tweaking, this one has become one of my favorite recipes. These are proof that it's possible to bake delicious foods with alternative grains, whether or not you are on a gluten free diet. With weather conditions causing a shortage of wheat in Russia and other places this year, perhaps it's a good time for all of us to start questioning our dependency on wheat products and broaden our experience in baking with other grains. I must warn you, though, that it's expensive to get started baking with gluten free flour combinations. I spent something like $100 to buy a small supply of the basic ingredients used in this recipe. Here it is:

Banana Pecan Muffins (Gluten Free)
½ C. Brown Rice Flour
¼ C. Glutinous (sweet/sticky) Rice Flour
¼ C. Arrowroot Powder/Flour
¼ C. Amaranth Flour
½ C. Ground Walnuts (or I use Ground Almonds because they are readily available)
½ C. Potato Starch
¼ C. Tapioca Flour
2 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp Xanthan Gum (very important as this is what replaces the gluten)
½ c. chopped pecans
1 tsp. Salt
2 large eggs + 2 egg whites (separated and the whites whipped until stiff but not dry)
½ C. Safflower Oil
½ C. Packed Brown Sugar
1 ½ C. Mashed Ripe Bananas
2 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 12 c. muffin pan with baking cups (or 6 commercial size muffin cups). Whisk together the flours, xanthan gum and salt. In separate bowl mix together the yolks, oil, sugar, bananas and vanilla.  Fold flour mixture into the liquid mixture.  Fold in whipped egg whites. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.  You can top these with a mixture of 3 T. oats, 1 T. maple syrup & 1 T. butter rubbed together. Place 1 pecan half on top for garnish.  Bake for 22 to 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in top comes out clean.