Vancouver Island | Stanley Park | Pender Islands | North America

Where would you go outdoors? Everyone who goes to Vancouver comes back raving about Stanley Park. It's one of the biggest parks in North America that's in the middle of a city. It's full of big, beautiful old evergreen trees, and it's just great for a long walk or run or cycle or Rollerblade or whatever you want to do on a pathway that follows the coast. It goes the depth of the forest and is really, really beautiful. If you are in Stanley Park, then you are really close to the Vancouver Aquarium. If you've got family, the aquarium is really a good one to visit. I think, for a lot of people my age and above, Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort has become one of the biggest attractions near Vancouver and will probably only become more and more known after 2010, since Vancouver is hosting the 2010 Olympics. Whistler is one of these things that cause everyone who knows that I'm from Vancouver to be like, "How is it possible that you lived in Vancouver but have never been to Whistler?" It is one of the best attractions in British Columbia. I also enjoy taking trips to the islands. I'm so much more of a nature girl than a city girl. The islands are pretty amazing.

Which islands are your favorite? I like Victoria, which is located on Vancouver Island. Another town I like to go to on Vancouver Island is Tofino, where there is great surf. Tofino is very much like Hawaii. It is sort of a surf town, where everyone bums around in surf shorts and bikinis, and the culture is based around fishing and on sitting on the beach. The Pender Islands are other tiny islands that are off the coast. They are like many of the islands out there - Bowen Island, Salt Spring Island. There is a whole slew of tiny islands where you can get away from it all. You can completely disappear and stay in a cabin for two or three weeks, or for a month, and never see traffic, never see a high-rise, never see a subdivision. It's all just trees and water and cabins.